Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey

Author:   Gary Paul Nabhan
Publisher:   University of California Press
Volume:   45
ISBN:  

9780520379244


Pages:   328
Publication Date:   22 September 2020
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey


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Full Product Details

Author:   Gary Paul Nabhan
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Volume:   45
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9780520379244


ISBN 10:   0520379241
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   22 September 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Recipes List of Spice Boxes Introduction: The Origin of Species 1. Aromas Emanating from the Driest of Places 2. Caravans Leaving Arabia Felix 3. Uncovering Hidden Outposts in the Desert 4. Omanis Rocking the Cradle of Civilization 5. Mecca and the Migrations of Muslim and Jewish Traders 6. Merging the Spice Routes with the Silk Roads 7. The Flourishing of Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Iberia 8. The Crumbling of Convivencia and the Rise of Transnational Guilds 9. Building Bridges between Continents and Cultures 10. Navigating the Maritime Silk Roads from China to Africa 11. Vasco da Gama Mastering the Game of Globalization 12. Crossing the Drawbridge over the Eastern Ocean Epilogue: Culinary Imperialism and Its Alternatives Acknowledgments Notes Index

Reviews

Richly embroidered with detail, Cumin, Camels, and Caravans by scholar Gary Paul Nabhan is part history, part geography, part cookbook, and part travel memoir. . . . Interspersed with recipes from various stops on historical spice routes, Nabhan discusses the botany, linguistic history, and trade history of each substance, but far from being dry accounts, they bring the wonder of many ingredients we now view as commonplace into focus; Nabhan's painstaking research has not eclipsed an evident natural knack for storytelling. * Saveur * Nabhan is the ideal travelling companion. With an ancestry that stretches back to the spice-trading Nabheni tribe of Oman, Nabhan is by profession an ethnobotanist and food writer with a clutch of culinary history books under his belt. And he wears his erudition lightly. Although the book is referenced like an academic tome, it reads like a detective story - albeit one with generous pinches of exotic smells and alluring flavours thrown in. Spiced locusts, anyone? * History Today * Heady historical and cultural study of ancient trade routes. . . . Nabhan adds pungent pinches of botany and gastronomy. * Nature * Gary Paul Nabhan, a food scholar and prolific author, is the guide on a journey that also travels through subjects as diverse as botany and archaeology. Even when following well-worn paths, he is never a dull host. . . . While the book is ostensibly about spices, what holds it together is a deeper sense of distance from nature and the deep past, a force that continues to impel pilgrims, travellers and even foodies towards distant and exotic places. * Times Higher Education * ...a worthwhile read. Nabhan achieved what he set out to in this book, and brings to light a cultural historical geography of spices and people that has not, to my knowledge, been pulled together in quite the way he has done before. * AAG Review of Books * Gary Paul Nabhan weaves a fascinating story. * Santa Fe New Mexican * This book is a singular achievement . . . . A most absorbing book and highly recommended. * Chicago Botanic Garden * Anyone who has traveled ancient routes, or dreamed of doing so, will find deep satisfaction in Cumin, Camels and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey. * Forbes *


This book is a singular achievement . . . . A most absorbing book and highly recommended. * Chicago Botanic Garden * Gary Paul Nabhan weaves a fascinating story. * Santa Fe New Mexican * ...a worthwhile read. Nabhan achieved what he set out to in this book, and brings to light a cultural historical geography of spices and people that has not, to my knowledge, been pulled together in quite the way he has done before. * AAG Review of Books * Gary Paul Nabhan, a food scholar and prolific author, is the guide on a journey that also travels through subjects as diverse as botany and archaeology. Even when following well-worn paths, he is never a dull host. . . . While the book is ostensibly about spices, what holds it together is a deeper sense of distance from nature and the deep past, a force that continues to impel pilgrims, travellers and even foodies towards distant and exotic places. * Times Higher Education * Heady historical and cultural study of ancient trade routes. . . . Nabhan adds pungent pinches of botany and gastronomy. * Nature * Nabhan is the ideal travelling companion. With an ancestry that stretches back to the spice-trading Nabheni tribe of Oman, Nabhan is by profession an ethnobotanist and food writer with a clutch of culinary history books under his belt. And he wears his erudition lightly. Although the book is referenced like an academic tome, it reads like a detective story - albeit one with generous pinches of exotic smells and alluring flavours thrown in. Spiced locusts, anyone? * History Today * Richly embroidered with detail, Cumin, Camels, and Caravans by scholar Gary Paul Nabhan is part history, part geography, part cookbook, and part travel memoir. . . . Interspersed with recipes from various stops on historical spice routes, Nabhan discusses the botany, linguistic history, and trade history of each substance, but far from being dry accounts, they bring the wonder of many ingredients we now view as commonplace into focus; Nabhan's painstaking research has not eclipsed an evident natural knack for storytelling. * Saveur *


Author Information

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, MacArthur ""genius"" award winner, and ethnobotanist of Arab-American descent. His food and farming books include Food from the Radical Center, Where Our Food Comes From, and the forthcoming Jesus for Farmers and Fishers.

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