تقديس العيش

I always return to the world of childhood and memories because they are the reservoir that nourishes this writing.

What I remember - from the world of childhood - is the appreciation of bread (aish) in all its forms, where we learned as children not to throw away bread or play with it, and to participate in picking up the crumbs of bread that fall on the ground. The food culture in our home was based on preserving bread and keeping it in a clean place. If a piece of bread or a crumb fell on the ground, it was picked up with respect and kissed while repeating praise and thanks to God.

This appreciation for bread may be due to economic crises and hunger, as ancient agricultural and pastoral communities relied on what the heavens provided in terms of rain and floods. If that ceased, everyone would be at risk of destruction, so this appreciation for bread from previous generations is not surprising.

If I return the issue of appreciating bread to being a remnant of the ancient sanctification of grains, which represented a part of the fertility system, this is a hypothesis that is open to questioning and research.

Currently, in Jazan, there remains a dish called (al-‘azbah), which may contain remnants of the appreciation for bread, and writing about (al-‘azbah) is as much a stimulus for memory as it is that language nourishes the tree of the soul.

(Al-‘azbah) with an open ‘ayn and a silent zay; is a dish made from the leftovers of lunch or dinner.

It has been customary in Jazan homes not to throw away any leftover food, as morals and religion command this, and the economic situation forced people to preserve and recycle food remnants. Therefore, (al-‘azbah) became another form of food delight.

(Al-‘azbah) consists of leftover sour fermented bread (aish), broth, and meat, or leftovers of fish and salad. The ingredients are gathered in a pot and stirred until they become a mixture and are preserved as food to be eaten in the evening or the morning of the next day. When people became familiar with rice, it was added to the ‘azbah, along with other vegetable dishes and fenugreek. It is required that the amount of fermented bread in (al-‘azbah) exceeds the other ingredients, as the fermented bread preserves (al-‘azbah) from rotting.

Of course, if someone were to ask me: Does preserving leftover food through (al-‘azbah) return to the sanctification of grains in ancient times, or is it due to economic factors?

My answer would be: I do not know about the sacred dimension, but regarding economic factors, I would say: Just as wealthy kitchens innovate their dishes, so too do poor kitchens innovate theirs, including (al-‘azbah).