What 1885 Arabic cookbook by Khalil Sarkis was published in Beirut?

The 1885 Arabic cookbook by Khalil Sarkis published in Beirut was Tadhkirat al-Khawatin. Its fuller title is commonly given as Tadhkirat al-Khawatin wa-Ustadh al-Tabbakhin, meaning roughly “A Reminder for Ladies and the Master of Cooks.”

The book appeared during the late Ottoman period, when Beirut was becoming an important center of publishing, education and intellectual exchange. Arabic cookbooks from this era helped record household practices while also presenting cooking as a learned craft. Sarkis’s work is especially valuable because it documents Levantine foodways in a period of rapid social and cultural change.

The cookbook is associated with recipes from the Levant, alongside broader culinary influences that circulated through the Ottoman world. Its publication predates many modern national labels, so describing it as a Lebanese cookbook is useful but should be understood in its historical Beirut and Ottoman context.

It is not the same as Kitab al-Tabikh, a much older medieval Arabic cookbook traditionally associated with al-Warraq, nor with De re coquinaria or The Forme of Cury, which belong to Roman and medieval European culinary traditions.