Arabic edit

 
بَامِيَة
 
 بامية on Arabic Wikipedia

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Unknown, this plant is rarely mentioned for medieval cookery, as eating vegetables standalone and this one in particularly has not been common but it has complemented stews, and additionally its mucilage made it improper for literate tables.

With respect to this, it could have been formed somewhere in the center of the Abbasid Empire from a dialectal form of إِبْهَام (ʔibhām, thumb) +‎ ـِيَّة (-iyya, used for stews with a characteristic ingredient), especially as the cognate Akkadian 𒋗𒅆 (ŠU.ŠI /⁠ubānu⁠/, finger) also has been used for the crop, and the same consideration gave rise to بَان (bān, moringa).

However likewise going by its outward appearance, Classical Persian بامیا (bāmiyā) is internally analyzable as suffixed from بام (bâm, roof), in the fashion of مومیا (mumiyâ, mumijo; mummy) from موم (mum, wax), though the Persian term later be reinforced by borrowing from Arabic.

Otherwise, in view of the geographic distribution of the species and the origin of the coordinate term وَيْكَة (wayka, dried okra), a substrate in Nubia has to be attended.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

بَامِيَة (bāmiyaf

  1. okra, ladies' fingers

Declension edit

Descendants edit

References edit

  • Lewicka, Paulina B. (2011) Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes. Aspects of Life in an Islamic Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean (Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts; 88)‎[1], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 254
  • Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden[2] (in German), volume 2, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, pages 233–234, 243
  • Nasrallah, Nawal (2007) Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq's Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook (Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts; 70)‎[3], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 782–783
  • Thompson, Reginald Campbell (1924) The Assyrian Herbal[4], London: Luzac and Co., published 1924, page 39