{"id":17622,"date":"2020-06-26T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/?p=17622"},"modified":"2020-06-26T07:36:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T07:36:16","slug":"xxx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/xxx\/","title":{"rendered":"Arabs’ long-lasting love for bread"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I would like to share with you some insights about Arabs\u2019 extreme love for a type of food that they don\u2019t seem to be able to live without! That food item is nothing but bread Al-khubz \u0627\u0644\u062e\u0628\u0632<\/strong> . This is not just metaphorical image as in some parts of the Arab world, but bread is indeed called \u0295e:\u0161<\/strong> (eash) in spoken Arabic which is a modified pronunciation of the word \u201c\u0295aish\/\u0295ai\u0161\u201d \u0639\u064a\u0634<\/strong> in Standard Arabic, which is derived from the verb \u0295a:\u0161<\/strong>\/ \u0295aash \u0639\u0627\u0634<\/strong>, i.e. \u201clived\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019re going to know more about the significant importance of bread in the Arab region and the most famous type of bread Arabs make and eat.<\/p>\n

As mentioned above, bread is so important for particular parts of the Arab world that for them having no bread means no life. There\u2019s a popular Egyptian Arabic proverb that reflects this importance. The proverb goes like this: (\u0623\u0643\u0644 \u0627\u0644\u0639\u064a\u0634 \u0645\u0631\u0651\u00a0 \u00a0akl il- \u0295e:\u0161 murr<\/strong> = eating bread is bitter\/difficult) which mean \u201cEarning a living is bitter\u201d. Interestingly, earning a living<\/em> here is referred to as being able to afford eating bread.<\/em><\/p>\n

The word \u0295e:\u0161<\/strong>\u00a0was even included in the main political slogan of the Jan 25th<\/sup>\u00a0<\/strong>revolution <\/b>\u062b\u0648\u0631\u0629<\/strong> \u0662\u0665<\/strong> \u064a\u0646\u0627\u064a\u0631<\/strong> \u00a0in Egypt, 2011. Protestors in Tahrir Square chanted>><\/p>\n

\u0639\u064a\u0634 \u2013 \u062d\u0631\u064a\u0629 \u2013 \u0639\u062f\u0627\u0644\u0629 \u0627\u062c\u062a\u0645\u0627\u0639\u064a\u0629<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Bread, freedom and social justice. <\/strong><\/p>\n

These three words above summarised Egyptian people\u2019s demands \u0645\u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0627\u0644\u0634\u0639\u0628 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u0631\u064a<\/strong> and being able to afford bread (which symbolises having a decent life) was the first one \u2013 as was the case in old revolutions, such as the French revolution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More about the word “<\/strong>\u0295e<\/strong>:<\/strong>\u0161”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word was first used in Egypt to refer to the traditional bread people use there and then it was generalised to refer to all kinds of bread.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the word \u0295e:\u0161<\/strong> can mean a different thing in a different part of the Arab world but what the meaning of the word, regardless of what it specifically refers to, refers to a type of food that people eat on a daily basis in a specific country. So, while people in Egypt call bread \u0295e:\u0161, people in the Gulf region call rice \u0295e:\u0161<\/strong> as they consume lots of rice daily and rice, to them, is far more important than bread.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to mention that not all Arabs call it \u0295e:\u0161<\/strong> as people in the levant call it \u201cxibiz\/khibiz\u201d<\/strong> and it\u2019s \u201cxubza\u201d<\/strong> in Libya.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How does traditional <\/strong>\u0295e<\/strong>:<\/strong>\u0161 looks like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A typical piece of Arabic bread is thin and round<\/strong> \u0645\u062f\u0648\u0651\u0631\u0629<\/strong> \/ \u062f\u0627\u0626\u0631\u064a\u0629<\/strong>, quite close to the one you have your falafel wrapped in. It looks a bit like a tortilla but not as thin and perhaps as thick as a pitta. Across the Arab region, traditional bread varies in how big the circle is and ow thick the bread is.<\/p>\n

The typical Egyptian traditional \u0295e:\u0161<\/strong>\u00a0is small and round as appears below in the photo. It\u2019s usually associated with a poor man holding an open wooden box as he\u2019s riding his bike along the narrow streets of an old neighbourhood – a typical scene you can see in many Egyptian soap operas!<\/p>\n

\"Tannour<\/a>

Image by Alex Block on Unsplash.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Khubz At-tannour<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the Arabic countries make a specific type of bread that is considered traditional there, and that\u2019s khubz at-tannour \u062e\u0628\u0632 \u0627\u0644\u062a\u0646\u0651\u0648\u0631<\/strong> . it\u2019s a type of bread that is made in a special oven \u0641\u0631\u0646 \u062e\u0627\u0635<\/strong>\u00a0 called \u201ctannour\u201d and that\u2019s how the bred got its name. It\u2019s an oven that\u2019s made of clay \u0627\u0644\u0637\u064a\u0646,<\/strong> in the shape of a hole, underground. The bread used to be stuck around the sides of the oven and when you eat t, it has a distinctive smoky flavour to it. Grandmothers are mainly the ones who make it in an Arab household, probably because of only those with experience can make it.<\/p>\n

Now, bakeries \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062e\u0627\u0628\u0632<\/strong> have modern version of this oven which is no longer placed under the ground. It\u2019s said that not everybody can make it and it might take you years to master how to make it! The photo below shows an Iraqi man selling khubz tannour in his stall.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/a>

Image by Al Jazeera English on flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Tannour

Today, I would like to share with you some insights about Arabs\u2019 extreme love for a type of food that they don\u2019t seem to be able to live without! That food item is nothing but bread Al-khubz \u0627\u0644\u062e\u0628\u0632 . This is not just metaphorical image as in some parts of the Arab world, but bread…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":17665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3525,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17622","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arabic-language","category-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17622"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18148,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions\/18148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}