Najīb ad-Dīn as-Samarqandī’s (d. 619/1222) Book on Foods and Drinks (Kitāb al-Aghdhīya wa-l-ashriba) is a comprehensive medical encyclopedia with information on more than 500 different food items, dishes, drinks and fragrances. It can be considered to be the last major Arabic monograph on dietetics in the Islamic East and it probably rates among the most widespread premodern Arabic books on the subject of nutrition science. In Nahrungsmittel in der arabischen Medizin, Juliane Müller presents a critical edition of the Kitāb al-Aghdhīya wa-l-ashriba along with a German translation of the text. An extensive contextual study locates the encyclopedia and its dietetic contents within Arabic medical literature and examines the sources and the reception of as-Samarqandī’s food encyclopedia.

Juliane Müller is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich. She has published a monograph on Arabic alchemy (2012).

All those interested in the history of Arabic medicine, dietetics, medieval Islamic culinary culture, the cultural history of food and drink, or the transmission of Greek scientific texts into Arabic will find this edition of great value.