Qamar al-din
apricot-based drink
Qamar al-din (Arabic: قمر الدين, lit. 'Moon of the Faith') is an apricot fruit leather used to make apricot juice or a nectar beverage often consumed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It is specifically mentioned in a 13th-century Levantine recipe. It originates from what is now Syria, and was first produced in the Ghouta, where the variety of apricots most suitable for qamar al-din was first grown. Qamar al-din is used across the Middle East and North Africa and Somalia, though Syrian qamar al-din is still believed to be the best because the variety of apricots most suitable for making qamar al-din grows only in Syria and southwestern Turkey.
Etymology
Several theories have been proposed for the origin of qamar al-din's name. One theory holds that it was named for its inventor, a Syrian man named Qamar al-Din. He was said to have been so handsome that he resembled the moon (Arabic: قمر, romanized: qamar), hence his name.
Another theory holds that apricot season coincided with the sighting of the new moon marking the beginning of Ramadan in the year when qamar al-din was invented. A similar theory, widespread in Egypt, traces the name's origin to a Caliph who was known to celebrate with qamar al-din upon seeing the crescent moon during Ramadan.
History
Writings by medieval explorer Ibn Battuta mention a variety of apricot called qamar al-din, which were said to be cultivated in the Levant and Byzantium, dried, and exported elsewhere.
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This entry incorporates text from “Qamar al-din” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.