FirstLook: Iftar Nights
Photograph and video by Johnny Hanson
Iftar nights
Sunday, June 26, 8:42 p.m.,
Howard County, Maryland
We dug in, as we always do, just moments after sunset, as soon as it was time to break this day’s 16-hour Ramadan fast. As cell phone apps played calls to prayer in near synchrony, a small, hungry crowd descended upon the buffet table.
On this night it was a potluck iftar with a heri-tage theme, and the food mirrored some of the incredible diversity of suburban Baltimore itself: There was Malaysian tapioca cake (bingo ubi kayu), Ecuadorian empanadas, Bosnian stew (Bosanski lonac), Uighur steamed squash and lamb dumplings (petir manta), Italian escarole and beans (scarola e fagipoli), African- American bean pie, Senegalese peanut stew (mafe ginaar) and beignets (puff puff), Palestinian lentil soup (shorabit adas) and St. Thomas jerk chicken—all shared along with stories of their origins among friends old and new.
Iftar means “fast breaking” in Arabic, and the socializing that goes along with it is a worldwide hallmark of the month of Ramadan, which this year began on June 6 and ended with ‘id al-fitr (“feast of the fast breaking”) on July 5. (Following US Independence Day, this gave us a delightful double holiday.) In an upcom-ing feature article, I’ll be sharing some of the recipes you see on this table.
—Laila el-Haddad, author of
“Gaza’s Food Heritage” (N/D 11)
Sunday, June 26, 8:42 p.m.,
Howard County, Maryland
We dug in, as we always do, just moments after sunset, as soon as it was time to break this day’s 16-hour Ramadan fast. As cell phone apps played calls to prayer in near synchrony, a small, hungry crowd descended upon the buffet table.
On this night it was a potluck iftar with a heri-tage theme, and the food mirrored some of the incredible diversity of suburban Baltimore itself: There was Malaysian tapioca cake (bingo ubi kayu), Ecuadorian empanadas, Bosnian stew (Bosanski lonac), Uighur steamed squash and lamb dumplings (petir manta), Italian escarole and beans (scarola e fagipoli), African- American bean pie, Senegalese peanut stew (mafe ginaar) and beignets (puff puff), Palestinian lentil soup (shorabit adas) and St. Thomas jerk chicken—all shared along with stories of their origins among friends old and new.
Iftar means “fast breaking” in Arabic, and the socializing that goes along with it is a worldwide hallmark of the month of Ramadan, which this year began on June 6 and ended with ‘id al-fitr (“feast of the fast breaking”) on July 5. (Following US Independence Day, this gave us a delightful double holiday.) In an upcom-ing feature article, I’ll be sharing some of the recipes you see on this table.
—Laila el-Haddad, author of
“Gaza’s Food Heritage” (N/D 11)
You may also be interested in...
FirstLook: Duet
Arts
“Duet” comes from the Latin root word duo which means two. The Duet series focuses on double portraits, a tradition in West Africa.
Hijrah: A Journey That Changed the World
History
Arts
Avoiding main roads due to threats to his life, in 622 CE the Prophet Muhammad and his followers escaped north from Makkah to Madinah by riding through the rugged western Arabian Peninsula along path whose precise contours have been traced only recently. Known as the Hijrah, or migration, their eight-day journey became the beginning of the Islamic calendar, and this spring, the exhibition "Hijrah: In the Footsteps of the Prophet," at Ithra in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, explored the journey itself and its memories-as-story to expand understandings of what the Hijrah has meant both for Muslims and the rest of a the world. "This is a story that addresses universal human themes," says co-curator Idries Trevathan.
Reflections on Journeys
Arts
History
Part 2 of our series celebrating AramcoWorld’s 75th anniversary this year highlights “visual vagabonding”—the magazine’s expanded use of vibrant images over the decades to fulfill the mission of cultural connection.