Infidel Foods: Food and Identity in Early Modern Ottoman Travel Literature

Abstract

Scholars in a range of disciplines have shown the power of food as a marker of identity. Early modern travel literature contains many examples of the ways in which foodways were used as a powerful marker to both define and differentiate. While there is a growing body of literature on food in European travel literature, the topic has not received attention in the Ottoman context. This paper examines several notable examples of Ot- toman travel literature in order to make some tentative conclusions about the ways that food functioned in constructing identities in the early modern era. The writings of Mustafa Ali and Evliya Çelebi illustrate the ways that Ottomans used food to inscribe boundaries between the culture of the imperial capital and some of the empire’s peripheral areas. They used food in a fashion that mirrored the approach of many European travel narratives, but also in ways that differed significantly, which suggests the potential insights a comparative consideration of Ottoman and European travel literature and their treatment of food might produce.