A cultural history of the kebab

Istill remember my first bite of a kebab (or kebap, but we’ll get to that). A döner kebap to be precise. After two hours in an endless line, slowly freezing in the Berlin winter, I’d finally made it to the rotating altar and its intense aroma, nothing like the smell of onions and burnt meat too many people associate with this delicacy. I’ve been fascinated by this dish from the moment I first heard about it, and it wasn’t long before my research into the kebab’s origins turned up an intriguing and intricate history (as well as, finally, the answer to that trickiest of questions: kebab or kebap?).

My diet’s changed a lot since then, and even though I’m not 100 percent vegetarian yet, I am trying to watch my meat consumption, not just for the environment, but for my health too. But that’s never stopped me from indulging, on occasion, in the joy of wolfing down a mouthwatering pitta bursting with delicious flavors (no offense, pizza).

Whether it’s a 9 a.m. breakfast or coming home from a beach party in the middle of the night, whether it’s in the seediest neighborhood, the desert or the downtown of a rich city, it’ll always be there, ready to lure you in with its relentless pirouette that even the strictest vegan would struggle to resist. In fact, the kebab welcomes everyone in: with all the different combinations and condiments, it’s a democratic and inclusive dish.

A kebab is a dish of sliced or ground cooked meat with its roots in Middle Eastern cuisine. The method of cooking little pieces or strips of meat on skewers dates back thousands of years, and there are many theories as to the exact origin of the kebab. Excavations of the Minoan settlement of Akrotiri uncovered stone supports for skewers from before the 17th century BCE, and even Homer’s Iliad mentions pieces of meat roasted on skewers.

In cities where this delicacy has been a staple for centuries, meat could already be found pre-sliced in butcher’s shops. This is likely because fuel used for cooking was relatively scarce compared to Europe, where the wide forests enabled farmers to roast large hunks of meat.

The word “kebab” reached the English-speaking world in the 17th century from the Arabic kabāb, in part via Hindustani, Persian and Turkish. According to linguist Sevan Nişanyan, the Turkish word kebap derives from Arabic kabāb, meaning “roasted meat.” Going further, the American Heritage Dictionary proposes a likely East Semitic root meaning “to burn,” “to char” or “to roast,” from Aramaic and Akkadian. The Babylonian Talmud even teaches that offerings in the Temple should not be kabbaba (“burnt”).

More generally, the word “kebab” was popularized by Turkish people and, today, kebab dishes have been incorporated into local cuisines and innovations, thanks to the ubiquitous fast food that is the döner kebap.

Trying to describe every type of kebab in the Middle East would be opening Pandora’s Box, and this isn’t the time or the place. From Armenian to Iranian cuisine, Egypt to the Levant, there are countless names, stories and condiments associated with this dish, all evidence of the kebab’s very ancient history. By and large, dishes derived from the Middle Eastern kebab can take many names in local languages, like the Chinese chuan or the Lyulya kebab (люля-кебаб in Cyrillic script) in Azerbaijan.

Babbel