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The culinary historian Lucie Bolens is said to have described primitive jars of couscous found in tombs dating back to the reign of the Berber king Massinissa.
Couscous is the form in which North Africans preserved, prepared, and cooked cereals. It seems attested, for the time of Massinissa, by couscoussiers found in burials, but does not seem to have reached Tripolitania to the east. -Dr. Lucie Bolens, Professor of History at the University of Geneva.
The use of the verb “to seem” by Lucie Bolens is not trivial. It is necessary to remember that this is a hypothesis, which is now invalidated by the work of the Institute of Archaeology in Algiers.
Many researchers have begun to refer to the hypothesis that the origin of couscous dates back to the time of Massinissa. Based for the most part on the work and research of G. Camps about King Numidius.
However, returning to his research there is no evidence affirming the existence of couscous at that time. -Houria Cherid, Institute of Archeology at the University of Algiers.
Marianne Brisville, doctor in history, confirms the idea that couscous did appear in the Middle Ages (and not during Antiquity). According to her, couscous was born in the Middle Ages in the Maghreb, and more precisely in Western and Central Maghreb (modern-day Morocco and Algeria) from where it spread to the Iberian Peninsula (Andalusia) as well as to the Eastern Maghreb (modern-day Tunisia) and probably to Sicily, which was Muslim between the 9th and the 11th centuries.
Kilien Stengel, project manager at the European Institute of Food History and Cultures, specifies in his book that the dish appeared in Morocco in the 10th century.
Thus, as a conquering country, Morocco, under the Almoravid dynasty, exported couscous to several countries in the northern Mediterranean. The Almohads also made it possible to strengthen the spread of this dish in the Iberian Peninsula as well as the Eastern Maghreb region.
The fortune of this language promoted by the governments is similar to the movement to spread dishes from Maghrib Al Aqsa in Andalusia and Ifriqiya, starting with couscous. -Mehdi Ghouirgate.
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It is in this context and this period that couscous first appears in an Andalusian cooking recipe manuscript. The couscous in this manuscript is described as coming from the city of Marrakech, capital of the Empire. In some Middle Eastern countries, couscous was also known as al-Maghribiyya (the Moroccan one).
For example, in a recipe book written in Aleppo in the 13th century, couscous is described as Moroccan (couscous al-maghribi).
Kitab al-Tabikh fi'l-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus fi'asr al-Muwahhidin.
Moroccan civilization: arts and cultures, Mohamed Sijelmassi, Abdelkebir Khatibi.
The Almohad Order (1120-1269): A new anthropological reading, Mehdi Ghouirgate.
Kitab al-Wusla ilâ l-Habib fi wasf al-Tayyabat wa l-tîb.
Lucie Bolens, Andalusian cuisine, an art of living, 11th-13th century.
And the Middle Ages invented couscous, Marianne Brisville.