Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Arabian Peninsula recipes. This page provides links to all the recipes presented on this site that originate in the Arabian Peninsula, with 118 recipes in total.

These recipes all originate in the Arabian Peninsula, which includes the countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Arabia also comprises a large part of the Arab World

The Arabian Peninsula, (Arabic: شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَة الْعَرَبِيَّة, shibhu al-jazīra al-ʿarabiyya, 'Arabian Peninsula' or جَزِيرَةُ الْعَرَب, jazīrat al-ʿarab, lit. 'Island of the Arabs') also known as 'Arabia' is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian Plate. At 3,237,500 km², comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Arabia also comprises a significant portion of the the Arab World

The Arab world is at its minimum defined as the 19 states where Arabs form at least a plurality of the population. At its maximum it consists of the 22 members of the Arab League, an international organization, which on top of the 19 plurality Arab states also includes the Bantu-speaking Comoros, and the Cushitic-speaking Djibouti and Somalia. The region stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The eastern part of the Arab world is known as the Mashriq, and the western part as the Maghreb.

Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen, as well as southern Iraq and Jordan. The largest of these is Saudi Arabia. In the Roman era, the Sinai Peninsula was also considered a part of Arabia. (See the table below for links to individual countries).

The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and south-west, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the north-east, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the north and the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the south-east. The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arab world and globally due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas.

Before the modern era, the region was divided into primarily four distinct regions: the Central Plateau (Najd and Al-Yamama), South Arabia (Yemen, Hadhramaut and south-western Oman), Al-Bahrain (Eastern Arabia or Al-Hassa), and the Hejaz (Tihamah for the western coast), as described by Ibn al-Faqih.

Etymology: In antiquity, the term 'Arabia' encompassed a larger area than the current term 'Arabian Peninsula' and included the Arabian Desert and large parts of the Syrian–Arabian desert. During the Hellenistic period, the area was known as Arabia (Ancient Greek: Ἀραβία). The Romans named three regions ;Arabia':
Arabia Petraea ('Stony Arabia'): it consisted of the former Nabataean Kingdom in the southern Levant, the Sinai Peninsula and north-western Arabian Peninsula. It was the only one that became a province, with Petra (in Jordan) as its capital.
Arabia Deserta ('Desert Arabia'): signified the desert lands of Arabia. As a name for the region, it remained popular into the 19th and 20th centuries, and was used in Charles M. Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888).
Arabia Felix ('Fortunate Arabia'): was used by geographers to describe the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, mostly what is now Yemen, which enjoys more rainfall, is much greener than the rest of the peninsula and has long enjoyed much more productive fields.

Arabians used a north–south division of Arabia: ash-Sham vs. al-Yaman, or Arabia Deserta vs. Arabia Felix. Arabia Felix had originally been used for the whole peninsula, and at other times only for the southern region. Because its use became limited to the south, the whole peninsula was simply called Arabia. Arabia Deserta was the entire desert region extending north from Arabia Felix to Palmyra and the Euphrates, including all the area between Pelusium on the Nile and Babylon. This area was also called Arabia and not sharply distinguished from the peninsula.

The Arabs and the Ottoman Empire considered the west of the Arabian Peninsula region where the Arabs lived 'the land of the Arabs'—billad al-'Arab (Arabia), and its major divisions were the bilad al-Sham (Levant), bilad al-Yaman (Yemen), and bilad al-'Iraq (Iraq).[14] The Ottomans used the term Arabistan in a broad sense for the region starting from Cilicia, where the Euphrates river makes its descent into Syria, through Palestine, and on through the remainder of the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas.

The provinces of Arabia were: Al Tih, the Sinai peninsula, Hejaz, Asir, Yemen, Hadramaut, Mahra and Shilu, Oman, Hasa, Bahrain, Dahna, Nufud, the Hammad, which included the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia and Babylonia.

The Countries Of the Arabian Peninsula:

Arms	Flag	Name of Territory	Capital	Name in Official Language(s)
		Bahrain	Manama	مملكة البحرين (Arabic: Mamlakat al-Baḥrayn)
		Iran	Tehran	جمهوری اسلامی ایران (Persian: Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân)
		Jordan	Amman	المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية (Arabic: al-Mamlakah al-ʾUrdunniyah al-Hāshimiyah)
		Kuwait	Kuwait City	دَوْلَة ٱلْكُوَيْت (Arabic: Dawla al-Kuwayt)
		Oman	Muscat	ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާسلطنة عُمان (Arabic: Salṭanat ʻUmān)
		Qatar	Doha	دولة قطر (Arabic: Dawlat Qaṭar)
		Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	ٱلْمَمْلَكَة ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة ٱلسُّعُودِيَّة (Arabic: al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Suʿūdiyya)
		United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	الإمارات العربية المتحدة
		Yemen	Sana'a (Houthi-led government) Aden (Seat of government)	ٱلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْيَمَنِيَّةُ (Arabic: al-Jumhūriyyatu l-Yamaniyyatu)

The Cuisines of Arabia:

Arabian cuisine collectively refers to the regional culinary traditions of the Arabian Peninsula. These cuisines are centuries old and reflect the culture of trading in ingredients, spices, herbs, and commodities among the Arabs. The countries of the region have many similarities, but also unique traditions. Many early manuscripts from the region have survived, giving us unique insights into the traditional cultures and how the dishes of the region have evolved over the centuries.