Dishes
Hummus
HUM-us
Also Known As Hommus
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A dip of cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil, a staple of the mezze table across the Levant and wider Middle East. Its exact place of origin is genuinely contested among the countries of the eastern Mediterranean, each claiming the dish as a national one; the Oxford Companion to Food treats it as a shared regional dish rather than crediting a single point of origin.
Facts
Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountMarks the approximate date of the earliest documented recipe resembling hummus, in a 13th-century cookbook attributed to Ibn al-Adim of Syria; the basic chickpea-and-sesame ingredients were eaten across Egypt and the Levant for centuries before this, but evidence is insufficient to fix a precise time or place of invention. Origin RegionEastern Mediterranean (exact country contested) 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountIsrael, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and other eastern Mediterranean countries and communities each claim hummus as a national dish; the documentary record is insufficient to fix a single point of origin. Cross-Tradition Connections
In Cuisine
Uses Ingredient
Sources
1. Hummus (Wikipedia)
WikipediaOrigin and historyQuote, Origin and history
Although multiple different theories and claims of origins exist in various parts of the Middle East, evidence is insufficient to determine the precise location or time of the invention of hummus.
1. Hummus (Wikipedia)
The Oxford Companion to Food
Alan Davidson, Oxford University Press, 2014
Open Questions (1 open question)
Which country or people first prepared hummus as it is known today?
Multiple eastern Mediterranean countries and communities (Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt among them) claim hummus as a national dish, but the documentary record does not fix a single point of origin; the earliest known written recipes are 13th-century Syrian and 14th-century Cairene.
What would resolve this A written recipe or reliable archaeological attestation predating the 13th-century Syrian and 14th-century Cairene cookbook records, tied unambiguously to one people or place, would settle the question; none has yet been found.
Culinary historyHummus (Wikipedia)
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