ABSTRACT
The cuisine of Persia in its delicacy and intricacy resembles her other great arts: carpet weaving, miniature painting and poetry. This cuisine, which has been perfected through centuries of refinement, holds its own place with the most sophisticated cuisines of the world, such as the Chinese and the French. Persian cuisine in its present form has its origin in the Safavid period (1501–1722) when Shiʿi Islam was declared the official religion of the country. One significant result of this declaration was the seclusion and confinement of women. Thus the affluent women of Persia were the only group with time and leisure to devote to the creation and development of the art of cooking.
