for many people in the region. In both indonesia
and malaysia, people also like to eat a type of
kabob called satay, which has thin strips of meat,
fish, or chicken that are skewered, grilled, and
served with dipping sauces. Hot chilis, originally
from the New World, and sweet coconut milk are
used along with other spices and peanut sauces to
add flavor to rice and fish dishes.
Muslim culinary cultures have continued to
change and evolve in the modern period. Colo-
nization of Muslim lands by Europeans led to
the introduction of new foods, restaurants, and
industrialized food production. With the creation
of nation-states in the 20th century, national cui-
sines began to appear, as reflected in cookbooks
featuring “Lebanese,” “Palestinian,” “Turkish,”
“Moroccan,” “Saudi,” and even “Kuwaiti” reci-
pes. During the last decades of the 20th century,
American soft drinks flooded local markets, fol-
lowed by fast food chains featuring hamburgers,
French fries, fried chicken, and pizza. These were
locally owned franchises, however, which had to
adhere to Islamic dietary laws. They also allowed
limited use of local flavorings and adaptations of
indigenous recipes.
During the 1990s and 2000s, opposition to
U.S. Middle East policies sparked boycotts of
U.S.-based food chains and a return to more
traditional indigenous foods in many countries.
It also led to the creation of alternative “Islamic”
commodities, such as Mecca Cola and zamzam
Cola. On the other hand, the influx of Muslim
immigrants into Europe and North America led
to the establishment of halal food businesses
that served the immigrant communities in those
parts of the world. It also helped introduce new
foods there, as can be seen in the popularity of
Turkish doner kebab sandwiches in Germany,
North African foods in France, South Asian
foods in Great Britain, and Arab (especially
Lebanese and Palestinian) and Persian foods in
the United States.
See also agricUltUre; animals; basmala; colo-
nialism; creation; Fasting; ottoman dynasty.
Further reading: Peter Heine, Food Culture in the Near
East, Middle East, and North Africa (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 2004); Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya,
Healing with the Medicine of the Prophet. Translated by
Jalal Abual Rub (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2003); Claudia
Roden, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food (New
York: Random House, 2001); Maxime Rodinson, A.
J. Arberry, and Charles Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery
(Devon, U.K.: Prospect Books, 2001); David Waines,
In a Caliph’s Kitchen (London: Riad El-Rayyes, 1989);
Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., A Taste of Time:
Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London: Tauris
Parke Paperbacks, 2001).free will and determinism See ashari school;
fate; mutazili school; theology.fundamentalism See islamism; politics and islam;
wahhabism.funerary rituals
Funerary rituals are concerned with the disposal
of the dead and provide the living with ways
to channel deeply felt emotions caused by the
loss of a loved one. They are occasions when
a society’s beliefs about life and death and the
sacred and profane are most visible and when
the bonds that hold people together as families
and communities are affirmed and tested. In
Islamic communities, as in Jewish and Chris-
tian ones, funerary rituals involve different
kinds of activities: preparations for death and
burial, interment of the body, mourning, and
memorialization. These rites combine practices
prescribed by religious tradition, local cultural
customs, and improvised actions called forth by
the specific circumstances present when a death
or a funeral occurs.
fiqh literature, composed by experts in Islamic
law, sets forth the formal ritual requirements and
taboos that Muslims are expected to observe.K 250 free will and determinism