Tajine, histoire d’un mot qui a plusieurs sens

Summary

The video investigates why the word tajine refers to different dishes and cooking vessels across the Mediterranean. It focuses on the history of the word, rather than the origins of the familiar Moroccan or Algerian conical-lidded tajine.

Different meanings in different regions

• In Morocco, some parts of Algeria, and much of Europe, tajine can mean both a slow-cooked stew and the circular cooking vessel—often with a conical lid—in which it is prepared.
• In Tunisia and parts of Libya, it can mean a filled, baked omelet, similar to Spanish tortilla or Egyptian eggah.
• In Egypt, tagen—reflecting the Egyptian pronunciation of the letter j—can refer to dishes such as okra stew. The word can also mean an oven dish or pan.
• In Lebanon, tajen samak is fish with tahini, baked in the oven.

The shared link is the cooking vessel. The narrator describes this as metonymy: a utensil’s name comes to stand for the food cooked in it. The video compares this with English casserole, which can refer to either a dish or the food prepared in it.

Historical evidence for the word

The video traces uses of the word across several historical texts:

• 10th-century Baghdad: In a passage from The Arabian Nights, a cook fries fish in a tajine placed on a tripod. The description suggests a pan, possibly metal or clay, but gives few details.
• 13th-century Baghdad: Muhammad al-Baghdadi’s cookbook, Kitab al-Tabikh, recommends frying small fritters in either a flat-bottomed copper cauldron or a tajine. The context suggests the tajine was metal.
• 15th-century al-Andalus: An anonymous cookbook, containing recipes dating to the 12th century, uses the word frequently. One recipe describes a clay vessel called a hantam, which can be replaced by a tajine. Researcher Edoardo Mori interprets the hantam as a clay pan and the tajine as a clay casserole dish. Another recipe uses a tajine in an oven, while a covered tajine is used for a beef stew called sanhaji.

These examples show that tajine has referred to different kinds of cooking vessels over time—not just the vessel now most associated with the word.

Proposed origin and Mediterranean spread

The video presents the linguistic consensus that tajine ultimately derives from the Ancient Greek tagenon, a word for a frying pan or earthenware dish. Its modern Greek descendant is tigani. According to the video, the term spread around the Mediterranean and was adopted for vessels and foods in several regions.

Related forms are also cited in Italy and France:

• In Sicily, taganu or teganu names both a baked pasta dish and the dish in which it is cooked.
• In Cefalù, taianu is a clay vessel used to make pasta a taianu.
• Some researchers connect the word to Provençal tian, which also refers to both a cooking vessel and a dish.

The proposed Greek origin of the word does not mean that the foods or cooking traditions themselves originated in Greece. The video stresses that Greek-derived vocabulary could be adopted to name practices and objects that already existed locally.

Broader lesson

The history of tajine illustrates how words and culinary practices move across languages and regions. The narrator presents the Mediterranean not as a barrier between separate cultures, but as a space that connects them.

Speakers and sources featured

• Narrator/presenter: The subtitles do not name the speaker.
• Daniel Reig’s modern Arabic dictionary: Cited for definitions of tajine.
• The presenter’s grandfather’s 1924 dictionary: Cited for earlier Arabic definitions.
• The Arabian Nights: Specifically, the story of the fisherman and the ifrit.
• Muhammad al-Baghdadi: Author of the 13th-century cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh.
• Anonymous author of a 15th-century Andalusian Kitab al-Tabikh: The cookbook includes recipes said to date to the 12th century.
• Edoardo Mori: Researcher and translator cited for interpretations of the Andalusian cookbook.
• University of Almería: Mentioned in connection with preserving and sharing Andalusian pottery-making techniques.
• Unidentified linguists and researchers: Cited for the Greek etymology and the proposed connection to Provençal tian.