History of the Libyan Aseeda

Words by marwa benhalim

My first memories of Aseeda are of seeing my grandmother placing a pot of white flour and water on the kitchen floor and using all her strength to move a large wooden spoon in and out and around the soon-to-be dough. She would say, “Take a piece, try it,” and would place the butter-like dough in my mouth, to which I would exclaim, “OOOO omi, it’s hot, but very tasty.” 

Aseeda عصيدة is a popular dish throughout Libya made of water, flour, oil or butter, and a dash of salt. It is accompanied by various sauces and condiments. The term "Aseeda" comes from the Arabic root Asad – عصد , which means, in this case, to twist ingredients into a dough through the act of ta’seed – تعصيد. The dish, which ends up looking "like a rock island surrounded by water,"1is labor-intensive and requires patience and strength. 

One of the oldest recorded recipes for Aseeda appears in Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ,الطبيخ كتاب, by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq in the 10th century. It is the oldest recorded Arabic cookbook, and within it, “Asida” is mentioned as a “savory dish prepared as a thick soup rather dense in consistency. The main ingredients are flour, fat, and water [...] However, it may be a dessert when made with mashed dates and clarified butter, as in 'Asidat al tamr.”2 Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi, in 1226 AD, authored a book of the same name in which he describes the recipe for “Asidat al tamr –التمر عصيدة أو التمر جواذب, “a dish made by continuously stirring and mushing dates and other ingredients with a large stick and one's hands, similar to the contemporary act of ta'seed.3In the 13th Century, the records of Aseeda fall under the name “cAsīda” but is described as “a kind of semolina porridge made of a thick broth stirred into wheat flour, with butter and honey, rooted in the culinary traditions of Muslim Andalusia.”4 

While these historical documents situate Aseeda in Andalusia and Baghdad, the dish’s origin can be traced back to the Amazigh, also known as Imazighen or Berbers. “The Indigenous people who once roamed the North African coast… inhabited the area as early as 10,000 BC., first moving towards the coast but later inland as conquering powers pushed them to take refuge in the desert.”5 Today, the Amazigh live primarily in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Nigeria, among other places.6 Their cooking was mostly outdoors on an open fire, served in communal bowls, and eaten by hand.7 The Amazigh associated the Aseeda with birth and celebration. They would feed it to women who had just welcomed a new life in their homes–a tradition still maintained to this day. Following the Muslim conquest of the region, Aseeda became synonymous with the religious holiday of the Mawlid al-Nabī, the birthday festival of the Prophet of Muhammad, and ceremonies such as thecaqiqa – عقيق, the traditional hair cutting of newborns seven days after birth.8 

Although the Amazigh origin of Aseeda is less documented in writing due to their nomadic nature and emphasis on oral history, travel writings from the following centuries affirm the dish's popularity. The famous Arab explorer Hasan Al-Wazan (c.1465-1550), who was known as Leo Africanus in the West, and who journeyed into Africa, gives a detailed and attentive account of thecAsīda recipe in his book Description of Africa9 published in 1550, where he encounteredcAsīda in the Rif, the mountainous region along the Mediterranean coast of Morocco.10 Al-Wazan’s recipe includes barley flour, water, and stirring it all with a stick. Argan seed oil is then poured into the small shallow center of thecAsīda dough. In the 19th century, George F. Lyons, a British naval officer, documented his travels throughout Libya and Northern Africa between 1818 and 1820. He writes: “In Morzouk the luxuries of life are minimal, the people subsisting principally on dates. Many do not, for months together, taste the corn, and when obtained, they make it into a paste called Aseeda اسيد, which is a softer kind of Bazeen.”1112 These historical variations feel like a long-lost relative or great-grandfather to the one I know and make today. 

Through tracking the history of Aseeda, I realized that older recipes include wheat (bulgar), barley, or corn instead of white flour. Different regions in Libya have historically cultivated different kinds of grains; gussub – a small round brown grain, shair – barley, tareedi – red colored barley13. It is no wonder that Ksar Nalut, a 14th-century grain storage silo and olive press in Libya, existed and was used till the 1960s. But grains are not always stored. Nomadic people who did not have access to a grain warehouse and “needed to travel long distances across the mountains and in the desert with minimum luggage”14found that Aseeda, with its minimal ingredients and tools, was easy to carry and did not need an oven to make, so it made them full for long hours in their long travels.15 

From records in the 10th century to its popularity today across regions and cultures, the Aseeda has persisted throughout time, and its legacy lies in it being delicious, versatile, and accessible. 

"History of Aseeda" is an excerpt from the Aseeda publication by Marwa Benhalim, part of Ta'amana: A Journey Through Culinary Libya—a long-term, research-based visual project that draws on oral histories, archival material, hands-on cooking, and fieldwork to explore the layered narratives of Libyan food and its communal nature. The Aseeda publication research was developed with the support of Mophradat’s Grants for Artists’ Practice program. The publication was a research collaboration with Hawa ElMettawa and Sumaya ElMuttawa, edited by Sarah Sarofim, designed by Farida Ezzat, translated by Hend Fathy, and copy edited by Hussein ElHajj and Hawa ElMettawa.