Knafa Bjoz

The history of knafeh

Medieval kunafa was a thin crepe-like bread with nuts, not cheese. How it changed, what al-Suyuti wrote about it, and which origin stories are legends.

By Knafa Bjoz editorsPublished

Also known as: kunafa history, künefe history, تاريخ الكنافة

The knafeh most people know today, threads of pastry over melted cheese, soaked in syrup, is fairly recent. The word is much older, and for most of its history it meant something else.

A thin bread, fried and sweetened

Kunafa appears in Arabic cookbooks from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Daniel Newman, who holds the Chair of Arabic Studies at Durham University, counts nearly twenty-five recipes across six cookbooks from Syria, Egypt and al-Andalus.[1] In them, kunafa was “essentially a thin flatbread”, usually fried in oil, then rolled, cut up, or kept whole like a crepe.[1]

A 13th-century cookbook from al-Andalus shows what that meant. Its kunafa recipe cuts thin bread into pieces “the size of big rose leaves”, cooks them in oil, then honey, and finishes them with rose water, sugar, spices and almonds.[2] Its translator, Charles Perry, notes that in the Middle Ages kunafa “was a thin crepe”.[2] A 15th-century Egyptian recipe translated by Newman cuts the dough “into thin strips, like noodles”.[1]

Nuts, not cheese

Medieval kunafa had no cheese. Newman describes it as made “with nuts (not cheese)”.[3] The Turkish food historian Mary Işın has said the same of later Ottoman recipes she has read: they use nuts, and a cheese filling “doesn’t appear in history”.[7] When cheese knafeh first appeared is not settled, and we will add a source here when we find a reliable one.

A book of poems about kunafa

By the 13th and 14th centuries, kunafa and qatayif had become a frequent subject in Arabic poetry.[5] Before his death in 1505, the Egyptian scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti gathered writing on the two sweets into a treatise, Manhal al-lata’if fi al-kunafa wa-l-qata’if.[5] A copy made in 1593 is held by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, whose catalogue describes kunafa there as vermicelli baked in sugar, butter and honey.[4]

Threads of pastry

The thread form is documented in the 19th century. Edward Lane’s Arabic-English dictionary describes a paste of flour and water poured through a vessel with holes onto a large hot copper tray, then baked with clarified butter and sweetened with honey.[6] How the threads are made today is in What is knafeh?.

Legends

Two origin stories are told everywhere. Neither is supported by early evidence.

  • Mu’awiya’s suhoor. The story says a physician made kunafa for the Umayyad caliph Mu’awiya to ease his hunger during Ramadan fasts. ArabLit calls the anecdote “apocryphal”: the history of kunafa does not go back that far.[5]
  • The Fatimids in Cairo. Some articles say kunafa dates from the Fatimid era in Egypt, but they report it only as something “it is said”.[8]

Where the word comes from

The origin of the word is uncertain. Newman traces it to a Coptic word for a kind of loaf or cake;[1] others link it to the Arabic root k-n-f. Read more in The word knafeh.

Test yourself

  1. In medieval Arabic cookbooks, what was kunafa?
    Show answer

    Answer: A thin flatbread or crepe. Medieval kunafa was essentially a thin flatbread, often fried, rolled or cut up. Read more

  2. What did medieval kunafa use instead of cheese?
    Show answer

    Answer: Nuts. Medieval kunafa was made with nuts, not cheese. Read more

  3. Which scholar gathered writing about kunafa and qatayif into a treatise?
    Show answer

    Answer: Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti. Al-Suyuti compiled Manhal al-lata'if fi al-kunafa wa-l-qata'if before his death in 1505. Read more

  4. The story that kunafa was made for the caliph Mu'awiya is…
    Show answer

    Answer: A legend that historians doubt. The anecdote is considered apocryphal; the history of kunafa does not go back that far. Read more

Sources

  1. 1.Daniel Newman. Medieval Egyptian Kunafa. Eat Like A Sultan, 2024. Newman holds the Chair of Arabic Studies at Durham University.
  2. 2.Charles Perry (translator). An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. David Friedman's medieval cookbooks site, recipe "Kunâfa" and translator's note 166.
  3. 3.15th-century Arab cookbook a sweet surprise. Durham University, 2021.
  4. 4.Islamic Medical Manuscripts, Dietetics 10 (Manhal al-lata'if fi al-kunafah wa-al-qata'if). U.S. National Library of Medicine, MS A 35, item 9.
  5. 5.Brian Powell. April Translation Challenge: Konafa v. Qatayef. ArabLit, 2022.
  6. 6.Edward William Lane. An Arabic-English Lexicon, entry "kunáfah". Williams & Norgate (1863–93), online edition.
  7. 7.Kunafa: Who Made it First?. Frying Pan Adventures (The Deep Fried Podcast), 2020. Interview including food historian Mary Işın.
  8. 8.الكنافة شامية أم مصرية؟ ولماذا ارتبطت باسم معاوية؟. Emarat Al Youm, 2020. In Arabic.