Al-Ghazali at the table

In the medieval Arab-Persian world, people did not eat at a table but around the sufra, a leather or cloth spread laid directly on the ground. Guests sit in a circle, eat with their right hand from shared dishes, and begin with the phrase "Bismillah." The meal order is nothing like a starter-main-dessert succession: bread is the permanent foundation, porridges and meats are at the center, and sweets and drinks accompany or conclude the meal. For a Sufi scholar like Al-Ghazali, the sufra is also a spiritual exercise: one stops eating before being fully satisfied.

More than the wheat of the rich, it is barley (sha'ir) that marks Al-Ghazali's table. This humble grain of the poor and the ascetic becomes, in his writing, an instrument of the soul: dietary sobriety clears the mind. Barley appears as bread, as roasted travel flour, and as medicinal water.