Tamtaj in Folk and Persian Literature

In the history of Persian literature, foods are among the categories that have entered from popular culture into literary language; in addition to writing independent books on the subject or composing specific poems about them, they have been mentioned in various literary texts. "Ode on Totmajiyye" by Shamsoddin Ahmad Ibn Manouchehr Shast Kolah, an Iraqi poet and a courtier of the Toghrol Seljuk (573-590), is one of the few poems that specifically describes how to cook a meal, which has a very high frequency of use in Persian poetry and prose. However, without understanding all its aspects, it will be difficult to understand the meaning of some verses and phrases of the Persian texts. This research investigates Totmaj and its related issues in a descriptive-analytical way, using library-based and content-analysis methods of Persian literature texts. The main finding, besides clarifying the subject, is to obtain the correct meaning of terms and combinations that have found their way into the Persian literature based on how to cook or eat Totmaj. Moreover, due to the passage of time and the changes occurring in this food, it has become difficult for the literati to understand their meaning.