View source for Couscous

== History ==
[[File:Algerian couscous from Kabylia.jpg|thumb|[[Algeria]]n couscous from [[Kabylia]]|left]]
It is unclear when couscous originated. Food historian Lucie Bolens believes couscous originated millennia ago, during the reign of [[Masinissa]] in the ancient kingdom of [[Numidia]]<ref name="chemache"/><ref name="hammami">{{cite journal |last1=Hammami |first1=Rifka |last2=Barbar |first2=Reine |last3=Laurent |first3=Marie |last4=Cuq |first4=Bernard |title=Durum Wheat Couscous Grains: An Ethnic Mediterranean Food at the Interface of Traditional Domestic Preparation and Industrial Manufacturing |journal=Foods |date=22 March 2022 |volume=11 |issue=7 |pages=902 |doi=10.3390/foods11070902 |pmid=35406989 |pmc=8998045 |doi-access=free}} Quote: “Part of the origin of couscous is related to Numidians, the Berber population of Numidia. The culinary historian Lucie Bolens describes primitive pots that closely resemble the main cooking utensil of couscous, which is the couscoussier, found in Kabylia in tombs coming from the period of Berber king Massinissa”</ref> in present-day [[Algeria]].<ref name=Bolens>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k6QEOwAACAAJ|title=La cuisine andalouse, un art de vivre: XIe-XIIIe siècle|last=Bolens|first=Lucie|date=1990|publisher=Albin Michel|isbn=9782226041005|access-date=May 19, 2022|archive-date=November 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241109015714/https://books.google.com/books?id=k6QEOwAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Can North Africa unite over couscous?|date=February 2, 2018|newspaper=AFP}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The unexpected allure of couscous: the history and tradition behind the North African staple|date=December 20, 2020|newspaper=The National News}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/couscous|last=de Castro|first=Teresa|editor1-last=Katz|editor1-first=Solomon H.|year=2003|title=COUSCOUS|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Food and Culture|publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]]|volume=3|page=466|isbn=0-684-80565-0|editor2-last=Weaver|editor2-first=William|access-date=December 14, 2018|archive-date=February 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202102003/https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/couscous|url-status=live}}</ref> Traces of cooking vessels akin to [[couscoussier]]s have been found in graves from the 3rd century BC, from the time of the Berber kings of Numidia, in [[Kabylia]], Algeria.<ref>Chemache, Loucif, Farida Kehal, Hacène Namoune, Makhlouf Chaalal, and Mohammed Gagaoua. "Couscous: Ethnic making and consumption patterns in the Northeast of Algeria." Journal of Ethnic Foods 5, no. 3 (2018): [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352618118300714 211-219] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218000155/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352618118300714 |date=December 18, 2021 }}.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Can North Africa unite over couscous? |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20180213-can-north-africa-unite-over-couscous |work=France 24 |language=en |date=February 13, 2018 |access-date=May 19, 2022 |archive-date=January 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110230612/https://www.france24.com/en/20180213-can-north-africa-unite-over-couscous |url-status=live }}</ref> Cooking utensils that closely resemble couscoussiers dating back to the 9th century were found in [[Tiaret]], Algeria.<ref>{{cite book | last = Sidi Boumediene | first = Rachid | title = L'arbre des couscous: Unité et diversité d'un patrimoine | publisher = Chihab | year = 2024 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=T9IEEQAAQBAJ&pg=PT8 }}</ref> Couscoussiers dating back to the 12th century were found in the ruins of [[Igiliz]], located in the [[Sous]] valley of [[Morocco]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fili |first1=Abdallah |last2=Ettahiri |first2=Ahmed Saleh |last3=Van Staëvel |first3=Jean-Pierre |last4=Serrat |first4=Ihssane |year=2020 |title=Première approche typologique de la céramique protoalmohade d'Igiliz (Maroc) |trans-title=First typological approach to the proto-Almohad pottery of Igiliz (Morocco) |url=https://revues.imist.ma/index.php/BAM/article/view/29693/15408 |journal=Bulletin d'Archéologie Marocaine |volume=25 |issue=25 |pages=101–123 |doi=10.34874/IMIST.PRSM/bam-v25.29693 |issn=0068-4015 |eissn=2820-6908 |archive-date=November 13, 2022 |access-date=November 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113011629/https://revues.imist.ma/index.php/BAM/article/view/29693/15408 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to food writer [[Charles Perry (food writer)|Charles Perry]], couscous originated among the [[Berbers]] of Algeria and Morocco between the end of the 11th-century [[Zirid dynasty]], modern-day Algeria, and the rise of the 13th-century [[Almohad Caliphate]].<ref name=":3" /> The historian Hady Idris noted that couscous is attested to during the [[Hafsid dynasty]], but not the Zirid dynasty.<ref name=":3" /> Historian Marianne Brisville stated that couscous could be recognised in the 11th century under the word ''taam'', the oldest mention is in [[Ouargla]], Algeria.<ref>{{cite web | last = Brisville | first = Marianne | title = Et le Moyen Âge inventa le couscous | website = L’Histoire | publisher = L’Histoire (Revue) | date = May 2020 | url = https://www.lhistoire.fr/et-le-moyen-age-inventa-le-couscous | quote = Le terme arabe kuskusu, qui désigne aussi bien la semoule que le plat, apparaît dans les livres de cuisine de l'Occident islamique médiéval à partir du XIIe-XIIIe siècle. On peut le reconnaître dès le XIe siècle sous le vocable de taam (nourriture, céréales) dans des récits de saints. La plus ancienne mention évoque un repas offert par les habitants d'Ouargla (dans le nord-est de l'Algérie) à un mystique : « Ils préparèrent un taam surmonté de saucisses. » | access-date = January 28, 2026 | archive-date = November 19, 2025 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20251119081158/https://www.lhistoire.fr/et-le-moyen-age-inventa-le-couscous | url-status = live }}</ref>

In the 12th century, [[Berber cuisine|Maghrebi]] cooks were preparing dishes of non-mushy grains by stirring flour with water to create light, round balls of couscous dough that could be steamed.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7MwDwAAQBAJ|title=Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 Recipes|last=Zaouali|first=Lilia|publisher=Univ of California Press|date=September 2009|isbn=978-0-520-26174-7|page=xiii|language=en|access-date=May 19, 2022}}</ref>

The historian [[Maxime Rodinson]] found three recipes for couscous from the 13th century [[Arabic literature#Culinary|Arabic cookbook]] ''Kitab al-Wusla ila al-Habib'', written by an [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] author,<ref name=":3" /> and the anonymous Arabic cooking book ''[[Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, limu'allif majhul|Kitab al tabikh]]'' and Ibn Razin al-Tujibi's ''Fadalat al-khiwan'' also contain recipes.<ref name=":1" />

Couscous is believed to have been spread among the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula by the Berber dynasties of the 13th century, though it is no longer found in traditional Spanish or Portuguese cuisine. In modern-day [[Trapani]], [[Sicily]], the dish is still made to the medieval recipe of [[Andalusia]]n author Ibn Razin al-Tujibi. Ligurian families that moved from [[Tabarka]] to [[Sardinia]] brought the dish with them to [[Carloforte]] in the 18th century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 Recipes|last=Zaouali|first=Lilia|publisher=Univ of California Press|date=September 2009|isbn=978-0-520-26174-7|pages=45–46|language=en}}</ref>

Known in France since the 16th century, it was brought into French cuisine at the beginning of the 20th century via the [[French colonial empire]] and the Pieds-Noirs.<ref>{{Citation needed|date=May 2026|reason=among other things the two sentences seem to contradict each other}}</ref>