A Baghdad Shopping List

A wealthy lady's shopping list in the markets of Baghdad in the 8th century, from One Thousand and One Nights:

Fruiterer's shop: 

• Syrian apples
• Uthmani quinces
• Omani peaches
• jasmine
• water lilies from Syria
• autumn cucumbers
• lemons
• sultani oranges
• scented myrtle
• privet flowers
• camomile blossoms
• red anemones
• violets
• pomegranate blooms
• eglantine 

 Butcher's:

•   ten ratls' worth of meat wrapped in banana leaves

 Grocer:

•  pistachio kernels
• Tihama raisins
• shelled almonds

Sweetmeat seller's shop:

• sugar cakes
• doughnuts stuffed with musk
• 'soap' cakes
• lemon tarts
• Maimuni tarts
• 'Zainab's combs'
• sugar fingers
• qadis' snacks 

Perfume seller's:

• rosewater
• orange-flower water
• water scented with water lilies
• water scented with willow flowers
• two sugar loaves
• bottle of musk-scented rosewater
• frankincense
• aloes
• ambergris
• musk
• Alexandrian candles