A Libyan Town Comes Together to Make a Beloved Ramadan Dish 

A Libyan volunteer shows a just made traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP)
A Libyan volunteer shows a just made traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP)
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A Libyan Town Comes Together to Make a Beloved Ramadan Dish 

A Libyan volunteer shows a just made traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP)
A Libyan volunteer shows a just made traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP)

Every year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a Libyan town comes together to prepare — and share — one of their all-time favorite dishes: bazin.

In Tajoura, just east of Libya's capital of Tripoli, it's the perfect food for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break the dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan.

Savory and rich, bazin is usually made of unleavened barley flour and served with a rich stew full of vegetables and — hopefully — mutton. If those aren't available, which they often haven't been in the past decade and a half due to Libya's violence and turmoil, a simple tomato sauce will do.

Volunteers prepare Bazin, traditional Libyan dough bread made of barley or whole wheat flour and often served with stew in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP)

Preparing it is a joint effort, and Tajoura residents of all ages are eager to help with roles from making the bread, handing it out to the poor or donating ingredients to the community.

Typically, the men of Tajoura volunteer to make the bread in a makeshift communal kitchen, using long wooden sticks to stir the barley flour water in large pots to make the dough.

Others then knead the dough, shaping it into large clumps that look a bit like giant dumplings, to be baked or steamed. Once ready, other volunteers hand out bazin to a people lined up outside, who eagerly wait to take it home for iftar.

Ramadan is a time of intense prayers, charity and spirituality.

And in Tajoura, it's also time for bazin.



Heritage Commission Reveals Oldest Known Use of Harmal Plant in Human History

Heritage Commission Reveals Oldest Known Use of Harmal Plant in Human History
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Heritage Commission Reveals Oldest Known Use of Harmal Plant in Human History

Heritage Commission Reveals Oldest Known Use of Harmal Plant in Human History

A landmark scientific study published in the international "Communications Biology" journal revealed the earliest known use of the harmal plant (Peganum harmala), dating back around 2,700 years to the Iron Age, based on archaeological findings from the ancient settlement of Qurayyah in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Region, according to a Saudi Heritage Commission press release, SPA reported.
Conducted as part of a joint research effort by the Saudi Heritage Commission, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, and the University of Vienna in Austria, the study explores the therapeutic and social dimensions of ancient practices in the Arabian Peninsula, underscoring the Kingdom’s commitment to advancing scientific understanding of its cultural heritage.
Using high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), researchers performed advanced chemical analyses on organic residues preserved inside pottery incense burners. These analyses detected alkaloids from the harmal plant, providing physical evidence of its use in fumigation rituals for therapeutic purposes.
The harmal plant, also known locally as rue, is recognized for its antibacterial and healing properties. Its documented use at Qurayyah not only reflects early medicinal knowledge but also highlights the continuity of traditional practices in the region.
This discovery further underscores the longstanding cultural and therapeutic traditions of the Arabian Peninsula and demonstrates the Saudi Heritage Commission’s ongoing commitment to international research collaboration.
This research aligns with the broader goals of the Saudi Ministry of Culture to support pioneering initiatives that contribute to the global understanding of human history and to reframe the cultural legacy of the Arabian Peninsula through a modern scientific lens.