North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) has been a Muslim-majority region for over 1,300 years, which makes the historical record on spirits there sparse. Nevertheless, in precolonial North Africa there were all the perquisites for a liquor culture. First, Islamic scientists, in particular al-Razi (854–925 ce), experimented with distillation and advanced the technology associated with it. Second, wine literature, which explored the many resonances of intoxication, was a significant part of the Arabic cultural tradition. Third, since pre-Islamic times, the region was well known for the quality of its grains and grapes. The earliest evidence of a possible liquor culture is found in the Christian and Jewish communities. There, especially among the Jewish communities, we find the production of a fig brandy, variably called mahia or bukha. This, if anything, can be called the native liquor of North Africa and what North Africans would drink aside from buza, a slightly fermented farina-like substance; arak; or wine. Consumption changed after the arrival of colonial powers, who brought their drinks and drinking patterns with them. After the 1800s, there was a proliferation in the variety of spirits, placing the region in line with the rest of the world. However, spirits were and remain a third choice behind beer and wine in North Africa. Nevertheless, even with a growing Islamic trend, there are consumers thirsty for the hard stuff. One need only to look at Libya, where alcohol has been banned since 1969 but where hundreds died and thousands more were hospitalized in 2013 due to a bad batch of bukha.
See distillation, history; mahia; and Middle East.
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By: Omar Foda