Baklava, with its delicate layers of filo pastry, crunchy nuts, and rich honey syrup, is a dessert that transcends borders. While it has long been cherished in Türkiye and across the globe, this sweet masterpiece has now captured the taste buds of many in India. But how did this Ottoman delicacy, with its centuries-old history, find its way into India's vibrant sweet culture?

The genesis of pre-Ottoman baklava has several origin theories, of which the most accepted one is centred around the confection practices of the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC. The Assyrian inhabitants of what is now Iraq, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, and Türkiye developed techniques for transforming fine unleavened flatbread into delicate layers filled with julienned nuts and honey.

Meanwhile, in Turkish, filo corresponds to "yufka" or "yurga," meaning pleated bread. The term yufka has been part of Turkic languages since at least the 11th century, as documented by Mahmud Kashgari, the renowned lexicographer and author of Diwan Lughat al-Turk, the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages.

Origins in Türkiye

The modern-day baklava that is so cherished is, of course, wholly Ottoman, rooted in the confectionary traditions of Türkiye, with its first recorded references dating to the 15th century.

As scholar and author Mary Isin observes in her book Sherbet and Spices The Complete Story of Turkish Sweets and Desserts, "Food played a central role in private and public life for the Ottomans, and sweet foods in particular were endowed with symbolic significance by people of every class and faith. No social event or public occasion, including birth, marriage, religious festivals and official ceremonies, was complete without the particular sweet foods associated with it."

Baklava was especially prominent during the sacred Islamic month of Ramadan, often made alongside güllaç and distributed as a gesture of goodwill. Isin further notes, "sweets were presented by the janissaries to the grand vizier and other state officials as a symbol of loyalty, while the........

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