The similarity in cooking and diet across the lands of Islam can be attributed to trade, migration, Islamic food prohibitions and preferences, and the dissemination of important crops; the differences that emerged among regions may be explained by local conditions and tastes. Nearness to mountains, sea, river, desert, grassland, or forest might determine what could be caught, grown, and raised. Proximity to cosmopolitan trade and invasion routes brought enormous variety to the cooking of the eastern Mediterranean and the Central Asian Silk Road, while lands where tropical fruits, vegetables, and spices grow had a different kind of variety in their diet. Remote or less-fertile regions had a more limited range of ingredients to work with, and in most places families with lesser means had to be content with simple fare. The following is a sampling of dishes from various regions taken...