Jerusalem’s Sunday Special: Soup with a 500-Year-Old Recipe

Rana, a 34-year-old mother of three from Jerusalem’s al-Wad neighborhood, carries two buckets and a shopping bag full of empty Tupperware containers as she passes through a Mamluk-era gate on her daily journey to feed her family.

“This is where we receive food with dignity; this is where the generosity of the Holy City remains warm and always mixed with the city’s blessings,”1 Rana said, pointing to the Khaski Sultan, which is located in the heart of the Old City just a few meters from al-Aqsa Mosque. Popularly referred to as takiyya, or a public kitchen, Sultana Roxelana (wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent) established the space in 1552 mainly to provide free food, especially soup, for the poor. Until today, the kitchen continues to provide food every day to anyone who comes to pick up a daily dish, including dervishes, Murabitun, travelers, and those in need.

Rami Abdel Rahman, 46, from the Old City of Jerusalem, shared that the takiyya is considered an integral part of the city’s fabric and the general landscape of the Old City.2 Its fame rivals that of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and it is part of the cherished memories of many Jerusalemite children. “Everyone has known about the takiyya since they were young; it is part of our neighborhood, part of our childhood, and now part of our old age,” Rami said. “It is the pillar we can rely on, and it helps us live and continue to live in Jerusalem.”

Rami, like Rana, was one of the first people to arrive on Sunday to enjoy the kitchen’s famous soup, which is made from cracked wheat with broth and now only served on Sundays. Rana revealed that since she was a young girl, she used to accompany her mother to pick up the delicious soup, which almost every household in Jerusalem was keen to have.

Dr. Ali Qleibo, professor and researcher and an anthropologist who has written several books about Jerusalem, revealed that the “takiyya soup stirs emotions in the hearts of everyone who has lived in Jerusalem; the fragrance of the soup wafts out every morning, filling Wadi Street at its intersection, mingling with the scent of fresh sesame cookies from the oven down the street.”3

“The soup is a blessing. I remember that I used to take it especially to my grandmother in the Musrara neighborhood near the Old City, and my grandmother used to be happy with this soup, and she would add ghee, honey, and almonds to it. We would all enjoy a delicious breakfast,” Ali said. “It is difficult to explain the meaning of blessing and goodness, as their significance goes beyond the physical function of food and also includes this intangible surplus of things and people; we in Jerusalem believe greatly in blessing and goodness,” he added.

Ali, along with many other Palestinian Jerusalemite families, rejects the notion that the takiyya soup was and still is intended only for the city’s poor. “Most of the people of Jerusalem worked and were part of various organizations, khanqahs (religious Sufi institutions), and schools, and each family had its own food rations, including a specific number of bread loaves and meat quantity,” he said. “People were optimistic and felt reassured by this blessed food from religious institutions, which was part of their dues to the public.”

Umm Salim, a Palestinian Jerusalemite woman whose father and son both suffer from disabilities, told Jerusalem Story that her family has no other adult support and relies on the takiyya not only to support their lives but also on special occasions. “Once I told them that there was a graduation party for my son, and I wanted to make him a cake, and the next day, they made a cake for him. I felt like we had a family helping us, not a charity that felt sorry for us,”4 she said.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the takiyya is that during the Ottoman period, the Ottomans used numbers instead of names on the beneficiary list to preserve the privacy of the families who patronized it and to ensure fair distribution for everyone. When the Ottoman Empire ended and British forces rose into power and occupied Palestine, which destroyed everything beautiful in the city, the takiyya remained operational; however, during this time, it assisted in World War I.

Writer Azzam Abu al-Saud explained that during the years of World War I, poor people in Jerusalem went to the takiyya each day to receive soup. There was no discrimination in serving soup between Muslim and Christian families, and the line extended from Bab al-Nazir (now Bab al-Majlis at the entrance of al-Aqsa Mosque) to the kitchen. “Hunger was widespread during this period, and the takiyya provided Jerusalemites with food to keep them alive. In fact, many families ate nothing more than the kitchen’s soup, which was distributed daily free of charge to everyone who entered the gate,”5 Azzam told Jerusalem Story.

Today, Bassam Abu Libdeh is the director of the Takiyya Khaski Sultan, which is managed by the Waqf Department of the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. The Jerusalem Waqf Council pays the salaries and covers the cost, as it has since the kitchen opened its doors hundreds of years ago to serve the poor.

“I am happy when I provide food to the people of Jerusalem and the guests of al-Aqsa Mosque, and I am even happier when I see the smile mixed with a kind of shyness on the faces of the children as they receive the food,”6 Bassam said. “We, the people of Jerusalem, like to be charitable and welcoming to all those in need,” he added.

“These days, we are providing food to more than 200 registered [Palestinian] Jerusalemite families. This number has increased in the past years due to the difficult economic conditions in Jerusalem, which forced many of the city’s residents to come to us to get their daily food needs, and thank God we have large quantities of food to feed everyone,” Bassam said. Israel’s genocide in Gaza has negatively impacted Jerusalem’s economy. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), by the end of May 2024, 87.2 percent of households in the West Bank had reported a decrease in income, and about 80 percent of businesses in the Old City ceased operations.7

As for the soup, the number of meals that the takiyya provides is even larger, because there are people who come only on Sundays to eat the soup. They do so “to continue the family heritage and commemorate their grandfathers and fathers in eating this soup, which they say has a blessing, and we are confident that it has a blessing,” Bassam said.

“These are the same ingredients that were used 500 years ago; the heart of Jerusalem is open to everyone, and so is the takiyya,” Bassam added.