Hellim is by far one of the most well-known and loved cheeses in the world, up there with the ranks of cheddar, mozzarella and camembert. It is also, unbeknownst to many, an intangible cultural heritage of the Turkish Cypriots, native to their balmy sunny island of Cyprus. But where exactly did Hellim come to the island from? And when?
By Mustafa Niyazi
These are key questions that ought to be looked into, and we already have multiple candidates here – Roman, Greek, Turkish and Egyptian – and all of them are substantiated to varying degrees through popular discourse.
If you ask the Greeks, most would tell you it‘s a Greek cultural heritage passed from the Byzantines (Romans) to Cyprus.
If you ask the Turks, some would say it passed from the Arabs to the Romans, and from the Romans to the Turks… others would say it passed from the Arabs to both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
But one thing is abundantly clear: no one can agree on who made it first, or how it came to be on the island to begin with, only, everyone across the board can atleast concede it is an intangible cultural heritage of both parties to the island, the Turks and the Greeks.
Taking some of these cases as our starting point this particular study will look at the history of cheesemaking in the region, as well as the etymology of hellim, as all these offer us clues into where hellim really came from.
And though we can concede that it is useful to look at hellim through these different lenses and draw conclusions based on such research, we will try to do so without digressing to explain the entire history of the Eastern Roman Empire, also commonly referred to as the Byzantine Empire, its posthumously granted moniker…(1) or of Egypt, who was at the time ruled by the Mamluk Turks…
With that in mind, first we will pick a particular point from which to begin unravelling the origins of hellim, and what better one for us to choose than what is perhaps the most popularised assertion especially in Greek or “Hellenic” circles: “hellim dates back to the Byzantine period (395-1191 A.D.)”
And as we look at this first example we will also start talking about the history of the cheesemaking process.
The reasoning for that will become clear.
“It is impossible to associate the existence or knowledge of hellim or the hellim making process with the Byzantines”
HISTORY OF CHEESEMAKING
Though there is no conclusive evidence indicating where cheese-making originated, and Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Sahara have all been noted as possible places of origin, the production of cheese itself predates recorded history, beginning well over 7,000 years ago,(2)(3)(4) and has most certainly existed on Cyprus too.
However, just as it is impossible to try and associate the existence or knowledge of cheesemaking with an exact location of origin, it is also impossible to try and associate the existence or knowledge of hellim or the method of hellim making with the Byzantine Empire, or the period of history in which the Byzantines existed, or anywhere under Byzantine suzerainty or influence for that matter, especially when other cheeses are known to have been documented throughout their empire but not hellim.(5)
This then leads us to seek out the earliest known descriptions of hellim to figure out why, and we quickly discover they were actually first recorded in the mid-16th century by Italian visitors to Cyprus,(6)(7) when the island was under Venetian suzerainty, and following a period of joint Frankish-Mamluk (Turkish) suzerainty, all to the backdrop of the strong presence of Turkish influence, culture and customs on the island and in the region in general. This is where hellim originated.(8) Mid-16th century Cyprus, NOT the Byzantine empire.
Now although this isn’t some definitive dead-end to the claim, what this tells us is the following:
We can attribute the origin of hellim to Cyprus.
We cannot attribute the origin of hellim to Cyprus during the Byzantine period, and especially where other cheeses were documented during the Byzantine period but not hellim.
We can attribute the origin of hellim to mid-16th century Cyprus, long after the Byzantine Empire had already ceased to exist, and to the backdrop of the strong presence of Turkish influence, culture and customs.
We can attribute the first known recording of hellim to Cyprus under then-Venetian-but-soon-to-be-Ottoman (Turkish) rule.
We can attribute the first known recording of hellim to Cyprus during the purveyance of Venetian (Latin/Catholic) and/or to a lesser extent Ottoman (Turkish) culture and customs on the island.
We cannot attribute the first known recording of hellim to Cyprus during the purveyance of Byzantine (Greek/Orthodox) culture and customs on the island.
But this is just by looking at where and when and under what backdrop a cheese known as hellim was first mentioned.
That cannot by itself be an end-all to the discussion of where hellim came from and when, but it does give us another hook, that is, we can also start to think what more insights could be gained by looking at the history of the word itself.
So what can the etymological origin of the word contribute to this study?
“Hellim is likely of Medieval Egyptian origin”
ETYMOLOGY OF HELLIM
The etymology of the word also offers us a great insight as to the possible cultural origins of hellim, as well as the purveyance of certain culture and languages on Cyprus.
The English name for hellim, “halloumi”, is derived from the Modern Greek “χαλλούμι” of almost identical pronunciation.
Several scholars and food historians argue the etymology of the Modern Greek word “halloumi” is from the ancient Coptic “ialom” or “hallum” — meaning “cheese”. This suggests it could actually be Egyptian in origin.(9)(10)(11)(12)
Some argue it may be derived from the Greek word “almi” — meaning salty water.(13) This is consistent with the fact that a salty brine accompanies the cheese and adds to its better preservation, and is also applied to the argument that the cheese is a Byzantine (Roman/“Greek”) creation, although, this again is easily contested by the fact this is itself ultimately from the ancient Coptic “ialom” or “hallum”, once more suggesting an Egyptian origin.
But if we were to track the etymology starting with English, we can derive the following facts:
The English name “halloumi” is derived from Modern Greek: “χαλλούμι” [xaˈlumi], “halloumi” which itself is from Cypriot Maronite Arabic “xallúm”, “hallum”,(14) which is ultimately from Egyptian Arabic: “حلوم” “ḥallūm” [ħalˈluːm],(14) which is itself a loanword from the ancient Coptic “ϩⲁⲗⲱⲙ” “halom” (Sahidic) and “ⲁⲗⲱⲙ” “alom” (Bohairic) “cheese”, referring to a cheese that was in fact produced and eaten in medieval Egypt.
So what does this tell us?
“Hellim itself may very well be considered a Mamluk (Turkic) import”
SIGNIFICANCE OF EGYPT – THE TURKIC CONNECTION
From this we could further research, derive and concede the following:
1. The etymology is of medieval Egyptian origin.
2. The etymology of hellim is actually not a very unique or creative choice in that it simply means “cheese”
3. The etymological origin word for hellim – “hallum”/“halom”/“ialom”/“alom” – was also used to refer to a brine-based cheese – much like hellim – that was produced and consumed in medieval Egypt.(15)
This then gives us a subject (brine-based cheesemaking), time frame and place (medieval Egypt) to examine further, upon which we can discover:
4. The island of Cyprus saw the purveyance of medieval Egyptian culture and customs – particularly the language – when hellim came to be, and to which the origin of the term “hellim” is attested.
5. Considering point 4, that also opens up the possibility that beyond just Coptic or Egyptian Arabic, other medieval Egyptian culture and customs may have also purveyed on the island of Cyprus
6. Considering points 4 and 5, and noting that: a) the first mentions of hellim are attested to the mid-16th century, and b) we can isolate and give particular attention to that period and the etymological source: medieval Egypt, or rather, when the Turkic/Circassian Mamluks were sovereign in Egypt,(16) and especially where they had joint suzerainty of Cyprus after conquering and subjugating it to the status of a tributary state, this then opens up the real possibility of the etymological origin of hellim being attested to a period where hellim’s place of etymological origin (Egypt) – including Cyprus itself to a certain extent – saw the purveyance of Turkic culture and customs, or to put it another way, the etymological origin of “hellim” can be attested to the dominions of the Mamluk Turks, meaning that hellim may also very well be considered a Turkic import.
And finally:
7. If we take point 3 seriously and have a solid look at the history of cheesemaking in medieval Egypt, particularly, cheeses referred to as simply “hallum” and/or going through the same method of production and use i.e. being washed/salted in brine, we can quickly discover that one particular medieval Egyptian cheese was Kaysi cheese, made from the milk of Khaysiyya cows of Damietta.
Kaysi cheese was mentioned as early as the 11th century A.D., and a 15th century author describes the cheese being washed, which may imply that it was salted in brine, much like hellim.
The fact that this cheese, which is almost identical to hellim especially in terms of production method, existed in hellim’s place of etymological origin and before Cyprus saw the purveyance or at least exchange of culture and customs from Egypt to the extent where hellim would have made its way there, this may therefore have been a very likely ancestor of our modern day hellim.(15)
Holy MILK BATMAN!!!
METHODS OF PRODUCTION
There are a number of noticeable differences between hellim and halum, of course, most notably perhaps in that the former traditionally uses sheep or goat milk, not cow milk, and that this too has a simple answer to it: medieval Egyptian cheeses mostly tended to use buffalo or cows’ milk, with less use of goat and sheep milk than in other places in the region.(15) And this is still a fact today, although the traditional method of basing hellim production on goat or sheep milk has been picked up by places such as the U.K. but abandoned by Cyprus in favour of cow’s milk.(9)
Also, though the modern production of hellim does include cow’s milk, which is cheaper and more abundant, and is not unique to Cyprus, there are still a number of noticeable differences between the production, storing, and consumption of what we generally refer to as hellim and the equivalent produced in modern day Egypt today, which differs slightly from the description of what we are purporting to be a likely predecessor for hellim.
Needless to say, bringing us back to the point that hellim is purported to be a Byzantine cheese, the effect being to also argue the similarly flawed argument that this somehow implies hellim has a “Greek” origin, simply doesn’t stand up.
Indeed, based on the above, and contrary to strenuously feigning the impossible, that is, to paint hellim as a “Greek” product of Byzantine origin, I would instead suggest that based on the known history of cheesemaking, the mentions of hellim, the etymology and geographical-cultural source and other data, it is much more likely to be of either neo-Roman or Egyptian or Turkic origin, particularly if it were the latter, I would argue that much like strained yoghurt, which is often marketed as “Greek yoghurt”, it may very well be yet another cultural import and/or reappropriation in the region of Turkic origin.
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
It is also worth noting at this point that we have thus far discounted weighing in a number of factors so as to avoid getting embroiled in writing a wall of text about the history of the Byzantines or Mamluks.
That also meant we didn’t go into detail about the fact that the Mamluk Turks had a presence on Cyprus from as early as the 15th century, and had conquered the island in 1426, and that the Ottoman Turks had been documented as living there as early as the 1400s, mostly after being taken there by Cypriot pirates returning to the island from raids in Asia Minor, and other Turkic denominations had also been recorded as being there as early as the 10th-11th centuries if not earlier, many of them in positions of influence as owners or protectorates of land, so much so that their numbers were so great on the island in the Frankish period that led to the Venetian period that they were periodically culled to prevent them from becoming a threat…
But even discounting that and simply considering all of the above, and combining that with the knowledge that the Turks had long been known for the production of dairy products such as yoghurts and cheeses, and especially that the origins of cheesemaking have been attested to their ancestors or atleast to the regions from which they arrived in western Asia and eastern Europe, by various scholars, it wouldn’t be very farfetched to put all of this together with the above and argue that there may be even the slightest possibility that hellim production on the island may be attested to them directly.
I suggest more research is done into the history of cheesemaking on Cyprus as well as how it may have spread and developed there, particularly, the history of cheesemaking in Mamluk Egypt and other dominions of the Turks and how that may have spread to or influenced cheesemaking on Cyprus.
But for now, this is what we know:
- Place of Origin = Cyprus
- First Documented = Venetian Cyprus
- Etymological Origin = Medieval Egypt
- Possible Predecessor = Medieval Egyptian cheeses
- Medieval Egypt = Mamluk Turkish Sultanate
- 16th Century Demographics of Cyprus = Included the Mamluk Turks, Ottoman Turks and other Turkic denominations
Extra Info About Cheese
- The first cheese may have been made by people in the Middle East or by nomadic Turkic tribes in Central Asia. Since animal skins and inflated internal organs have, since ancient times, provided storage vessels for a range of foodstuffs, it is probable that the process of cheese making was discovered accidentally by storing milk in a container made from the stomach of an animal, resulting in the milk being turned to curd and whey by the rennet from the stomach.
- There is a widely-told legend about the discovery of cheese by an Arab trader who used this method of storing milk.
- According to Pliny the Elder, cheesemaking had become a sophisticated enterprise by the time the Roman Empire came into being.
- The earliest archaeological evidence of cheesemaking has been found in Egyptian tomb murals, dating to about 2000 BCE.
- According to ancient Greek mythology, Aristaeus, the cyclops of Homer’s Odyssey (8th century BCE) can be accredited with the Greeks’ discovery of cheese, as the book describes the mythological being making and storing sheep’s and goats’ milk cheese.
- Columella’s De Re Rustica (circa 65 CE) details a cheesemaking process involving rennet coagulation, pressing of the curd, salting, and aging.
- Pliny’s Natural History (77 CE) devotes a chapter (XI, 97) to describing the diversity of cheeses enjoyed by Romans of the early Empire.
- Rome spread a uniform set of cheesemaking techniques throughout much of Europe, and introduced cheesemaking to areas without a previous history of it.
- Many of the cheeses we know best today were first recorded in the late Middle Ages or after… cheeses such as cheddar around 1500 CE, Parmesan in 1597, Gouda in 1697, and Camembert in 1791.
- In 1546, John Heywood wrote in Proverbes that “the moon is made of a greene cheese.”
- The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland in 1815.
Bibliography
(1) It only saw the purveyance of Orthodox culture and customs (following the Schism of 1054), and the Greek language which the religion held onto, but it was not dominated/ruled/governed/led by the Greeks. Even the term “Byzantine Empire” itself is a term created after the end of the realm; it was otherwise known as the Eastern Roman Empire; its citizens referred to their empire simply as the Roman Empire (Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων, tr. Basileia Rhōmaiōn; Latin: Imperium Romanum), or Romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as “Romans”. Similarly, the Turks used the term “Rum” to refer to their Roman neighbours, as well as to their remnants after the Ottoman conquest of the region, and this continues to be used in reference to the modern Greeks today. (Also See: Kazhdan, Aleksandr Petrovich; Epstein, Ann Wharton (1985). Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05129-4)
(2) McClure, Sarah B.; Magill, Clayton; Podrug, Emil; Moore, Andrew M. T.; Harper, Thomas K.; Culleton, Brendan J.; Kennett, Douglas J.; Freeman, Katherine H. (5 September 2018). “Fatty acid specific δ13C values reveal earliest Mediterranean cheese production 7,200 years ago“. PLOS ONE. 13 (9): e0202807. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202807. PMC 6124750. PMID 30183735.
(3) Pennsylvania State University. Evidence of 7,200-year-old cheese making found on the Dalmatian Coast. 5 September 2018.
(4) Maya Wei-Haas. Hints of 7,200-Year-Old Cheese Create a Scientific Stink. National Geographic. 5 September 2018.
(5) Goldstein, Darra – Merkle, Kathrin – Parasecoli, Fabio – Mennell, Stephen – Council of Europe (2005). Culinary cultures of Europe: identity, diversity and dialogue. Council of Europe. p. 121. ISBN 92-871-5744-8. Note: the methods of making cheeses such as hellim and feta are purported to have originated sometime in the Medieval Byzantine period, but this doesn’t stand up to scrutiny when it doesn’t differentiate between associating the method of production with the actual cheese, and when although feta cheese in particular is recorded to have existed during the Byzantine period under the name prósphatos (Greek: πρόσφατος ‘recent’ or ‘fresh’), hellim was not, but was instead first recorded in the mid-16th century long after the Byzantines had already ceased to exist.
(6) P. Papademas, “Halloumi Cheese”, p. 117ff, in Adnan Tamime, ed., Brined Cheeses in the Society of Dairy Technology series, Blackwell 2006, ISBN 1-4051-2460-1
(7) Patapiou, Nasa (2006). “Leonardo Donà in Cyprus – A future Doge in the Karpass Peninsula (1557)” (PDF). Cyprus Today. Press and Information Office, Ministry of Interior, Nicosia, Cyprus. p. 8.
(8) Robinson, R. K. – Tamime, A. Y. (1991). Feta and Related Cheeses. Woodhead Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 1-85573-278-5. “(Hellim) is a semi-hard to hard, unripened cheese that, traditionally, is made from either sheep’s milk or goat’s milk or a mixture of the two… the cheese has its origins in Cyprus…”
(9) Jean Christou. Cyprus Produced Halloumi Inferior and Industrial UK Cheesemakers Say. Cyprus Mail. 08 November 2015.
(10) Oxford Dictionary: “halloumi. Origin: Egyptian Arabic ḥalūm, probably from Arabic ḥaluma “to be mild”.
(11) Collins Dictionary: “halloumi | haloumi. Origin: probably from Arabic haluma be mild.
(12) Halloumi. Wikipedia.
(13) Wiktionary. “halloumi | halloumis [plural] Origin: Greek χαλλούμι, derived from the Greek word “almi” – salty water. The name probably linked with the salty brine which accompanies the cheese and adds to its better preservation. Although may also be from Coptic ialom.”
(14) Borg, Alexander (2004). A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic-English): With an Introductory Essay. Brill. pp. 11, 209–210. ISBN 9789004131989.
(15) Egyptian cheese. Wikipedia. “According to the medieval philosopher Al-Isra’ili, in his day there were three types of cheese: “a moist fresh cheese which was consumed on the same day or close to it; there was an old dry cheese; and there was a medium one in between.” The first would have been unripened cheese made locally from sour milk, which may or may not have been salted. The old dry cheeses would have often been imported,(Note: Cheese was also imported, and the common hard yellow cheese, rumi takes its name from the Arabic word for “Roman”. Also, in the 3rd century BC there are records of imported cheese from the Greek island of Chios, with a twenty-five percent import tax being charged. See: Kindstedt 2012, p. 74) and were cheeses ripened by rennet enzymes or bacteria.(See: Lewicka 2011, p. 230) The nature of the “medium” cheese is less certain, and may have referred to preserved fresh cheeses, evaporated milk or cheese similar to Indian paneer, where the addition of vegetable juices makes the milk coagulate.(See: Lewicka 2011, p. 231)”
(16) The Mamluk Sultanate was a medieval Turkic realm spanning Egypt, the Levant, and Hejaz. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty in 1250 until the Ottoman conquest in 1517. Its capital was Cairo. Prior to establishing the sultanate, in 1426, Mamluk soldiers conquered the island of Cyprus, then the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus, where Europeans had been growing sugar with the work of African slaves, and they made it a tributary state. Cyprus continued paying tribute to the Mamluks even through Venetian rule. In 1440, they attacked Rhodes, but they could not take it. By 1517, the Ottomans defeated the Mamluks and took over their empire. The word Mamluk means ‘owned’ and the Mamluks were not native to Egypt but were always slave soldiers, mainly Qipchak Turks from Central Asia. The Bahri Mamluks (1250–1382) were mainly natives of southern Russia and the Burgi (1382–1517) comprised chiefly of Circassians from the Caucasus. As steppe people, they had more in common with the Mongols than with the peoples of Syria and Egypt among whom they lived. And they kept their garrisons distinct, not mixing with the populace in the territories. The contemporary Arab historian Abu Shama noted after the Mamluk victory over the Mongols at Ayn Jalut in 1260 that, ‘the people of the steppe had been destroyed by the people of the steppe’. One of the many official names of Mamluk dynasty was dawlat al-atrak/dawlat al-turk/al-dawla al-turkiyya that meant “The state of the Turks”. Another official name was dawlat al-jarakisa that meant “the period of the Circassians”. See: James Waterson. Who Were the Mamluks?. History Today. 5 September 2018; Mamluk Sultanate. Wikipedia; Mamluks. Medieval Chronicles.
