Arab cuisine collectively refers to the regional culinary traditions of the Arab world, consisting of the Maghreb (the west) and the Mashriq (the east). These cuisines are centuries-old and reflect the culture of trading in ingredients, spices, herbs, and commodities among the Arabs. The regions have many similarities, but also unique traditions. They have also been influenced by climate, cultivation, and mutual commerce.

Medieval Arab writers from the 9th to the 16th centuries wrote numerous cookbooks documenting nearly 4,500 recipes from the Arab world, spanning regions like Al-Andalus, Egypt, Syria, the Maghreb, and Iraq.

The white bread barazidhaj was made with high-quality wheat flour, similar to raqaq bread but thicker; the fermented dough was leavened usually with yeast and "baker's borax" (buraq) and baked in a tandoor. One poetic verse describing this bread:

"In the farthest end of Karkh of Baghdad, a baker I saw offering bread, wondrous fair.
From purest essence of wheat contrived. Radiant and absolute, you may see your image reflected, crystal clear.
Barazij rounds glowing with lovely whiteness, more playful than gorgeous singing girls,
They look like crystal trays, and were they indeed so, they would have served us as plates.

Raqaq bread was made in two varieties, labiq (soft, thin flatbreads) and jarmazaj (dry, thin bread flavored with tamarisk seeds).

Numerous recipes for sauces (sibagh) have survived from historic Arabic cookbooks. The 10th-century Kitab al-Tabikh written by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq gives several recipes to be served with roasted fish, attributed to various sources.

To Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi are credited two sibagh recipes, one prepared by adding rue, caraway, thyme, asafetida and cassia to the mustard sauce, and another made by mashing vinegar-soaked raisins with garlic, walnut, mustard, vinegar, and seasonings like asafetida and anise.

From the seventh Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun's recipe collection comes a sibagh made with whey, walnut, garlic, olive oil and murri.