Kan Ya Ma Kan: Folktales & Recipes of Syria and Its Ethnic Groups

With the terrible civil war raging in Syria, one of Muna Imady's biggest fears was that her country’s unique culture would suffer. In particular, she worried that the oral tradition of storytelling, and even the ancient stories themselves, would be lost.

The result of her quest to preserve them is this book of folk tales and traditional recipes from diverse regions of Syria, handed down through generations, painstakingly collected in numerous interviews and charmingly retold here. 

The first section of the book has folktales and recipes from the various districts of Syria and the second section is folktales from the different ethnic groups in Syria: the Armenians, the Assyrians, the Kurds, the Albanians, the Circassians and other people from the Caucasus, the Turkmens, and the Uzbeks.