al-majus

Or rather on Persian halvah. Halvah is a confection of Persian origin with an Arabic name (Arabic root ح ل و or ḥ-l-w, meaning “sweet”) with varieties that stretch from Northern and Eastern Africa up to Eastern Europe and the Balkans, down all the way through West, Central and South Asia.

Persian halvah is a paste made from wheat flour, sugar, oil or butter, and the chef’s preference of any combination of saffron, cardamom and rosewater. It holds profound spiritual and religious significance in Iran and is not to be eaten willy-nilly. In our family it was only made after a death or on certain religious occasions, such as Muharram.

My mother was strictly forbidden from preparing halvah. It happened a few times that, as a young woman, she would randomly crave it out of a bright blue day; a relentless desire that she later compared to the cravings she experienced during pregnancy. She’d whip up a perfect batch, stuff her face (eyes closed), only to wake up the next morning and be given the news that someone or other in the family had popped off again.

Other activities that were verboten to her included: purchasing or wearing black clothing (unless a death had already taken place); knitting or crocheting with black yarn; embroidery with black thread; any sort of sewing or handling of black textiles.

The irony is that despite (mostly) honouring these regulations, my mother still saw Death. The person who was about to cross over would appear in her dreams, quietly packing up their belongings in large bundles, or being led away by a beloved who had already passed. When I was older, she would tell me of these dreams, sometimes genuinely afraid, drinking her morning tea with a distant look in her deep-set eyes. And then the news would somehow reach us…”No doubt about it, so-and-so had suddenly died in the night, family are devastated.”

written by Alaleh Mohajerani

first published on Substack on June 26th, 2026