A tajine or tagine () is a North African dish, named after the earthenware pot in which it is cooked. It is also called or . Etymology The Arabic () is derived from the Berber 'shallow earthen pot', from Ancient Greek () 'frying-pan, saucepan'. Origin According to Rebecca Jones, in the 1990s, the late Dr Vivien Swan identified pottery from various sites on Scotland's Antonine Wall, built by the Numidian governor of Roman Britain, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, of a north African style, one being a casserole dish that may have been a precursor to the modern tajine. Fragments of tajines have also been identified among Numidian ceramics in modern-day Tunisia. According to some sources, the history of tagine dates back to the time of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph. The concept of cooking in a tajine appears in the famous One Thousand and One Nights, an Arabic-language story collection from the 9th century. Today, the cooking pot and its traditional broth are primarily prepared in the Middle East and North Africa. There are different ways to prepare the tajine. In the original qidra style, (clarified butter) is used to lubricate the surface and a puree of chopped onion is added for flavour and aroma. For -style cooking, the ingredients are placed in olive oil to enrich the flavours. According to the historian of Jewish food Gil Marks, the unique two-piece cooking vessel made from red clay called tajine originates from Morocco (Anti-Atlas Mountains). There are many descriptions of how to prepare a tajine from Arab scholars. A famous description is the one from ibn al-Adim (1192–1262): Pottery The traditional tajine pottery, sometimes painted or glazed, consists of two parts: a circular base unit that is flat with low sides and a large cone- or dome-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking. The cover is designed to return all condensation to the bottom. That process can be improved by adding cold water into the specially designed well at the top of the lid. Tajine is traditionally cooked over hot charcoal leaving an adequate space between the coals and the tajine pot to avoid having the temperature rise too quickly. Large bricks of charcoal are used, specifically for their ability to stay hot for hours. Other methods are to use a tajine in a slow oven or on a gas or electric stove top, on the lowest heat necessary