What the thing is
Lokma is a fried dough dessert: small, golden-brown balls of yeast-leavened batter, soaked in honey or syrup, sometimes dusted with cinnamon.
The batter is thick and smooth, and rises to a very soft, foamy consistency. It is usually dropped into hot oil and fried golden brown, though some versions are doughnut-shaped. Traditionally the batter was leavened with yeast, while modern variations sometimes use baking powder.
Where it came from
It originated as luqmat al-qādi in the 13th-century Abbasid Caliphate, described by al-Baghdadi and recorded in contemporary cookery books.
The name gives the lineage away. The Arabic luqma means a morsel, mouthful or bite, and luqmat al-qādi means “judge’s morsels”. The Turkish name lokma and the Greek name loukoumádes are both derived from the Arabic. The 13th-century recipe was yeast-leavened dough cooked in oil and doused in honey or sugar syrup with rosewater, and the dish is mentioned in the One Thousand and One Nights. In the 14th century Ibn Battuta met it as luqaymat al-qadi at a dinner in Multan, where his hosts called it al-hashimi.
What it gets right
It preserves a core technique unchanged for over 700 years: yeast-leavened batter, deep-fried, soaked in honey or syrup.
In the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, lugaimat, sometimes spiced with cardamom or saffron, are little changed from the 13th-century recipes. Elsewhere in the Middle East the dish may be called awameh, meaning “floater”, or zalabya, a name that can also refer to a similar dish made in a long spiral or straight baton shape. In the Levant it is eaten at religious observances: by Muslims at Ramadan, Jews at Hanukkah and Christians at Epiphany.
What it gets wrong
It misattributes lineage when presented as purely Turkish or Greek—its documented origin is 13th-century Abbasid-era Arab cuisine.
Why it matters now
It reveals how culinary transmission works—not through rupture or reinvention, but slow migration, adaptation, and renaming across Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern national cuisines.
In Greece, loukoumádes are a mainstay of cooking, especially in the south, and a popular street food served with any combination of honey, cinnamon, walnuts and chocolate sauce. There is evidence they originated from enkrides, a dough fried in oil and eaten with honey in Ancient Greece. Enkrides appear in several ancient Greek texts, including works by Archestratus and Aristophanes, and Athenaeus describes them as “cakes boiled in oil” seasoned in honey. In the Byzantine era they were popular during Lent: made with only flour, yeast and water and sweetened with honey, they met the requirements of Orthodox fasting and were also popular in monasteries.
The names keep changing. The Romaniotes, or Greek Jews, call them zvingoi and make them as Hanukkah treats. Pontic Greeks call them tsirichta and serve them at weddings, and in Cypriot Greek they are loukoumádes and lokmádes. In Turkey, İzmir lokması are doughnut-shaped with a hole in the middle, the spherical kind is called the palace lokma (saray lokması), and in some regions lokma are eaten with cheese. Forty days after a death, relatives and friends traditionally cook large quantities of lokma for neighbours and passersby, who queue for a plate and recite a prayer for the deceased.
Is it worth your time
Yes—if you care about how food carries continuity across empires, not novelty.
