Lahmacun

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The name had entered English from Turkish lahmacun, pronounced lahmajun, and from Armenian Լահմաջո (lahmajo), both derived from Arabic لحم [بـ]عجين (laḥm [bi-]ʿajīn), meaning "dough [with] meat".^[16][17][9] The names lahmajin and sfiha are often used interchangeably to refer to certain foods.^[18][19][20]

Flatbreads in the Middle East have been cooked in tandoors and on metal frying pans such as the tava for thousands of years.^[17] They have been used to wrap meat and other foods for convenience and portability. However, until the wider adoption in medieval times of the large stone ovens, flatbreads stuffed or topped with meat and other foods were not baked together, cooking the bread and the topping at the same time.^[17][9]

A 13th-century Syrian cookbook compiled in Aleppo, Kitāb al-Wusla ilā al-Ḥabīb (Scents and Flavors), contains a recipe describing minced meat spread on thin dough and baked in a brick oven (furn).^[21] It instructs to “cut up meat small, then spread it on a round piece of dough and bake it in the oven.” This recipe is identified by scholars as the earliest textual reference to laḥm bi ʿajīn (“meat with dough”).^{[22][23][24][25]}

The Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi also notices the dish for the first time in Syria, Damascus, he listed lahm-ı acîn among the notable foods of Damascus.^[26] This Ottoman reference records the name of the dish in a Syrian context several centuries after the earlier Aleppine cookbook tradition.^[27] He listed it among the praised foods of the city in his Seyahatname.^[28][29][30]

A variety of such dishes exist such as sfiha and manakish, became popular in Levant , such as Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria. A thin flatbread, topped with spiced ground meat, became known as lahm b'ajin (meat with dough), shortened to lahmajin and similar names.^[17][9]

An 1844 French–Arabic dictionary of Syrian and Egyptian Arabic by the Swedish orientalist Jacob Berggren [sv] defines lahm el-ʿajin (لحم العجين) as small baked pastries filled with minced meat, and mixed with sour milk or pomegranate juice before being cooked in an oven.^[31] 2 recipes for lahma bi-ajin can be found in the 1885 cookbook titled Ustadh al-Tabbakhin by Lebanese writer Khalil Khattar Sarkis [ar], along with a recipe for meat-filled fatayer.^[32]

According to Ayfer Bartu, lahmacun was not known in Istanbul until the mid-20th century.^[33] Bartu says that before the dish became widespread in Turkey after the 1950s, it was found in Arab countries and the southern regions of Turkey, around Urfa and Gaziantep.^[1] In 2025, the European Union officially registered the lahmacun of Gaziantep as a protected geographical indication.^[34][35]

In Assyrian tradition, lahmacun is served to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, alongside Turkish coffee and other dishes.^[36] In Mosul, Iraq, lahmajin is a common food served at any time of day.^[37]

In The Netherlands lahmacun is often sold as a street food or snack, often under the name Turkish pizza. The lahmacun is rolled up and filled with salad, sambal and garlic sauce, often with added döner meat and/or cheese.^[38]

Due to the hostile nature of the relations between Armenia and Turkey, the opening of Armenian restaurants serving the food in Russia was met by some protests.^[2][43] In March 2020, Kim Kardashian, an American socialite and media personality of Armenian heritage, posted a video on her Instagram saying "Who knows about lahmacun? This is our Armenian pizza. My dad would always put string cheese on it and then put it in the oven and get it really crispy." This sparked outrage among Turkish social media users, who lashed out at her for describing lahmacun as Armenian pizza.^[44]

• Sfiha
• Pizza marinara
• Al-Maltout