Decimo and Marsia THE COOK AND THE PASTRY MAKER
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Written by students from Paolo Borsellino School Mazara Class 2nd D Paolo Agrusa Wasim Alaya Giorgia Arone Giulia Castiglione Aya Chatti Antonio Davoli Marco Diliberti Laura Fanella Antonio Giacalone Gabriele Gianformaggio Sara Indelicato Giovanni La Paola Valentina Lamia Virna Molinari Alice Mondonuovo Salvatore Orofino Giada Parrinello Miriam Russo Ivan Sinacori Illustated by English teacher Rocco Spanò
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Contents Pag. 6
Decimo and his father
Pag. 7
Decimo in the country
Pag. 8
Decimo’s mother
Pag. 9
Decimo and Mohamed
Pag. 10
Decimo and Marsia in the kitchen
Pag. 11
The Muslims arrive in Sicily
Pag. 13
MAZARA TODAY
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THE COOK AND THE PASTRY MAKER
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MAZARA 827
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Decimo and his father
Decimo is 18. He lives in Mazar in St. Giovanni area, just in front of a Muslim family. He is very thin and tall. He likes wearing Arab clothes in fact his best friend is Mohamed. They spend a lot of time together. They like listening to medieval musical, playing chess and Marbles. They can stay together safely because they play in a courtyard where there are other boys playing the lute. Decimo gets up very early in the morning, he washes and he has breakfast and goes fishing with his father. They go fishing not far from Torretta because there are a lot of fish. They have lunch late in the morning.
In the afternoon they come back to the seaport and sell their fish in the fishing market. They usually fish sardines and mullets. People like their fish because they are fresh and they are not expansive. 6
Decimo in the country
When he doesn't go fishing he stays at home and helps his mother in the kitchen, because he likes cooking and he is very good at it. Sometime Decimo and his father go to the country and help his aunt. He has a big field with oranges, mandarins and lemons and they have a big field of wheat. They produce lots of products because they can pour water in the fields with the new Arab technique. They pull water from the qubbe and put it to the container and then to the plants.
But Decimo has a dream; he would like to be a cook. His father is tall and fat, he is 45 years old and he is a fisherman. He has a small fishing boat. He is a friendly man and he likes to play chess and Nine Men’s Morris with his best friend Akim. They stay together and speak about their religion. He earns a lot of money. He likes his work and he is proud of his son. 7
Decimo’s mother
His mother is housewife. She is very tall, and she is 43 years old. She spends a lot of time at home and in her free time she goes to the courtyard and meets some friends. Sometimes they sew new clothes and speak about how to cook some typical food. Amir has a sister her name’s Marsia. She is 16, she is fat and she likes cooking so she helps her mother at home. Marsia has the same dream like Amir. She would like to be a pastry chef. When it rains and when he doesn’t go fishing Decimo likes cooking and he is very innovative and creative.
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Decimo and Mohamed
Decimo and Mohamed play dice in the courtyard with other boys. They are playing just in front of Mohamed house where his mother Fatima is cooking cous-cous. Decimo says how nice the food smells and Mohamed invites him for lunch. Decimo and Mohamed go home and have lunch together. Decimo asks to Mrs. Fatima the recipe because the food is delicious and he really likes it. After lunch he goes home. Mrs. Fatima is surprised because the boy is very sensitive and innovative. She asks how he is cooking the food but Decimo does not answer because it is a surprise for them and a new way of cooking it. Therefore, after lunch he goes home and tells everything to his mother.
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Decimo and Marsia in the kitchen
Decimo arrives home and tells his mother about the couscous. His mother is surprised and tells him to start a new way of cooking it with all fish they have at home and suggests to have a party with all people near their house. He cooks also pasta with sardines. His sister starts making almonds sweets and makes a kind of cake with ricotta cheese and candies “Sicilian cake”. Marsia makes also “arancini” rice’s balls. She make delicious sweets. All people living near their house can smell their food.
So they have a big party in their courtyard 10
The Muslims arrive in Sicily
Asab ibn al-FurĂ first conquests Mazar in 827 and build the kasba in the old town centre. Seat of a powerful emirate thanks to the administrative capacity of Kaglebiti, Sicily becomes a rich and florid typically Muslim costume influences in language, culture and architectural constructions. They divide Sicily into three valleys (Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto.) The territory is controlled by a kind of lordships entrusted to "Kaid". The Arabs leave religious freedom by making them pay the "Gizia", an annual tribute to keep thriving businesses. The Arabs build the town of Mazara like an Arab town.
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They build the walls around the town to protect all people living inside and build a castle. There are a lot of alleys, courtyards and irregular streets. They divide the urban space in the private and public life. The city is divided into several neighborhoods, the rabat, which connects to shari, that is the city's main street. This road axis connects two gates of the city, namely Bab al wadì (Rivers’ door) with Bab al Balarm (Palermo’s door). From the street Bathroom departs the little streets of the residential neighborhoods of San Francesco and Giudecca, with a number of secondary roads very articulate, from which branch off blind alleys and courtyards that create labyrinthine paths. They build also a big Mosque where nowadays there is the Cathedral and the Minaret is under the Statue of St. Vito in Piazza Della Repubblica. They build also the Walls aroud the town to protect people and build a castle, nowadays there is only a Norman arch. The Arabs also begin an impressive work of agricultural exploitation of the territory in Sicily, through the construction of architectural works improve and retrain large arable land making them, in particular dealing with the cultivation of citrus, papyrus, wheat and cotton. Strong development transforms the city from the point of view, becoming a regular destination of the main cargo traffic in the Mediterranean, for this reason it is also boosted the city's port.
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MAZARA TODAY Lots North Africans, people from Kosovo and from Albania live in the old town center. If you visit the Kasbah you see them playing in the street.
There is a Tunisian school where they study for 6 years and then they go to Italian school.
There are also Places where they can play.
They have butchers. 13
They have also ceramics shops and some of them rebuilt their house like in Tunisia. There is also a Tunisian restaurant.
The town center tells about our past with ceramics on the walls.
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