Murashsham — the Stamped Bread of the Hauran

The stamped bread of the Hauran. It is shaped by pressing the dough into a carved wooden mould, and it leaves the oven as a disc covered in circles and figures. In Suwayda and Daraa it is baked not only for the two Eids but for weddings and births, which is why it is also called the discs of the feast.

Where the name comes from

Straight from the mould. In Arabic rashm is a carved wooden plate. What gives the bread its name is not what goes into it but the mark pressed onto it. Moulds differ from house to house, and one family’s carving does not match another’s, so the stamp reads like a signature.

What goes into it

Brown flour, sugar, clarified butter, olive oil, milk and yeast. The smell comes from anise and mahlab, and you recognise the bread while the dough is being worked rather than when it is in the oven. The dough proves for 4-6 hours, then it is pressed into the mould and baked on a saj or in an oven. The disc is thin, so two or three minutes at 230-250 degrees is enough.

The older story behind the mould

Stamped bread in the Hauran is older than the feast days it now marks. Old moulds were carved with a sun disc or with the face of the person who had died; the bread was handed out at funerals and left at the temple as an offering. In the National Museum in Damascus there is a bread stamp excavated in northern Syria and dated to AD 650-750 — the same gesture of the hand, thirteen centuries back.

Where to find it now

It used to be made only at home. Today it is sold in shops in Suwayda, and in feast week it sits in the most visible place on the counter. For the rest of the year it is baked to order, so turning up and finding it ready is not guaranteed; ask the bakery in advance.