Burchak

Abstract

The paper treats the year-long plant (Lat. Lathyrus) from the family of legumes, which according to the relevant Turkish sentences, is eaten by cattle. In Ottoman official registers (defters) it was listed in the feudal taxes of reaya, and it is translated as gra(h)or, gra(h)orica, gra(h)orovina, kukolj, urov. The Agricultural Encyclopedia discerns grahor from grahorica saying that there are many kinds of these. Is it a fodder plant or is it a legume used in the human diet? Starting from the fact that in a few Ottoman kanunnamas the tax (ushur) from gra(h)or or urov was mentioned (it was calculated in luknos, kilos and loads, or in akčas, and it was often listed together with other edible legumes), we are prone to presume that it was used then in the human diet, and we know that it is eaten in some East Asian countries even today. There is a local derivative from burchak – prchak (prchak beans is a wild pea). This legume found its place in the oral medicine from the earliest times.