İmam bayıldı[1][2] (literally: "the imam fainted")[3] is a dish in Ottoman cuisine consisting of whole aubergine stuffed with onion, garlic and tomatoes, and simmered in olive oil. It is a zeytinyağlı (olive oil-based) dish and is found in most of the former Ottoman regions. The dish is served at room temperature or warm.[4][5]
The name supposedly derives from a tale of a Turkish imam who, for one reason or another, lost consciousness over the dish. In one version it is said that he swooned with pleasure at the flavour when his wife presented him with this dish, although other more humorous accounts suggest that he fainted upon hearing the cost of the ingredients or the amount of oil used to prepare it.[6] Another version claims he ate so much of it that he passed out.
Another folk tale relates that the imam married the daughter of an olive oil merchant. Her dowry consisted of twelve jars of the finest olive oil, with which she prepared an aubergine dish with tomatoes and onions each evening until she had used all the oil, so she could not serve the dish on the thirteenth day. In response, the imam fainted.[7]
Imam bayildi is also well-known under minor variants of the Turkish name in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, southern part of Romania (Brăila, Constanța etc), Greece (ιμάμ μπαϊλντίimám baildí),[8]Albania and Kosovo (imam ballajdi), Armenia, and the Arab world (إمام بايلدي, imām bāyuldi),[9] and in English as "Imam bayeldi". During Ottoman times, the dish also spread to Anatolia's Pontian minority; in their language, it's called imam-bayildin.[10]
