Hospitality and the dastarkhan

‘A guest ranks above your father’: in a Samarkand home the guest takes the seat of honour, and bread, tea, sweets and hot dishes reach the dastarkhan in turn.

To the seat of honour

Receiving a guest is an honour in an Uzbek home; as the proverb has it, ‘a guest ranks above your father’. The host meets visitors at the door and seats them at the toʻr, the place furthest from the entrance and the most honoured. The dastarkhan — a cloth spread on the floor or over a low table — is never left bare: first come bread, tea, raisins, nuts, halva and fruit, then soup, and only at the end plov or another main course.

The host breaks the bread and sets it before the guests, and either he or the youngest member of the family pours the tea. Hands are washed before and after eating, often from a ewer over a basin. At the end of the meal an elder says a short prayer and everyone passes their palms over their face; only then is it polite to get up.

Tips for guests

Take your shoes off at the door, and greet elders with your right hand on your heart. Never put bread upside down or let it fall, and accept a piece the host has broken for you whole. Bringing sweets or fruit when you visit is a nice touch.

Your host will keep offering more food; to show you are full, simply thank them warmly with a hand on your heart. If you are handed something from the table as you leave — sarqit — accept it: it is a way of sharing blessing.