In pre-Islamic Persia, a category of fat-based confections made with flour, oil, and sweeteners was called rōɣæn xordīg, meaning oil food. The Arabic word halwa was applied to these and related preparations by the ninth century, by which time it covered a wide range of sweets including flour-based pastes and nut preparations. The first documented recipes appear in thirteenth-century Arabic cookbooks — the Kitab al-Tabikh and an anonymous Andalusian cookbook — detailing flour-based and nut-based preparations. The tahini-based version appears in documented form later, an 1844 dictionary being among the earliest written references to sesame halva specifically, though sesame and honey confections in the region predate that reference by centuries. The Ottoman palace kitchen kept dedicated confectioners — helvacılar — producing dozens of varieties, and the empire’s reach carried halva across its entire geographic span, from the Balkans through the Levant to North Africa.

Each region adapted the form to local ingredients. Turkey standardized both the tahini block and the flour-based helva. Greece developed semolina halvas associated with Lent. The Balkans and Eastern Europe, where sesame is less available, substituted sunflower seeds. India and South Asia produced carrot halwa, semolina sheera, lentil dal halwa, and milk-based versions flavored with cardamom and saffron. Iran kept the flour-based form flavored with rose water and saffron, served at funerals, religious ceremonies, and Ramadan. The Levant — Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria — standardized tahini halva in block form, often studded with pistachios, chocolate, or vanilla. The word connects all of them; the recipes do not.

• Arab Influence
• Islamic Culinary Tradition
• Ottoman Influence