Turkish delight form of "lokum" made with starch and sugar. The family business, now in its fifth generation, still operates under the founder's name. Tim Richardson, a historian of sweets, has questioned the popular attribution of Hacı Bekir as the inventor of Turkish Delight, writing that "specific names and dates are often erroneously associated with the invention of particular sweets, not least for commercial reasons". Similar Arab and Persian recipes, including the use of starch and sugar, predate Bekir by several centuries. The Oxford Companion to Food states that although Bekir is often credited with the invention, there is no hard evidence
Abu Bakr Effendi Abu Bakr Effendi Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi (1814–1880) was an Osmanli "qadi" who was sent in 1862 by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I at the request of the British Queen Victoria to the Cape of Good Hope, in order to teach and assist the Muslim community of the Cape Malays. His birth date has often been mistaken to be in the year 1835. Effendi was from an Arab Sayyid family which originated from Mecca and migrated into Abbasid then Sejuk ruled Iraq and Southern Turkey. Abubakr was born in the Ottoman Turkish Province of Shehrizur. He is often confused with