Tahini cuneiform document written 4000 years ago that describes the custom of serving the gods sesame wine. The historian Herodotus writes about the cultivation of sesame 3500 years ago in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia. It was mainly used as a source of oil. Tahini is mentioned as an ingredient of "hummus kasa", a recipe transcribed in an anonymous 13th-century Arabic cookbook, "Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada". Sesame paste is an ingredient in some Chinese and Japanese dishes; Sichuan cuisine uses it in some recipes for dandan noodles. Sesame paste is also used in Indian cuisine. In the
Tahini called "tahin-pekmez". Due to its high-caloric nature, it is served as a breakfast item or after meals as a dessert to dip pieces of bread in, especially during the wintertime. In Iraq, tahini is known as "rashi" and is mixed with date syrup (rub) to make a sweet dessert usually eaten with bread. Tahini is called "ardeh" () in Persian and "harda" in Kuwait. In Iran it is used to make "halvardeh" (), a kind of halva made of tahini, sugar, egg whites, and other ingredients. It is also eaten during breakfast, usually with an accompanying sweet substance, usually grape