During the medieval times, similar cookies were called raghuneen (?) and a trendy Middle Persian name, khushkananaj (dry bread). The Persian name gradually gave way to kleicha, a name which is intriguingly similar to the East European pastries, kolech, the filled yeast buns, also characterized by their round shapes.

In the tenth-century Baghdadi cookbook, in measuring flour for making cookies al-Warraq used a dry measure called keilacha, a variant on keil, which was approximately 4 pounds (36). The keil or keilacha were also the names of the articles themselves used to measure. As to how this is connected to the naming of the cookies, here is my argument: The kleicha cookies were not made year round as we do today in our well-equipped modern kitchens. Up until the sixties or so, they were made twice a year to celebrate the two religious holidays, at the end of Ramadhan and the performance of the hajj. People used to make them in great quantities and bake them at the neighborhood bakeries, and in measuring ingredients naturally they did not use cups and spoons, but the more practical kilo. In the medieval times the keilacha or the larger makkouk (=3 keilachat) were the measures used. It is my contention ! that the naming of the cookies stems from such old practices. In other words, the means of measurement, itself gradually gave its name to the cookies. Apparently the name lingered, even though the keilacha itself is history now, and is replaced by the kilo.

This is a common practice in the field of baking. By analogy, the famous European pound cake got its name from the fact that the first bakers in the previous centuries used sugar, butter, and flour, a pound each, for making the cake.