summāqa

The word sumac traces to Syriac summāqa, meaning red—from a Semitic root SMQ or ŚMQ, 'to be red.' The color name preceded the spice name: the berries of Rhus coriaria were vivid enough to define themselves by their hue. Arabic summāq preserved the Syriac form; medieval Latin borrowed it as sumach; Old French carried it into English as sumac around the 13th century. Modern Hebrew uses sumak exclusively for the spice, while in Aramaic sumaqa still denotes both the dark red color and the berries themselves—a rare case where the color and spice vocabulary have not yet fully separated.

Sumac is native to the Middle East and Mediterranean basin. The dried, ground berries of Rhus coriaria have a tart, fruity acidity—a souring agent without the sharp bite of vinegar, with a fruity depth that citrus juice cannot replicate. Before the widespread cultivation and distribution of lemons in Europe (lemons became common in northern Europe only in the late medieval period, around the 13th–14th centuries), sumac served as the primary souring agent in Roman, Byzantine, and early medieval European cooking. Apicius, the 1st-century Roman cookbook, uses sumac in sauces for meat and fish.

The tannins in sumac also made it useful beyond cooking. The leaves and bark of Rhus species were the primary tanning material for leather in the Middle East and Mediterranean for centuries—sumac tannins bind to collagen in animal hides, converting them to leather with a characteristic suppleness. The word 'sumac' appears in English in the 1300s specifically in this context, as a preparation for tanning and dyeing wool, before its culinary identity became the dominant use in English. The connection between the red color of the berries and the red-brown color imparted to tanned leather is not coincidental.

Sumac is foundational to za'atar—the Palestinian and Levantine spice blend combining sumac, thyme, sesame seeds, and salt—and to fattoush salad dressing, where its acidity performs the function lemon juice plays elsewhere. In Persian cuisine, sumac is sprinkled over chelow kebab as a table condiment. In southeastern Turkish and Kurdish cooking it appears in salads, dips, and meat rubs. Its resurgence in Western kitchens in the 21st century—driven partly by chef Yotam Ottolenghi's prominent use of Levantine ingredients—restored to European tables a souring agent that Roman cooks had relied on two thousand years earlier, in the long interval before lemons arrived.