Manakish (; singular man'ousheh) is a popular Levantine pastry, consisting of dough topped with za'atar (), cheese (), or ground meat. It can be sliced or folded, and it can be served either for breakfast or lunch.
Traditionally, women would bake dough in a communal oven in the morning to meet their family's daily bread needs, and would prepare smaller portions of dough with different toppings for breakfast at this time. Saj and taboon are also common traditional cooking instruments for manakish.
Manakish are popular across the Levant, and can also be found in neighboring regions, and centers of Levantine emigration.
In 2023, manakish was inscribed to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists as an emblematic culinary practice in Lebanon.
In standard Arabic, the word manÃÂqÃ«à ¡ is the plural of the word manqà «à ¡ah, from the root verb naqaà ¡a (), 'to sculpt, 'to carve out' or 'to engrave'; meaning that after the dough has been rolled flat, it is pressed by the fingertips to create little dips for the topping to lie in. Syrian historian Khayr al-Din al-Asadi associated the word manaqish with Beirut. The 'q' (qÃÂf, ) in manaqish is pronounced as a glottal stop by some speakers of Levantine Arabic, which is sometimes reflected in English as "mana'ish".
According to food historian Gil Marks, topped flatbreads like manakish and lahmacun became common in the Levant following the popularization of "baker's ovens" (furn) where the dough is placed on a heated floor rather than being baked vertically like a tannur.
German Orientalist Gustaf Dalman described manakish in his 1936 ("Work and Customs in Palestine") as leavened or unleavened dough coated in oil and oregano which is baken in a tabun oven.