Chickpeas a la Ibn Battutah

I've been reading "Travels with a Tangerine", by Tim Macintosh-Smith. It's about the great Arab traveler Ibn Battutah who saw most of the world over 30 years.

With "IB" in mind, I cooked chickpeas and eggplant with spices reminiscent of Tangier. I used about a pound of chickpeas and one eggplant, an onion, some garlic all in a little oil, and whole cloves with about a teaspoon of cumin, turmeric, crushed cinnamon, some berbere from my fav Ethiopean restaurant, fresh ginger, cilantro, cayenne pepper, and am letting it simmer now.

Tim remembers a couplet:

He said: 'Your lips are split.'
I said: 'Like only the sweetest of figs...'

With that, I added some raisins. Delicious!