In the Middle East each locality seems to have its own variations of preparation for the same basic foundational ingredients. And that means different languages and different names and beans for bean stews: fassoulia, fosulia, lupia, fasulye. Armenians, Turks, Greeks, Lebanese, other Arabs, etc. Mostly beans with a tomato based sauce. The Armenians typically do a green bean stew with some lamb meat for taste. But this one is particular to fava beans, and the hard headed Armenians of Anjar who are descendents of the Musa Dagh Armenians who resisted the Turkish death march in their genocide event.
Ani's maternal grandmother was 3 months old when they fled up the mountain on the Mediterranean coast. The father wanted to leave the baby behind so her crying would not give away their presence to the Turkish army down in their villages. The mom insisted. So two generations later, Ani is here with us. Her paternal grandfather was already a young man during the genocide, but by dumb luck had immigrated to the US because of pograms against Armenians in the decade before the genocide and missed the mess. Returning after it was over. But leaving a daughter with a brother in Connecticut for chain immigration later in 1976 when the Lebanese civil war shook things up in Anjar. Ani's grandmother brought up Isgouhi in Aleppo, and imparted her cooking skills to her daughter. bob gets to enjoy her cuisine today. Mother-in-law benefits.
It seems that fava beans have a short season in May (Northern hemisphere), when Italians will shell them, then peel the outer skin and eat them raw with a little chunk of parmigiano. My inlaws just eat them raw without the cheese. Here in the USA fresh fava beans are a rare find, though one can do this with frozen favas from a Middle Eastern specialty food store. Peeling is tedious, so you have to cook them well if you are lazy, as is our case and this approach to cooking them.