Arabs Love Affair of Coffee

Arab Coffee Merchants (Credit: BBC)

Coffee said to have, according to legends, originated from a goat herder in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa. The mysterious hyperactivity of goats led to the discovery of coffee berries that provided extraordinary energy. Ethiopia back then was just a boat ride away to the Strait of Aden before going to Arabian Peninsula. So it came as no surprise that the Arabs tasted coffee and spread it throughout the Islamic world.

However, Arabs disputed about the Ethiopian legend of the discovery of coffee. There exist an Arabian tale of a Sufi Sheik that was also said to have discovered coffee - Sheikh Omar. The Seikh had been condemned for unknown reasons to die of hunger and thirst in the middle of the desert near the port town of Mocha in Yemen. In the middle of the sultry heat of desert covered with sweat and exhausted, in an oasis, he found a shrub with glistening green leaves and covered with red berries. He ate the berries and his body felt re-invigorated and alive. He then managed to survive a long time in the desert that amazed the people of Mocha into believing that his survival a miracle of Allah. The city let him return and even welcomed him as a saint.

True or not, the fact remained Yemen first domesticated the coffee plant and a launch point for coffee to spread across the Arabian Peninsula. Yemenis traditionally ate the berries of the coffee shrub. Then, Muhammad al-Dhabhani began to turn the berries into a drink by first drying the beans and adding it into hot water, hence coffee. 

The Sufis, an Islamic sect famous for their concentration to profess their faith in Allah loved coffee. They believed coffee allowed them to remain focus and remain awake all night for their evening worships. Besides the religious, both the rich and poor enjoyed their coffee with the rich having their coffee served in their respective homes while the poor went to the earliest coffee houses called qahveh khane. By the 15th-century coffee houses operated in Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

The coffee houses hosted a lot of intellectuals. Similar to today’s condition, coffee powered the brains of intellectuals and artists becoming an incubator for creativity and ideas. With a cup of coffee, scholars remained focus and ready to take up new knowledge. Just as coffee became an integral part of family gathering and socializing in Ethiopia, the same happened in Arabia for intellectuals who discussed and debated over cups of hot coffee. New findings and information spread from this means, thus, the coffee houses came to be known as Schools of the Wise.

Although the coffee craze affected a lot of people, it also had a share of detractors. Coffee in Arabic, Qahwa, meant wine as it provided the same effect becoming hyperactive and energetic. Islamic law prohibited the consumption of wine. Therefore, coffee took the center stage of a legal controversy. A debate raged between those who wished the beverage ban and those who proposed its continuity. In Mecca, the local governor, Kha’ir Beg, eventually, presided a trial to judge coffee guilty of making intoxicating its drinkers turning them into drunkards such in the case of alcohol. In a literal trial setting, a basket of coffee sat on one side and a prosecutor on the other. Preachers slammed coffee as an addicting substance that made its drinkers lose control of themselves, thus forget Allah. The trial ended with Kha’ir Beg baning coffee in Mecca. Coffee houses closed, while sellers and drinkers beaten severely. The governor of Cairo, however, who outrank Kha'ir Beg, loved coffee, overturned the decision, and even dismissed the local governor. 

The debate about banning coffee and its effects, nevertheless, continued for a long time. Several bans attempted but all failed due to the wide support of the people of coffee. Like Islam, coffee faced persecution but remained persistent.

The coffee trade continued to flourish across the Islamic world. The Arabs and their Ottoman bosses continued to love coffee even though some Sultans tried also to prohibit the substance. Later on, the monopoly on coffee by the Arabs ended as Europeans, curious of the black gold, smuggled the plants and seed to proliferate it across the world.

See also: 

The Adventure of Gabriel de Clieu
Dancing Goats and Discovery of Coffee
Economy of Pedro II's Empire
How a Pope Spread Coffee to the World?
Louis XIV and Coffee
Ottoman Coffee: Love and Hate

Bibliography:
Cheung, T. Coffee Wisdom: 7 Finely-Ground Principals for Living a Full-Bodied Life. Massachusetts: Conari Press, 2003. 

Pendergast, M. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World. New York: Basic Books, 2010. 

Standage, T. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York: Walker Publishing Company, 2005. 

“Coffee and qahwa: How a drink for Arab mystics went global.” BBC. Accessed March 25, 2014. http://www.bbc.com. 

“The History of Coffee.” NCA. Accessed March 25, 2014. http://www.ncausa.org.