# Discovery of Coffee

Coffee (qahwa in Arabic) is one of the Islamic world's most significant contributions to global culture. Originating in the Ethiopian highlands, it entered the Islamic world through Yemen sometime in the ninth or tenth century AH (fifteenth century CE) and rapidly became central to the social, intellectual, and commercial life of Muslim cities before spreading to Europe and eventually to every corner of the world.

Origins

The origins of coffee are surrounded by legend. The most famous account, though of uncertain historicity, tells of Kaldi, an Ethiopian goatherd who noticed his goats were unusually energetic after eating berries from a certain tree. He brought the berries to a monastery, where the monks made a drink from them and found it kept them alert during long hours of night prayer.

The earliest reliable historical evidence of coffee use comes from Sufi circles in Yemen in the early ninth century AH (late fifteenth century CE). Sheikh Muhammad al-Dhabhani or his followers reportedly discovered that boiling the berries produced a beverage that promoted wakefulness during dhikr (remembrance of Allah) sessions and night prayers. Coffee spread rapidly among Sufi orders precisely because of this property.

Spread Through the Muslim World

From Yemen, coffee spread to Mecca and Medina, where it became associated with the scholarly culture around the two holy mosques. Students and scholars staying up late to study or pray found it invaluable. By the early tenth century AH (early sixteenth century CE), coffeehouses (qahwahaneh or maqha) had become a major institution in Muslim cities.

Cairo received coffee around 917 AH (1510 CE), and coffeehouses quickly multiplied. The coffeehouses of Cairo became centers of social life, where men gathered to drink, listen to music, play chess, and discuss the news and theology of the day.

Istanbul received its first coffeehouse around 962 AH (1555 CE), opened by two Syrians. The coffeehouses of Istanbul became so popular and so associated with political discussion that Sultan Murad IV briefly banned them in the seventeenth century — a ban that proved impossible to enforce.

Controversies

The introduction of coffee into Muslim societies was not without controversy. Some scholars debated whether coffee was intoxicating and therefore prohibited (haram) under the rule that forbids intoxicants. The debate was particularly heated in Mecca in the early tenth century AH.

The arguments against coffee:

It produces physical and mental effects that could be compared to intoxication
The coffeehouses it spawned became associated with frivolous entertainment and idle talk

The arguments in favor:

Coffee does not cause intoxication in the sense of impairing judgment or producing the characteristic state of drunkenness
The Quran forbids khamr (wine) specifically, and the legal extension to other intoxicants requires that they actually intoxicate
The stimulating effect of coffee is not analogous to intoxication

The scholarly consensus that emerged held coffee to be permitted, and attempts to ban it failed repeatedly. By the late tenth century AH (sixteenth century CE), coffee was universally accepted in the Muslim world.

Introduction to Europe

Coffee reached Europe primarily through Ottoman trading channels in the mid-seventeenth century CE. The first coffeehouses in London opened around 1652 CE, in Paris around 1672 CE, and in Vienna following the Battle of Vienna in 1683 CE (where the abandoned Ottoman camp reportedly left behind large stores of coffee).

European coffeehouses, like their Muslim predecessors, became centers of political and intellectual discussion. The coffeehouses of London's financial district were the origin of institutions like Lloyd's of London (insurance) and the London Stock Exchange.

Legacy

Coffee today is one of the most traded commodities in the world, second only to oil in some estimates, and is consumed by an estimated two billion people daily. The global coffee culture — from the espresso bars of Italy to the specialty coffee shops of contemporary cities — traces its origin to the Sufi circles of fifteenth-century Yemen.

Sources

al-Jaziri, Umdat al-Safwa fi Hall al-Qahwa (The Legitimate Defense of Coffee, 10th century AH)
Ralph Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East
Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer, The World of Caffeine