XII. About Coffee

Folk-lore of the Holy Land, Moslem, Christian and Jewish, by J. E. Hanauer [1907], at sacred-texts.com

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XII

ABOUT COFFEE

THE origin of coffee-drinking is connected with various legends and superstitious ideas. The shrub on which the coffee-berry grows is said to be indigenous in Abyssinia, and the story runs that the virtues of the plant were discovered by accident. Fleeing from persecution, towards the end of the third century, a party of monks from Egypt found refuge in the Abyssinian highlands; where they settled and supported themselves by agriculture and the care of flocks, which were entrusted in turn to the pastoral care of different brethren. One of these came to the prior one night with the strange tale that the sheep and goats would not go to rest in their fold, but were frisking and lively to such a degree that he feared that they had been bewitched. This state of things continued, in spite of prayers and exorcisms, for several days, till at last the prior resolved himself to herd the animals. Leading them out to pasture, he observed what plants they browsed on, and thus discovered that their sleeplessness was the effect of the leaves of a certain shrub. Experimenting on himself by chewing some buds of the same plant, he found that he was easily able to keep awake during the long night-services which his form of religion prescribed. Thus was coffee discovered.

It was not at first used as a beverage, but eaten

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in form of a paste, something like chocolate. It was introduced into Arabia in pre-Islamic times, probably not later than the time of the famous Crusade undertaken by Elesbaan, or Caleb Negus, the Nagash of Arab authors, in order to punish the Himyaritic Jewish ruler, Yûsif Yarûsh, surnamed "Dhu Nowâs," who had been persecuting the Christians. When Mohammedans were prohibited the use of wine, its place was taken by decoctions of coffee-berries. The name "coffee" is derived from the Arabic Kahweh (pronounced Kahveh by the Turks), and, in its primary sense, denoted wine or other intoxicating liquors. "The city of Aden," says Crichton, "is the first on record that set the example of drinking it as a common refreshment, about the middle of the fifteenth century. A drowsy mufti, called Jemaleddin, had discovered that it disposed him to keep awake, as well as to a more lively exercise of his spiritual duties." This is clearly a version of the story of the Abyssinian monks above given. Jemâl-ed-dìn, according to Crichton, died A.D. 1470, "and such was the reputation which his experience had given to the virtues of coffee, that in a short time it was introduced by Fakreddin at Mecca and Medina." It seems, however, that it was not till the commencement of the sixteenth century that it was introduced to Cairo.

Its introduction caused a bitter theological controversy among the Moslems. In A.D. 1511, it was publicly condemned at Mecca by a conclave of the ‘ulema, who declared its use contrary to Islâm and hurtful both to body and soul. This decision of the

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learned was echoed at Cairo. All the warehouses where the "seditious berry" (bunn) was stored were purposely burnt down, the coffee-houses closed, and their keepers pelted with the sherds of their pots and cups. This was in 1524, but by an order of Selìm I., the decrees of the learned were reversed, the disturbances in Egypt quieted, the drinking of coffee declared perfectly orthodox; and when two Persian doctors, who had asserted it to be injurious to health, had been hanged by the Sultan's orders, the coffee-cup began its undisturbed reign. It now rules supreme in the East. If you want anyone, to whom it would be an insult to offer bakshìsh, to do you a favour, you find that "a cup of coffee" renders him gracious, and open to persuasion; and in the same way, if you want to get rid of an enemy, all you have to do is to get someone to administer "a cup of coffee" to him. This double usefulness of "a cup of coffee" is proverbial. Coffee-making and drinking among the desert Arabs are associated with observances which make it a quasi-religious ceremony. Only a man is allowed to prepare the beverage and he must do it with the greatest care. The berries are roasted in a shallow ladle or pan (mahmaseh), and when half-roasted they are pounded in a stone or wooden mortar, with a great pestle (mahbash), the pounding being carried on rhythmically thus Whilst the pounding is proceeding a coffee-pot (bûkraj) is placed on the fire. When the water boils the pot is taken off the fire and the coffee-meal is put into the hot water. It is then placed on the fire

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again, and when it has boiled up, the pot is again taken off, and then allowed to boil again a second and a third time. The coffee-maker, holding in his left hand a row of small cups placed one inside the other, then pours a little coffee into the topmost and rinses it with the liquid, which he then pours into the second and others in turn, rinsing them all in turn with the coffee he poured into the first cup. When he has rinsed the last cup he pours its contents into the fire as a libation to the Sheykh esh Shadhilly the patron of coffee-drinkers. Then, and not till then, the drinking begins. Half a cupful is handed to the eldest and most honoured guest, and then a second cup, and so on to all others in turn. To offer a full cup is considered a studied insult, and so also is the offer of a third cup. The saying is, "The first cup for the guest; the second for enjoyment; and the third for the sword." ¹

Wherever a party of coffee-drinkers assemble, there the spirit of esh Shadhilly is present to keep them from harm, and in like manner when a bride is leaving her parent's house in order to be taken to that of her bridegroom, the keeper of a neighbouring coffee-house will show his goodwill by rushing out of his place of business and pouring a cup of coffee on the ground on the pathway at her feet in order to propitiate his patron saint and dispose him in her favour.

A large number of people were assembled in a

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village guest-house. Coffee was being prepared for them. Beside the fire stood a very large stockpot, out of which the person who made the coffee replenished a smaller pot in which he boiled the liquor after adding fresh coffee-meal. He then, after the libation above described, handed a cup of coffee to the man nearest him, who out of politeness handed it to the one next him, and he in his turn gave it to the next, and so on, till it had passed all round the company untasted. The coffee-maker was surprised when the cup was returned to him untasted. Somebody suggested that esh Shadhilly must have had some hand in the matter, and had purposely prevented those present from tasting the coffee. Hereupon the coffee-pots were emptied out, when, to the horror of all beholders, the dead body of a venomous serpent (according to one version of this story, of a toad) fell out of the stockpot. How it got in no one ever knew, but it was seen how esh-Sheykh esh Shadhilly had protected his votaries.

Besides the large stock-pot it is no uncommon thing to have little brass or tinned copper pots standing near the fire ready to be filled from the larger vessel and set to boil. It is not always safe to partake of coffee made in such vessels, as they are not always kept clean and freshly-tinned, and sad cases of poisoning by copper oxide have happened through their use.

The proverbial saying above quoted concerning the third cup is illustrated by the following story:--During a famine in the early part of last century a

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[paragraph continues] Bedawi sheykh left his encampment somewhere in the Gaza district and went down to Egypt with men and camels to buy corn. Night came on after he had crossed the frontier, and about midnight, seeing a light in the distance, the sheykh, who had never before visited that part of the country, thought that some village must be near. He left his men and camels where they were and went to reconnoitre. The light proceeded from a house the door of which was ajar. As he smelt coffee-berries roasting, he concluded it was a guest-house, and boldly entered. But he was mistaken. The only persons in the lighted chamber were an unveiled woman and a Memlûk, her husband. The woman screamed and hid her face at sight of a man in the doorway, but her husband rebuked her fears and asked the stranger what he wanted. The sheykh replied that he had thought the place was a guest-house but, since he was mistaken, would go away again. The Memlûk, however, insisted on his remaining, and gave him a cup of coffee. When he had drunk this his host offered him a second cup, which he accepted. A third cup he declined, although pressed to take it. Finding his solicitations useless, the Memlûk drew his sword and threatened to kill the Bedawi unless he took the third cup. The man still refused, saying that he preferred being killed. "Why?" asked his grim host. "Because," answered the sheykh, "the first cup is for the guest, the second for enjoyment, and the third for the sword. Though, indeed, I am a warrior, even as thou art, yet at present I am unarmed, seeing that I am here on business connected

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with peace and not with war." "Well," answered the Memlûk, sheathing his weapon, "thy answer shows thee to be a true man. I took thee to be a skulking thief, but I see that I was mistaken. Remain under my roof as my guest." The sheykh accepted the invitation, and when he told his host the purpose of his visit to Egypt, the latter, who had a great deal of corn for sale, transacted business with him, and for several years in succession supplied him and his tribe with grain. In the year 1811, however, the Massacre of the Memlûks, by the orders of Mohammad Ali, took place, and it so happened that the only person to escape was the one who figures in this story. He, it is said, managed to make his escape to the tents of his Bedawi friend and was protected and harboured by him till the time came when he could return home without fear.

Tourists visiting the citadel at Cairo are, indeed, shown the place where, according to legend, Emìn Bey made his horse leap from the battlements; but many of the native Cairenes assert that he was not there at all, having received warning of the Pasha's plot through someone connected with the harìm. What the truth is Allah knows!

SPECIAL NOTE.--The greater part of the foregoing paper was originally contributed by the writer to the Palestine Exploration Fund's Quarterly Statement as well as several of the animal stories in Section III.; and they are reproduced with additional remarks by permission of the P.E.F. Committee.

Footnotes

293:1 Who the mysterious ‘Sheykh esh Shadhilly is I cannot tell, but must refer the reader to page 121 of the Palestine Exploration Quarterly for April 1906.