EARLY HISTORY. 



he served it to them, the experiment proving a complete 

 success ; the dervishes taking eagerly thereafter to the 

 new and exciting beverage. While, according to an 

 Arabian manuscript, now to be found in the Bibliotheque 

 Nationale of Paris, the use of Coffee was known in 

 Arabia as early as the thirteenth century. This coffee- 

 colored document states that "a certain Mufti of Aden, 

 on his return from a journey to Persia, about the middle 

 of the fifteenth century, brought back with him some 

 ^roasted beans of Coffee." While in an old treatise upon 

 Coffee, published in 1566 by an Arabian sheikh, it is 

 stated that the first knowledge of Coffee and its use was 

 brought from Abyssinia to Arabia about the beginning 

 of the fifteenth century by a learned and pious mollah 

 named Djmaleddin Abou Elfager. According to this 

 document, the use of Coffee as a beverage was prevalent 

 among the Abyssinians from the most remote times, and 

 that in Arabia, when first introduced, it only supplanted a 

 preparation made from the leaves of the Celastrus in that 

 country. The introduction and use of the beverage by the 

 Mufti gave reputation to the practice, his example soon 

 rendering the new luxury popular among his countrymen, 

 " first among lawyers and professional men, then with 

 students and those who learned reading, the custom 

 eventually spreading to artisans and others who worked in 

 the night, and finally by travelers, who journeyed in the 

 night to avoid the heat of the day." In a short time it 

 was declared in Aden " that this liquor purified the blood, 

 by a gentle agitation, dissipated the ill condition of the 

 stomach and aroused the spirits." As a result of this high 

 extolation it was quickly adopted by those who had 

 no occasion to keep awake at night, and in a brief 

 space of time, says M. Galland, " the whole inhabi- 

 tants of Aden became inveterate coffee-drinkers." 



