16 THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 



According to the manuscript of Schehabeddin Ben, an 

 Arabian Scribe of the ninth century of the Hegira, or the 

 fifteenth of the Christian era, which manuscript is, or was, in 

 the great Library of the city of Paris, we learn that a certain 

 Mufti, or Mohammedan high-priest, named Gemal Eddin, of 

 Aden, a town of Arabia Felix, was the first who introduced to 

 his countrymen the custom of coffee-drinking. Having returned 

 from visiting Persia, where he had observed the beverage used 

 as a medicine, and being at the time himself sick, he tried as an 

 experiment a dose of the " black draught." Finding it both 

 curative and exhilarating, he forthwith turned his discovery 

 to good account, by applying its virtues as an antidote to the 

 torpor and drowsiness of his monks, whom he had often found 

 dormant at their devotions. 



The example and authority of the Mufti at once conferred on 

 coffee a reputation, and it speedily came into general use, not 

 only on account of its sleep-dispelling power, but also for its 

 other good qualities. Coffee, which had been in use in Ethiopia, 

 it is believed, from time immemorial, was carried by the Der- 

 vishes to Mecca, where the beverage became so popular with the 

 sons of the prophet that its fame soon extended to other towns 

 adjacent. It continued its career through Syria, and was re- 

 ceived without opposition at Damascus and Aleppo, and in 

 the year 1554 became the favorite drink at Constantinople, 

 where, soon after, coffee-houses were opened. 



In the same proportion that the coffee-houses were thronged, 

 the mosques became deserted ; and the priests represented that 

 no doubt the new drink was forbidden by the Koran, for that 

 the roasted berry \vas certainly a kind of coal, and that as such 

 it was prohibited by the Prophet's law. The Mufti, on a peti- 

 tion to this effect, without hesitation decided that coffee was 

 coal ; nevertheless, in. spite of frequent enactments against it, the 

 people continued to drink it. The exertions of the police were 



