386 NATIJRAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



ited the use of wine, this supplementary drink would take its 

 place, and propagate itself, by degrees, over the regions which 

 embraced the creed of Islam. This supposition is not 

 founded on mere conjecture. We learn from Poncet, who 

 travelled in Ethiopia in 1698, that the opinion then univer- 

 sally prevalent in the East \yas, that coffee had been origin- 

 ally transported from that kingdom into Arabia Felix. The 

 etymology of the name itself is a strong presumption that it 

 was at first intended as a substitute for the juice of the grape. 

 Cahuueh (or cahvch,-as the Turks pronounce it with a v, 

 whence our word coffee is derived) was used by the old Arabs, 

 in its primary sense, to denote wine or other intoxicating 

 liquors. It was afterward applied to the decoction of the 

 Abyssinian berry, to which thev gave the name of biiun, 

 while they called the shrub on which it grew the baun-tree. 

 The earlv Mohammedan authors furnish us merely with a few 

 details about the supposed qualities of this liquid, and the 

 disputes that occurred conceniinff its lawfulness as an article 

 of diet. jVvicenna, Ibn Jazlah of Bagdad, and some other 

 professional writers of that time, speak obscurely of buun ; 

 hence we may presume that coffee, like sugar and chocolate, 

 was then prescribed as a medicine. Its use, however, w^as 

 long peculiar to the East ; and the city of Aden is the first 

 on record that set the example of drinking it as a common 

 refreshment, about the middle of the fifteenth centmy. A 

 drowsy mufti, called Jemaleddin, had discovered that it dis- 

 posed him to keep awake, as well as to a more lively exer- 

 cise of his spiritual duties. On his authority coffee became 

 the most fashionable beverage in the place. The leaves of 

 the cat (tea) were abandoned ; and all classes, — ^lawyers, stu- 

 dents, loungers, and artisans, — adopted the infusion of the 

 roasted bean. Another discover}' of the same individual 

 rendered it still more popular. Having contracted some in- 

 firmity during a voyage to Persia, on returning to Yemen he 

 applied to his favourite stimulant, and in a short time found 

 his health perfectly restored. This pious doctor, to whom 

 Europe perhaps owes one of the most useful luxuries of the 

 East, 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 Fakeddin at Mecca and Medina, 

 and became so agreeable to the general ta^te, that public 

 «a]oons^v6rG c^ned, where crowds assembled to finjcy the 



