140 WHAT DOES MAN LIVE UPON? 



In the year 1554 a violent tumult arose in Constan- 

 tinople ; the chiefs of the priests attacked the Sultan and 

 threatened him with all the terrors which their office placed 

 at their command, the reason being the brilliant success of 

 the first coffee-houses, which were in that year opened. 

 These were crowded all day, while the mosques were almost 

 deserted. The Sultan relieved himself from the difficultly 

 by the means most profitable to himself; he laid a heavy 

 tax upon the coffee-houses, and thus, quieting the Muftis, 

 obtained a considerable revenue ; for in spite of this, the 

 use of coffee spread with wonderful rapidity over Europe. 

 In 1652, the Greek, Pasqua, opened the first London 

 coffee-house in George Yard, Lombard Street, (according 

 to McCulloch, in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, in the place 

 where the Virginia coffee-house lately stood) ; and in 1671, 

 the first in Marseilles was established. The present pro- 

 duction is probably about 250,000 tons, while a hundred 

 and fifty years ago, it scarcely exceeded 5,000. In 1820, 

 A. von Humboldt estimated the consumption in Europe at 

 75,000 tons, valued at 4,500,000 ; while the value of 

 the present consumption of 125,000 tons, does not perhaps 

 reach 3,700,000. Whence came this custom of drink- 

 ing Coffee ? Who discovered the precious substance ? We 

 know not. We find the most trustworthy account in the 

 work of the Scheikh Abd-Alkader-Ebn-Mohammed, dated 

 in the year 1566, which has been published by Sylvestre 

 de Sacy in his " Chrestomathie Arabe," and which bears 

 the title of : " The Prop of Innocence, in reference to the 

 lawfulness of Coffee." 



According to this account, the very learned and pious 

 Scheikh Djemal-eddin-Ebn-Abou-Alfaggar introduced the 

 drinking of Coffee in the beginning of the fifteenth century, 

 into Aden, the city which has in recent times acquired such 

 great political importance, and from thence it soon spread 



