36 COFFEE 



According to Parkinson, who refers to it as the 'Turkes berry drinke' 

 in his book entitled "Theatrum Botanicum" which was published in 

 1640, ''This drinke hath many good Physicall properties therein: 

 for it strengtheneth a weake stomache, helping digestion and the 

 tumours and obstructions of the liver and spleene, being drunke 

 fasting for some time together. The Egiptian and Arabian women 

 use it familiarly while their courses hold, to cause them to passe away 

 with the more ease, as also to cause those to flow that are stayed, 

 their bodies being prepared and purged aforehand." The 1735 edition 

 of Alpino by Vesling speaks of the coffee-berries sold in Egypt as 

 crystallized coffee cherries. The ''Krauter-Buch" (1678) 788, by 

 Verzascha, states that the husks of the berries make a stronger in- 

 fusion than the seeds. One finds that the name of coffe was used 

 synonymously with coho in ancient literature. Coho, which is merely 

 a variant of kahwah, was applied originally to the drink prepared 

 from C. arahica L. pulp instead of an infusion of the seeds. The 

 Arabs of Yemen abstained from the use of coffee as prepared from 

 the roasted and ground seeds in the present European and American 

 fashion; but they powdered the sun-dried pericarp and prepared a 

 favorite beverage called kischer, gischr, or qischr, which was aroma- 

 tized with ginger or other spices. The resulting drink was stimula- 

 tive and as popular as quat, the favorite stimulant of Yemen Arabs, 

 which was prepared from the leaves of Catha edulis Forsk. {Celas- 

 trus edulis Vahl.) 



Coffee was known as a drug prior to its general use as a beverage. 

 Records compiled by La Roque * and Ellis ^ state that Abu Abdallah 

 Muhammad Dhabbani Ibn Said visited Persia, Africa, and Abyssinia 

 during the fifteenth century, and found the people using coffee as a 

 beverage; and upon his return to Aden, Arabia, he continued to 

 drink coffee and recommended his followers to substitute it for 

 their common beverage kdt. From Aden, the use of C. arabica L. 

 seeds spread to Mecca, Medina, Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, and finally 

 to Constantinople in 1554. The use of coffee was introduced into 

 Syria a few years previous to its use in Constantinople. Dr. Russell 

 in his book entitled "The Natural History of Aleppo," which was 

 published in 1794, informs us that, in Constantinople and less com- 



■* La Roque Voy. L'Arab. Heureuse (1716) 323. 

 ^ Ellis Monogr. Coffee (1774) S. 



