6 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURISI . [July i, 1891. 
others a"aiu, more grave and less choleric, were 
oe cpinionrthat Coft'se even after io had uader^^oue 
the procfflss of roasting still retai.ied mauy of it s 
o'lv and whoksome properties, and that tho it migbt 
not tend to improve the health of persons of a dclicite 
frame it was very beueficial to persons of a sound 
and vi'o-orous comtitutio.i who used the same moderately 
a-id did not overload their stomachG with too copi^u:) 
draughts, uor with too stronR iniasio js. Gogee h«e 
medicine however healmt; ui it's eft.cts might, o.her- 
wise prove injurious to he-»lth if used immoderately 
Tn 16'<7 a small Book appeared which profe^aed 
to treatWcoffee, Tea, and Chocolate, by Nicholas 
de Blegny, hat it coosisted in the main of extracts 
from Dii Four's Pamphlet. m 
Mr Anthony Gatland who was also a Traveller 
iu the Levant and well skilled _ in t h.. oriental 
Ittu?uages wrote likewise a treatise on the origin 
and' prosress of Ooffer. , . , 
He obtained .11 hi. iaformation from a mauusorips 
In the Kins's Library and afterwards sold his Buok 
n P,riq in 1699. The writer of that manuscript was 
one Abdulcader Moha'nod, whose ancestors were natives 
of Medina He was born m Mesopotamia and was of th-^ 
sect or persuasion of Henbeli well known amongst 
the Mooi^. The Title of this B .ok was " What be- 
tas mooi. ^ bHii'^ve concerning the 
re'atnreTnd "ffiLc^y of Coff.e." That i." Whether 
it was lawful for the Mohammedans to use it. 
Th?s little work which consisted of seven chapters 
dweU onthe Etymology of the word C'a«'e7i, the virtue of 
Coffee and th/land where thixt boverago was hrst uBod. 
It was written in Egypt, Anno I-Iegiro9 996 or in 
the yl?r of tho flight of Mahomed from Mecca which 
according' to the reckoning et .oiii. (tho' there exists 
accoram ciloulntious would answer 
a great '^'f ere, ice in n ^ ^^^^^^ 
^S^'all.lh? Ah'dufoader Mohame^ him.elf borrowed 
fu k'tV'- frnm the writings of one SzeichAbeadionlbu 
Kitaff?"vho wTol; on the subject long b.fore him. 
Bui in order to point out the exact t'^e when a 
right knowledke of Coffee drinking wa, established it 
is necesiary to seek for information from a remota 
^^^zemdeddien Aboe Abdullah Moharned Ib« Snib. 
f a town in Arabia Felix, then Mufti of 
leer, repa-;ed 'about the middle of the year U66 Co 
Ma and during hi. sojourn there, fouc d some of his 
lersiaauu I 6 j particul-.r 
%7Jni?nrto the circum.tlince at the time; on his re- 
turn holve^~^'^'^ to Aden finding himself. n 
a very wtik state, he thought ot ihe Coffee which he 
saw u^el by his countrym.,-n an 1 trie. I some in the 
saw use J uy . ^ - g ^qq,! ^ud experienced 
fhr'reStharhfsought. He iu.^her discovered many 
other q al ties in the Coffee, viz., that i was cffic ici- 
ous n removing hea l-aches, enlivening the spirit and 
keep^g off d'owsuies^-. These stimulating qnahiies 
hiduced him and a D 'rvise t. partake of the beverage 
when thev went to prayers at mght 
He likewise pavto.k of it during tho performance 
of i^any other ofhis devotional exercises and s-mce 
that t me this drink became mo e gene _al in Aden 
Imongrt all people of consequence,^ partly upon lha 
recommendation of Dzemaleddien himse E and partly 
upon That of Moharned of Hadramaut a town m 
^pS ^10 this period, Cofl'.e was rot known in Arabia 
I fi ;.. bean crows, nor e sewhere in the Eist, 
i'^rc ling to thi- A.abian wri'er, Coffee was long 
betoi'o 1 n use in Abyssinia, nlthongh Mes>rs. Johns 
Lud .lf, 'ierG Telle s, and many others who had written 
I PfUinnia ma.le no uvntion Ihereof. 
"Xm Aln 'tWrbev^rage was introduced into Mecca 
in 1600 whoro it w.s not then (ircpared from tlie beans, 
ut from he shells fhusks) which were brought from 
Yemen for Mecca lies not (as many suppose) prope ly 
• T I'i.; 10 Wx but in the Government and deputyship 
'"f ^'■'«to■,^r u'io ol Arabia which some call Tahamah 
^Lfother ' HidLa;r ind whicl^ituj.te^i_on it's^borc^^^ 
»A D. 62rBir^rtl^«Kyf\|>r fl't'l't of Mahomet 
from Mecca to Meaiim. Tytler's Table of Chronology. 
The use of Ccft'de now became more geuci-al and 
almost every body partook of it, as he whiled away his 
time ilia game of chess, tzonka, the game of btane or 
some other amusement ot the kind. 
l<"rom Mecca it parsed to the other towns of Arabia, 
nnd thence to Egypt especially to Grand Cairo; all 
which took place not long after 1511. But shortly after 
thi-i the use of Coffee (which was introduced sonsewhat 
later from Cairo into Turkey) was prohibited in B?ypt 
by the Sultan Kbair Beg. Tbe Governor of Mecca 
also who held offi';e under the Prince of the Circissian 
Mammelukes, then Masters of B^O'pt, prohibited it's use 
there, imagining it was wine, for he found some peopla 
partook of this liquor in the Temple to keep themselves 
awake during the recit itlon of their orations. lu spite, 
however, of ihe explanation given him tf the harmless 
qnalities of Coffae, he was obstinate, and being, at the 
time, qjite ignorant of the innocuous qualities of the 
beverage which be supposed like wine had an intoxicat- 
in-^ effect (and the u«e of wine was forbidden by their 
Law) he instantly ordered tbe offenders to quit the 
Temple and warned them against a recurrence of similar 
conduct. 
On the following day he Fummoned an assembly of 
divines and related to them what had occurred. They 
were all unanimously of opinion that Coffee drinking 
was opposed to the Mohanimedan L iw and conse- 
quently that it ought to be suppressed. 
They cai-ried this niattt-r, however, to far greater 
lengths here. An inveatigation was to take place in 
ordertoa'cartain whether or not Coffee was deterimental 
to the body as well as the spirit; and it was aooordicgly 
judged expedient to refer t;je matter to the Faculty and 
take their opinion upon the p'jhit. 
Hereupon the Governor sent for two Persian brothers, 
the principal Phydiciana of Mecca, who had but a 
.'upertioial knowledge, of the »rfc and one of whom had 
already written soniethicg disparagingly of Coffee, and 
■submilted tho caso to tliein for opinion. They said 
that the C ^ffee husks being in their nature very cold 
and dry were detrimental and i jurions to hfaitb; but 
a Pliysicinn o.f Bagdad named Benj^azlab, who was one 
of thci assembly, observed that Coffee promotes tbe 
digestion of th-i phlegm, and that according to his 
opinion it was hot and dry (oontriry to the opinion 
of tho two o'hers.) The rest concurred with him, and 
the opinion t]iat it was not injurious j)revai!ed. 
ThePeisians then said, tbat Benjiiz ah was nusstakeo, 
and that they spoke of another plant aleogether, which 
he mistook foi Coffee. 
F nally, they came to the ODnclusion, that be the 
effects of the Coffee good or bad, it would be tho safest 
pHn for a Mohammedan to abstain from the u'e of it, 
especially as there we e some amongst them, who placed 
Coffee amon.'st the things which disorilered and con- 
fused the brain. (Te 'ineer, aJzoo er zommige waren, dSe 
de Cojji otider de dingen stelden, die de herssenen bed.- 
weliiiden.) 
The Mufti of Mecca alone, a great Jurist and Divine, 
ventured to argue with soma vehemence in favor of 
Coffee, despite the Governor and the whole assemble ; but 
his opinion and arguements were rejected and laid aside 
by tne Zealots of their L iw, and the use of and all deal- 
in.;s in Coffee were prohibited under severe pu'dshment. 
Injunctions were givcn tit'ne Chief Magiatrates t) watch 
against nil Infractions of the order, and all tbe Coffee 
found in Mecca, was directed to be burnt and destroyed, 
not excepting the Coffee in the Warehouses, the 
property of the Merchants. But these rigorous and 
severe meiisurea did not either prevent or restrain 
those who were aln ady strongly addict 'd tj Coff'-.e. 
from continuing the use of it stealthily in their houses, 
under a coasci' usness, that the prohibition was the 
result of an ill-julged sentence of the assembly, 
esDOciftlly knowing, as (hey did, that the Mui'ti 
himself wa'i si strenuous an advocate for it. 
In the mean time an unfortunate delinquent ft 11 
into the hands of the Magistrate. The offender after 
being severely punished was as a warning to others, 
mounted upon sn Asi, and paraded throu^^h all the 
streets of Mecc* {op een ExeJ sittende, door alle jg 
straaten van Melcka wierd cjehid.) But this state of 
things did not continue long, for the Sult*n of Egyp^ 
