( ip ) 
permitted, becauie it was drank in Company in the fame mari- 
ner as the Infidels do Wine , but this was fbon anfwer’d by he 
Example of Mahomet himfelf, who drank Milk with his Friends 
in the fame manner as they did Coffee. 
Thefe Particulars we learn frohi this Author concerning the 
firft Diffovery, Progrefi, and Eftabliflirrtent of the Ufe of Coffe6 
in Arabia and Egypt ; and I can fee no reafon why the Fads he 
fets down may not be fully depended on: Fde had as good an 
Opportunity as was pofiible of being inform’d of the Truth, 
and he appears to have been very capable of diftinguifhing Truth 
from Falfliood. 
The other Arahick Manufcript is of a later Date. The Authof 
nam’d Bichhili^ was one of the three general Treafurers of the 
Ottoman Empire, and his Work contains the F^ilfory of Soliman 
and his Succeffors, to the Death of Amurath the Fourth ; foon 
after which, it is probable, he wrote. What relates to Coffee in 
his Hiftory, is chiefly concerning its Eftablilhment at Conjlanti- 
nopky and the various Fortunes it underwent there. He begins 
by acquainting us, that from Egypt the Knowledge of Coffee 
pafs’d into Syria, and there firfl: to Damafcus and Aleppo , from 
whence it was carried to all the other Towns of that large Pro- 
vince, without meeting with the leafl Oppofition in any of 
them. 
Before the Year 1554. no Coffee was feen, much lefs fold at 
Conjiantinople ; if ever it was fo much as heard of, it was only 
then, when the Sultanefs obtain’d an Order to prohibit the Ufe 
of it at Mecca, as we have already mention’d, from the Ac- 
counts llie had receiv’d from Pilgrims or other Travellers into Ara- 
bia, Egypt, or Syria. But in that Year, which was near an hun- 
dred from the time it was difcover’d by the Mupi of Aden, in 
the Reign of Soliman the Great, Son to Selim the firft 5 two Men, 
nam’d Schems and Hekim, the one from Damafcus^ the other from 
Aleppo, fet up each of them a Coffee-Houfe in that Quarter of 
Conjiantinople call’d Takhtacalah, furnifli’d with very neat Couches 
arid Carpets, on which they receiv’d their Company, which at 
firft confifled moft of ftudious Perfons, Lovers of Chefs, Tridirac, 
and other fedentary Diverfions ; and as the generality of the 
Turks came foon to reliflr this fort of Meeting-Places, call’d in 
their Language Cah^eh Ranch, the number of them multiplied in- 
fenfibly. They look’d upon them as very proper to make Ac- 
quaintances in, as well as to refrefh and entertain themfelves at an 
eafy Charge, a Difli of Coffee cofting but an Afpre, which is not 
an Halfpenny of Evglijh Money. Young People near the end of 
