C 12 ) 
Plant ; and fince he was capable of miJdaking in a Matter where 
his Eyes might have been fufficient Judges, there is but little re- 
gard to be paid to the other Parts of his Relation, which he could 
by no means be affur’d of the Truth of. Neither Ludolphus, nor 
Father Tellez^ the two moft exad Hiftorians of Ethiopia, have 
(aid any thing of the Coffee Plant’s growing, or being fo much 
as known there. 
M. de Nointely Ambaflador from Louis the Fourteenth at the 
Porte, among the large Colledion of Oriental Manuferipts which 
he made by Order of the King his Mafter, chiefly relating to the 
Dodrine and Difeipline of the Eaftern Churches, brought back 
with him two Arahich ones, out of which may be gather’d the 
earliefl: Account any where to be found of the Ufe of Cofl'ee, 
and likewife of its Progrefs through the principal Places of the 
Levant. 
The firft of thefe Manuferipts was written in the Year of the 
Hegira which, by making fbme allowance for the lunar 
Years in their way of computing, will nearly anfwer to i 5 87 of 
the Chriflian /Era. The Name the Author gives himfelf is Ah- 
dalcader Mohammed Alanzari, Algezeri Alhanhali, i. e. Servant of 
God, Son of Mahomet, originally from Medina, Native of Gejir, 
of the Sed of Hamhal. The Title of his Book is. What ouzht to 
he jincerely and diJiinUly helieni' d concerning Coffee, that is, if 
it he lawful for a Muffulman to drink it. The whole is divided 
into (even Chapters. In the firfl: he treats of the Etymology 
and Signification of the Word Cahouah, Of the Nature and Pro- 
perties of it. Of the Country where it was firfl: in ufe. i^nd 
lafUy, of the Progrefs of it through the Eaft, till the Time in 
which he wrote . He owns, that all he fays concerning the firfl 
Difeovery of it, is taken from another Author, named Shehaheddin 
Ben Ahdalgajfar Almaleki, who ought fully to be depended on, 
having liv’d very near the Time in which his Hiflory begins. 
The other Chapters relate principally to a religious Difpute which 
had been very violent at Mecca, touching the Ufe of Coffee ; 
and he concludes with a Colledion of Verfes from the befl 
Arabian Poets in Praife of that Liquor. It is only the Hiflorical 
Part of this Performance which belongs to my Subjed, a'nd the 
Subfiance of it is this. 
Gemaleddin Ahen Ahdallah Mohammed Benfaid, furnamed Aldhah- 
hani, becaufe he was born in a little Town in Arabia Felix, 
being Mufti of Aden, a famous City and Sea-Port in the fame 
Country, undertook a Journey into Perjta about the middle of 
the fifteenth Century. While he remain’d there, he found fome 
