COFFEE. 
76 
revenues of the state. In the beginning of the six- 
teenth century, similar disturbances, on the same 
account, broke out at Cairo. In the year 1523, the 
930th of the Hegira, Abdallah Ibrahim openly 
preached against the use of this liquor, in the 
mosques : this proceeding, as may readily be sup- 
posed, inflamed the people, and the parties came 
to blows ; but the shiek El-belet, (commander of 
the city,) having assembled the doctors together, at- 
tended with great patience to a long harangue upon 
the subject ; and after having agreed that coffee 
was an innocent beverage, and fit to be used all 
over the world, he dissolved the meeting, and thus 
wisely re-established tranquillity in the city. After 
this, the use of coffee was universally established 
throughout the East, where it still continues a fa- 
vourite, notwithstanding the severity of the laws, 
and the austerity of religion, were once united to 
proscribe it. 
In the reign of Soliman the Great, about the 
year 1554, coffee became an article of general use 
in Constantinople ; and in about a century after- 
wards it was adopted both in London and Paris ; 
but its introduction into England during the reign of 
Charles the Second, met with the same opposition 
that it had formerly experienced in Turkey un- 
der Amurath and Mahomet. It was found that 
coffee-houses served only to harbour the disorderly 
and seditious parts of the community; therefore, in 
the year 1675, the government thought fit to sup- 
