ANST - Traveling INN

Dennis Grace amazing at mail.utexas.edu
Wed Apr 1 12:38:36 PST 1998


Salut Cozyns,

Lyonel aisai.

I should know better than to rely on my failing memory with this list.
Bear corrects my unsupported claim that coffee was available in the 8th
century wiiiiith:

>The first description of coffee (Rhazes) is 10th Century.  Avicenna is 11th.
>And they were describing medicinal properties.
>
>Coffee was probably in use as a beverage by the 14th Century, but in my
>opinion, it was a luxury trade good.  (Cariadoc disputes this one, placing
>the spread of coffee in the late 15th century).
>
>Common use of coffee in Arabia Felix doesn't begin until at least the middle
>of the 15th Century.  Widespread general usage does not begin until the 16th
>Century.
>
>I have a source placing a coffee house (Kiva Han) in Constantinople in 1475
>CE, but I can not find confirmation.  My preferred source (Ukers) doesn't
>place them there until the early 16th Century.
>
>If you know of sources supporting the earlier dates, please post them.

Okay, here's the earlier dates.  These are according to the coffee shop
bible _Bean Business Basics_ (I know, not exactly a scholarly work; I'll
try to verify this stuff first chance I get).

Prior to 1000 AD: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they
get an
energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal
fat. 

1000 AD: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the
plant
for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the  green
beans, creating a drink
they call "qahwa" (literally, that which prevents sleep). The turks
pronounced this "kahveh."

1350: Turkish traders begin dry roasting the beans for ease of transport
(and possibly to
strengthen the resulting drink).  

1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's
first
coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a
woman
to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily quota of
coffee. 

1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee for
feat that its
influence might foster opposition to his rule. The sultan sends word that
coffee is
sacred and has the governor executed.   

1529: The Turkish Army surrounds Vienna. Franz Georg Kolschitzky, a Viennese
who had lived in Turkey, slips through the enemy lines to lead relief
forces to the
city. The fleeing Turks leave behind sacks of "dry black fodder" that
Kolschitzky
recognises as coffee. He claims it as his reward and opens central Europe's
first
coffee house. He also establishes the habit of refining the brew by
filtering out the
grounds, sweetening it, and adding a dash of milk. 

1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention in
high
places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his advisers to consider
that favourite
drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. However, he decides to
"baptise" it instead, making it an acceptable Christian beverage.

I've also seen reference that says the Pope who baptised coffee was Vincent
III, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that this last item is apocryphal.
Admittedly, the earliest *English* reference to coffee provided by the OED
is dated 1598.

lo vostre por vos servir
Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace, HCB*




*Heavily Caffeinated Baron
________________________________
Dennis Grace
Assistant Instructor
Recovering Medievalist
Department of English
University of Texas at Austin

mailto:amazing at mail.utexas.edu

Micel yfel deth se unwritere.
	--AElfric of York
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