SC - coffe and tea at events

[Decker, Terry D.]

>At 11:42 PM -0500 1/23/98, LrdRas wrote:
>>In a message dated 1/23/98 2:53:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, ddfr at best.com
>>writes:
>>
>><< A Middle Eastern persona from when? >>
>>
>>15th Century, Turkish
>
>In that case, if Hattox's chronology is correct, you may never have tasted
>coffee and certainly do not regard it as something to be routinely served
>to guests. He has it first introduced (from Abyssinia) into Yemen in the
>15th c., reaching Mecca in the last decade of the century and Cairo in the
>first decade of the 16th. So it hasn't gotten to the Ottomans yet, although
>it is barely possible that you have tasted it when travelling in Arabia.
>
>Someone should put together a list of things everyone believes that aren't
>so, including coffee in al-Islam (through most of our period), curved
>swords as the norm in al-Islam at the time of the crusades, medieval people
>never bathing, ...   .
>
>David/Cariadoc
>http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

If Uker's chronology is correct, a 15th Century Turk might have coffee
available, especially if they were wealthy.  This is primarily based on
the types of ewers and the coffee roasting plates which became available
in Persia, Egypt and Turkey between 1350 and 1500.  I keep hoping to
come across a study of a chemical or neutron bombardment analysis of the
interior of some of these artifacts (especially the earlier pottery
ewers) to determine if they were actually used for coffee.

In Uker, general coffee drinking starts about 1454 with Sheik
Gemaleddin, the Mufti of Aden, sanctioning the use of coffee in Arabia
Felix.  Coffee use spreads north.  Coffee is prohibited in Cairo in
1511.  Coffee reaches Constantinople with Selin I in 1517.  1524 the
Khadi of Mecca closes the coffee houses and his successor reopens them
under license.  1554 the first coffee houses are opened in
Constantinople by Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo.

>From a different source, I have coffee being introduced into
Constatinople in 1453 and the first coffee house, Kiva Han, being opened
in 1475.  I have not found an independent verification of this source
and it is not backed by a reliable bibliography or notes.

>From the sources I have available, and I do not have Hattox, my opinion
is that coffee has been available in the Islamic world since about 900
CE (Rhaze's description of bunchum).  It was probably a medicinal until
about 1250 (apocryphally, Sheik Omar, disciple of Sheik Schadheli,
patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, discovers the beverage
coffee at Ousab, Arabia), when it became a luxury trade good for the
very rich.  This would explain the existence of coffee making artifacts
and the lack of coffee houses.  Cultivation of coffee expanding to meet
the demand creates a surplus which lowers the price of coffee and brings
it to the masses around 1450.

While I may argue the precise dates and tell Lord Raz he had better be a
wealthy Turk if he wants to drink coffee, I will agree that the general
use of coffee as a beverage in al-Islam is very late in the SCA period.

Bear  
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