SC - Royal declared chocolate period

[Decker, Terry D.]

> >>From Persian coffee roasting pans dated to the early 15th Century, we
> know
> >that coffee was consumed in Persia before the general spread of coffee.
> >This suggests that coffee as a beverage existed in the 14th Century.
> 
> How do we know they are coffee roasting pans? How precisely are they
> dated?
> 
> This is an example of a more general issue--how to interpret a situation
> where almost all of the available evidence suggests that something was
> introduced after date X, but there is one piece of evidence that implies
> it
> was introduced  earlier. If evidence were proof, the answer would be
> obvious--you accept the earlier date. But evidence isn't proof. In
> particular, the fact that one piece of evidence is anomalous is itself
> evidence (not proof) that someone has made a mistake.
> 
> In my view, the most plausible explanation is that the archaeologist in
> question misdated his dig. In the coffee case the argument isn't as
> strong,
> since Coffee is an old world crop, and the question is only when its usage
> as a drink spread. But I am still suspicious of the isolated early date,
> given the amount of evidence Hattox offers for a somewhat later date.
> 
> David/Cariadoc
> http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
> 
The coffee roasting pans represent an identifiable, specific-use utensil.  I
am accepting the identification and dating on the basis of Ukers
thoroughness until I can obtain more precise information.  The dating is
reasonable and it is just as plausible that the utensils have been correctly
identified and dated.

What is not stated is who used the coffee roasting pans and the purpose for
using the coffee.  The existence of the roasting pans says someone used
coffee in Persia at this time, it does not indicate general use.  To be
totally honest, they don't even demonstrate that coffee was being used as a
beverage, but I would be surprised if it wasn't.

Hattox's thesis is about the spread of coffee-drinking in the general
populace.  His summary of the facts is that coffee drinking appears to have
begun in Abyssinia, that coffee drinking was introduced to Yemen in the
first half of the 15th Century, that coffee drinking is commonly connected
to various Sufi masters, that the spread of coffee is tied to al-Dhabbani by
legend and reference, although he may not be the real prime mover, and that
general coffee use began spreading in the later half of the 15th Century.  

Frankly, Hattox's work is a specialized study of a social phenomenon and he
properly ignores information which does not contribute to exposition of his
work.  He ignores most of the Abyssinian questions.  He ignores the Persian
physicians.  He mostly ignores the Sufist issues, other than the Sufis
directly related to the spread of coffee to Yemen.  They are not pertinent
to his thesis, which is primarily about occurences in the 15th to 17th
Centuries.  The information he ignores is pertinent only when one takes a
broad look at coffee over a 1000 year span.  Hattox does not anwer the
question of when did coffee's usage as a drink spread.  He answers the
question of when did coffee usage as a drink change from restricted
consumption to general consumption.
 
In terms of most SCA personas, coffee use will be determined by the pattern
of general availability and consumption outlined by Hattox.

As for the suspicious date, let me remind you that 1258 is the earliest date
given for coffee drinking in Yemen, it is based on legend, and there are
conflicting datings of the legend.  As i have said before, I consider the
date apocryphal.  It is not an impossible date, but it is not a very
probable date.  

Hattox presents a great deal of evidence for the introduction of coffee
drinking into Yemen, some of it conflicting.  IIRC, the date could have
ranged from mid-14th Century to mid-15th Century.  I believe Hattox
summarized it as the first or second quarter of the 15th Century, possibly,
but not probably, the third quarter.  Reasonable and conservative.

I'm willing to accept 1258 as the earliest possible date for the Sufist
introduction of coffee into Yemen and 1450 as the latest possible date.  My
opinion of the most probable period for the introduction would be last
quarter of the 14th Century thru the first quarter of the 15th Century, but
I'm not as conservative as Hattox.

It should also be considered that "introducing" coffee drinking to an region
does not necessarily equate with "general use."

Bear 


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