[Sca-cooks] Coffee Redux - a Look at The History of Coffee

[Terry Decker]

Excellent and many thanks.   I was still looking for a source.

The segment is to be found on page 105 of Vol. VII No. 2, the January 1917 
issue.  The author appears to have been a member of the Mysore Royal 
Archeological Society and appears to have been careful about delineating 
fact, tradition and evidence.  It is far more useful than the footnote in 
The Devil's Cup would suggest.

Just to save everybody time, here is the pertinent quotation:

“The Baba Budan mountain has been rightly called the cradle of the coffee 
plantation of South India.  The man who first brought coffee to Mysore is 
said to be Hazrat Shah Jama Allah Mazarabi.  According to tradition coffee 
began to be cultivated on the mountain in A.D. 1385 during the reign of the 
Vijayanagar King Harihara II; and it is stated that a 'nirup' or order was 
issued by this king to the officers concerned directing them to allow free 
the articles brought  for the use of the 'matha' in exchange for the coffee 
seeds grown on the mountain.  It is further stated that a stone inscription 
was set up during the reign of the Vijayanagar King Krishna-Deva-Raya 
(1509-1529) permitting the cultivation of coffee within certain limits on 
the mountain as in the previous reigns without any molestation from the 
Government officers.  But no such inscription has as yet been found.  It is, 
however, interesting to note  that tradition carries the cultivation of 
coffee on this mountain as far back as the close of the fourteenth century.”

Narasimhacrya, Rao Bahader R. A., “The Baba-Budan Mountain,” The Quarterly 
Journal of the Mythic Society, Mysore; Vol. VII, No. 2, January, 1917, pg. 
105.

I kinda wish he had said where "it is stated."  It is a truly fascinating 
paragraph as it gives an earlier date than is normally associated with Baba 
Budan (Mazarabi), but one that is in keeping with the spread of Sufism and 
one that would easily fit with other Sufi traditions about coffee.

Bear


  If anyone were inclined to have a read through the relevant Mythic
Society volume, there's a PDF at:


https://indianhistorybooks5.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/4990010047643-the-quarterly-journal-of-the-mythic-societyvol-71916-1917-n-a-374p-social-science-english-1917.pdf

  The PDF is an image scan of the pages, not a text document, so trying to
find the text avails nothing. And as it's from 1917, modern scholars might
look a little askance at it - I suspect that my history tutor would say
something about the borders between history and antiquarianism. It's 375 or
so pages in total, although it looks like a good few are blank.

   Le meas,
   Aodh