Ottoman Coffeehouses

History of Coffee and Coffeehouses

Course 1 · Chapter 2 · Coffee in the Ottoman World

Coffee spread from Yemen to Mecca, Cairo and Istanbul in the sixteenth century, and with it came a new kind of place: the public coffeehouse. It was also a place of controversy, because rulers and scholars worried about what people did in them. Dates and names are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Key Ideas

Mecca and Cairo

Coffee reached Mecca and Cairo in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A ban was attempted in Mecca in 1511, reportedly lifted soon after on the orders of the Mamluk sultan in Cairo (check).

Istanbul

The first coffeehouses in Istanbul are usually dated to the 1550s (check). They became centres of conversation, games, music and news, sometimes called schools of the wise.

Bans and worries

Scholars debated whether coffee was permitted under Islamic law and rulers feared the gatherings. Murad IV is reported to have tried to close coffeehouses in the 1630s (check how severe the penalties really were).

At a Glance

Place or termNote (check each)
MeccaA 1511 attempt to ban coffee, reversed.
IstanbulCoffeehouses from the 1550s; a major centre of the trade.
KahvehaneThe Turkish word for a coffeehouse.
Turkish coffeeFinely ground coffee boiled in a small pot (cezve), and now on UNESCO's intangible heritage list (check the date).
Why worry about a drink? The worry was seldom about the drink alone: the new places let men from different backgrounds meet and talk outside the home, mosque or court. Authorities in many periods have treated new public meeting places with suspicion.

Further Points

  • Who went. Coffeehouses were mostly male spaces (check, as accounts vary).
  • What happened inside. Storytellers, chess and backgammon, music, and political talk.
  • Trade. Ottoman control of ports such as Mocha and Alexandria made the empire a middleman for European buyers (check).
A British comparison A British parallel is the worry of authorities about alehouses and later gin shops, where drink and talk were thought to encourage disorder.
Check the details Dates, names and figures here are from general knowledge and flagged "check". Verify them against specialist histories and primary sources, and label unproven stories as "claimed".

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe three ways in which an Ottoman coffeehouse differed from a home or a mosque as a place to meet.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Why did rulers and scholars try to ban coffee, and why did the bans fail?

→ Solution
Exercise 3

What does the word kahve show about how words travel?

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Mecca ban: 1511 attempt (check)
  • Istanbul: first coffeehouses 1550s (check)
  • Role: news, games and talk
  • Concern: public gathering, not only the drink