Coffee and coffeehouses among the Ottomans

Coffee has had a long, yet sometimes controversial, role in the history of this region. After several attempts to ban the bean, the Ottoman Empire gave into its newfound coffee culture The story of coffee drinking is a curious matter. The beverage can be dated to around 800 B.C. Homer and Arabian legends refer to it and the Persian mathematician and physician Avicenna used it as medicine in 11th century A.D., according to one source. Over the centuries, several apocryphal legends have attached themselves, such as one about the goat herder in Ethiopia and others about coffee's discovery by monks or possibly by Sufis. These later stories agree though that coffee came from Ethiopia and reached Yemen as early as 1400, and probably much earlier, before spreading through the Middle East and along the North African coast.

The rapid spread of coffee drinking has been attributed initially to the Sufis, a mystic interpretation of Islam, who drank coffee because of their long and often rigorous ceremonies. It made them stronger and more awake. These sects gained adherents who came from many different walks of life, spreading across political and cultural boundaries and breaking down social barriers. Ebu'l Hassan Şazeli, the founder of the mystic Şazeli sect, reportedly first discovered coffee on a trip to Mecca in 1258 and spread the pleasure of coffee drinking from there.  He became the "patron saint" of coffeehouses.

An Ottoman coffeehouse wasn't just for coffee.

The Greeks claim that a Greek opened the first coffeehouse in Constantinople in 1475 at a place called Kiva Han, possibly in today's Tahtakale district, although Turkish sources suggest coffee was only brought to the city in 1517 after Sultan Selim I (r. 1512-1520...