Coffee and qahwa: How a drink for Arab mystics went global - BBC News BBC News Coffee and qahwa: How a drink for Arab mystics went global By John McHugo Author Close share panel Image copyright Thinkstock The Arab world has given birth to many thinkers and many inventions - among them the three-course meal, alcohol and coffee. The best coffee bean is still known as Arabica, but it's come a long way from the Muslim mystics who treasured it centuries ago, to the chains that line our high streets. Think coffee, and you probably think of an Italian espresso, a French cafe au lait, or an American double grande latte with cinnamon. Perhaps you learned at school that the USA became a nation of coffee drinkers because of the excise duty King George placed on tea? Today ubiquitous chains like Starbucks, Cafe Nero and Costa grace every international airport, and follow the now much humbler Nescafe as symbols of globalisation. Coffee is produced in hot climates like Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia, and you could be forgiven if you thought it is a product from the New World like tobacco and chocolate.

After all, all three became popular in Europe at more or less the same time, in the 16th and 17th Centuries. In fact, coffee comes from the highland areas of the countries at the southern end of the Red Sea - Yemen and Ethiopia. Image copyright Getty Images Although a beverage made from the wild coffee plant seems to have been first drunk by a legendary shepherd on the Ethiopian plateau, the earliest cultivation of coffee was in Yemen and Yemenis gave it the Arabic name qahwa, from which our words coffee and cafe both derive. Qahwa originally meant wine, and Sufi mystics in Yemen used coffee as an aid to concentration and even spiritual intoxication when they chanted the name of God. Three courses, and alcohol Image copyright Getty Images The Arabs invented the concept of the three-course meal, with soup followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts - the habit was brought across to Moorish Spain in the 9th Century from Iraq Alcohol may have been distilled in c800AD by Jabir Ibn Hayyan in Kufa in Iraq, and our word "alcohol" derives from the Arabic "al kuhul"...

many Arab countries, like Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco, make wines and beers, even though Islam does not permit the drinking of alcohol Find out about buying and using coffee beans By 1414, it was known in Mecca and in the early 1500s was spreading to Egypt from the Yemeni port of Mocha. It was still associated with Sufis, and a cluster of coffee houses grew up in Cairo around the religious university of the Azhar. They also opened in Syria, especially in the cosmopolitan city of Aleppo, and then in Istanbul, the capital of the vast Ottoman Turkish Empire, in 1554. In Mecca, Cairo and Istanbul attempts were made to ban it by religious authorities. Learned shaykhs discussed whether the effects of coffee were similar to those of alcohol, and some remarked that passing round the coffee pot had something in common with the circulation of a pitcher of wine, a drink forbidden in Islam. Coffee houses were a new institution in which men met together to talk, listen to poets and play games like chess and backgammon. They became a focus for intellectual life and could be seen as an implicit rival to the mosque as a meeting place.

Some scholars opined that the coffee house was "even worse than the wine room", and the authorities noted how these places could easily become dens of sedition. However, all attempts at banning coffee failed, even though the death penalty was used during the reign of Murad IV (1623-40). The religious scholars eventually came to a sensible consensus that coffee was, in principle, permissible. Coffee spread to Europe by two routes - from the Ottoman Empire, and by sea from the original coffee port of Mocha. Image copyright Getty Images Both the English and Dutch East India Companies were major purchasers at Mocha in the early 17th Century, and their cargoes were brought home via the Cape of Good Hope or exported to India and beyond. They seem, however, to have only taken a fraction of Yemeni coffee production - as the rest went north to the rest of the Middle East. Image copyright Getty Images The coffee which is native to the Gulf is bitter and sometimes flavoured with cardamom or other spices Coffee also arrived in Europe through trade across the Mediterranean and was carried by the Turkish armies as they marched up the Danube.

As in the Middle East, the coffee house became a place for men to talk, read, share their opinions on the issues of the day and play games. Another similarity was that they could harbour gatherings for subversive elements. Charles II denounced them in 1675 as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers". A century later Procope, the famous Parisian coffee house, had such habitues as Marat, Danton and Robespierre who conspired together there during the Revolution. At first, coffee had been viewed with suspicion in Europe as a Muslim drink, but around 1600 Pope Clement VIII is reported to have so enjoyed a cup that he said it would be wrong to permit Muslims to monopolise it, and that it should therefore be baptised. Austrian coffee drinking is said to have received a big boost when the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 was broken, and the European victors captured huge coffee supplies from the vanquished.

Perhaps that is why, to this day, coffee is served in Vienna with a glass of water - just like the tiny cups of powerful Turkish coffee with its heavy sediment in Istanbul, Damascus or Cairo. Is this just a coincidence, or a long forgotten cultural borrowing? Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Viennese cafes serve it with a glass of water The beverage we call "Turkish coffee" is actually a partial misnomer, as Turkey is just one of the countries where it is drunk. In Greece they call it "Greek coffee", although Egyptians, Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians and others do not seem to care overmuch about the name.

10 borrowed Arabic words The word cheque comes from the Arabic word saqq, and reflects the sophistication of finance in Arab countries in the early middle ages The word algorithm is derived from the name of Abū Abdallah Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi whose name (al-Khwarizmi) is, in Latin, Algoritmi Cipher comes from Arabic sifr, meaning "zero, naught, nothing" The word for cotton derives from the Arabic qutn Ghoul is an Arabic word for "a desert demon which can appear in different forms and shapes; an ogre or cannibal" The English magazine is a word borrowed from the Arabic makhzan, meaning "storehouse" Nadir has its origin in Arabic nazir, indicating "opposite, facing, parallel" Tamarind refers to Arabic tamr hindi, literally meaning "Indian date" The word safari has its root in the Arabic word safar, which means "journey" Tariff comes from Arabic ta'rif, which means "notification" or "definition" But there are other coffee drinking traditions in the Arab world. The coffee which is native to the Gulf is bitter and sometimes flavoured with cardamom or other spices.

It is often served a decent interval after a guest has arrived - to serve it too soon might be an impolite suggestion of haste - and then once again before departure. It often comes just before or after a small glass cup of black, sweet tea. The order in which the two beverages are served varies, and seems to have no significance. What is remarkable for a Western visitor is the idea that the two very different drinks should be offered in such quick succession. Sadly, however, while coffee has gone truly global production has declined in Yemen, the victim of cheap imports and rival crops like the narcotic qat. In 2011, Yemen exported a mere 2,500 tonnes although there are attempts to revive cultivation of the best coffee in its original home. Today, none of the Arab countries is listed among the world's significant producers. John McHugo is author of A Concise History of The Arabs You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook .

45 Addictive Facts about Coffee | FactRetriever.com 45 Addictive Facts about Coffee By Karin Lehnardt, Senior Writer Published November 24, 2016 According to legend, coffee was discovered in the 9th century when an Ethiopian goat herder named Khaldi noticed that his normally lethargic goats were more excitable after they had nibbled the red berries from an evergreen tree. Khaldi took the berries to a Muslim holy man, who turned the raw fruit of the coffee tree into the delicious beverage.[8] Though coffee was discovered in Ethiopia around A.D. 850, it wasn’t until it spread to Mocha, Yemen, in around 1100 that it became firmly established as a popular drink. From Mocha (from which Mocha coffee derives its name), beans were shipped to India, Java, and eventually Europe in 1515. By 1675, England had more than 3,000 coffee houses.[3] Coffee was originally regarded as a wonder drug in Yemen and Arabia and was taken only at the advice of a doctor.

Many saw coffee as a brain tonic or as a way to stimulate religious visions.[2] Arabs were the first to cultivate coffee trees on the Arabian Peninsula. Arabs typically roasted and boiled coffee, or qahwa, which is Arabic for “the wine of Islam.”[4] Coffee has mood-boosting effects A 2011 study showed that women who drink two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 15% less likely to develop depression over a 10-year period than those who drank one cup of coffee or less per week.[1] More than 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed each year, making coffee the world’s most popular beverage.

It is also the world’s most traded commodity, after crude oil.[1] The only places in North America where coffee is grown is in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.[2] The world’s first coffee house opened in 1475 in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).[6] When Khair Bey, the governor of Mecca, banned coffee in 1511 because he feared it might encourage resistance to his rule, the sultan executed him on the grounds that coffee was actually “blessed.”[8] Coffee was imported from Arabia to Europe through Venice in the 1600s.

While some monks urged Pope Clemente VIII to outlaw the “Muslim” drink, the pope argued that the drink was so good that it would be a “sin” to let only “pagans drink it.” Coffee thus began to spread across Europe.[8] When the first coffeehouse opened in England in 1652, women were prohibited from entering, other than to serve men.[8] A Belgian named George Washington invented instant coffee in 1906 in Guatemala.[8] Research has shown that drinking coffee may decrease cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disorders.[8] The Arabs discovered coffee, but were jealous of their discovery and refused to allow fertile coffee seeds to leave their country. However a 17th-century Muslim pilgrim, Baba Budan, smuggled seven seeds out of Arabia and planted them in India. It is said that all the world’s coffee came from these seven seeds.[4] Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the United States Americans are the world’s leading coffee consumer.

They consume 450 million cups of coffee per day, or more than 150 billion cups a year.[8] There are two main species of the coffee plant used to commercially produce coffee: 1) Coffee arabica, which originated in the Middle East, and 2) Coffea robusta, which originated in the Congo. Arabica trees produce the best quality coffee and are the most widely cultivated (3/4 of the world’s coffee), while Robusta beans are hardier, contain 40-50% more caffeine, and are used in many instant coffees.[4] The Dutch were the first Europeans to enter the coffee trade. They imported coffee plants from the Malabar Coast of India to their colonies in what were then called the Dutch East Indies, or present-day Indonesia.[2] In 1715, Dutch coffee merchants presented the influential King of France, Louis XIV, with a coffee tree of his own. Millions and millions of trees have sprung from that single tree, thanks in part to Chevalier Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, who stole some cuttings from the tree and began cultivating coffee on Martinique in the Caribbean.

Within 50 years, there were over 20 million trees on Martinique and neighboring islands.[8] Although yields vary from harvest to harvest, a single coffee tree usually provides only enough coffee beans in a year to fill a half-kilo (one-pound) bag of ground coffee.[8] It takes 3 to 4 years for a coffee tree to mature. Once it matures, each tree will bear one to two pounds of coffee beans per growing season.[4] Light roast coffee has more caffeine that dark roast coffee.

The longer coffee is roasted, the more caffeine is cooked from the bean.[4] The Turks call their coffee houses “schools for the wise.”[6] Coffee houses were often the hub of social change and the exchange of ideas Coffee was banned three times in three different cultures: once in Mecca in the 16th century, once when Charles II in Europe banned the drink in an attempt to quiet an ongoing revolution, and once when Frederick the Great banned coffee in Germany in 1677 because he was concerned people were spending too much money on the drink.[8] The coffee industry employs 25 million people around the world.[6] Tea was more popular than coffee in America until King George the III’s Stamp Act of 1767 increased taxes. The result was the Boston Tea Party, a rebellion in which Bostonians dumped the British East India tea cargos into a harbor. From that point, coffee became America’s national drink and was emotionally linked with its revolution.[8] With more than four billion coffee trees, Brazil is the world’s leading producer of coffee. In fact, Brazil produces around one third of the world’s coffee today.

Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia, and India round out the top five coffee-producing countries.[1] Coffee trees are cultivated in over 70 countries, mostly in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.[8] The health effects of coffee depend largely on how coffee is prepared. For example, coffee paper filters remove oily components called diterpenes, which have been linked to coronary heart disease. Metal filters, however, do not remove these oily components.[8] Drinking coffee has been associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer recurrence and progression Studies show that men who drink six or more cups of coffee daily decrease their risk of developing prostate cancer by 20%.[8] The word “coffee” is from the Arabic qahwah, which is thought to have meant “wine.” The Turkish word for coffee, kahve, is derived from the Arabic word and is related to the word café. Other scholars believe the word is from Kaffa, a region in Ethiopia where coffee is thought to have originated.[6] To produce enough beans to make one cup of coffee requires 37 gallons of water.

By comparison, an apple takes 19 gallons, a banana 27, and a pair of leather shoes 4,400 gallons.[5] One third of the tap water used for drinking in North America is used to brew daily cups of coffee.[5] Studies show that drinking coffee reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout.[8] An estimated four out of five Americans start their day with a coffee.[1] Besides Americans, the two other largest drinkers of coffee are the French and the Germans. These three countries drink approximately 65% of the total coffee consumed in the world.[8] During WWII, American soldiers were known as G.I. Joes. Because they drank large amounts of coffee, the drink soon earned the popular nickname “a cup of Joe.”[8] I'd rather take coffee than compliments just now. - Louisa May Alcott, Little Women The most expensive coffee in the world is Indonesia’s Kopi Luwak or civet coffee.

It is made from coffee beans that have been eaten, partially digested, and then excreted by a weasel-like animal called the Asian palm civet. These beans sell for more than $600 a pound, or $50 a cup.[1] The amount of caffeine in coffee depends on the type of beans, how they were roasted, and how the coffee was brewed. Typically, a small 8-ounce cup of coffee has between 65 milligrams of caffeine if it’s instant and 115 milligrams if it’s drip brewed.[2] In the United States, September 29 is celebrated as National Coffee Day. In Costa Rica, it’s September 12; in Ireland, it’s September 19; and in Japan, it’s October 1.[1][6] Because the organs and systems in a fetus are not able to metabolize and excrete caffeine fully, caffeine can stay in its blood 10 times longer than in an adult. Because of this, physicians advise that pregnant women drink a moderate (less than 200 milligrams) amount coffee per day.[8] Coffee contains antioxidants, which helps prevent free radicals from damaging cells.

One study found that a typical servicing (approximately 9 oz) of coffee contains more antioxidants than a serving of grape juice, blueberries, raspberries, or oranges.[8] There are over 87,000 possible drink combinations at Starbucks Starbucks opened in Seattle in 1971. In 2010, it boasted revenues of $10.7 billion and 16,850 stores in 40 countries, making it the world’s top coffee retailer. Starbucks offers over 87,000 possible drink combinations.[7] The smell of burning wood is the most recognizable odor in America. The smell of coffee is the second.[8] Starbucks coffee shops use over 93 million gallons of milk per year. This would be enough to fill 155 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Additionally, they use 2.3 billion paper cups annually.[7] The name Starbucks was inspired by a character in the novel Moby Dick.

The owners almost named their coffee shop Pequod, after the whaling ship in the novel.[7] Pinnable Facts Keyword Tags coffee - Wiktionary coffee Etymology[ edit ] From 1582 via Dutch koffie ‎(“coffee”), from Italian caffè ‎(“coffee”), from Ottoman Turkish قهوه ‎(kahve, “coffee”), from Arabic قَهْوَة ‎(qahwa, “coffee, a brew”). Cognates include Turkish kahve . The Arabic word has been said to originally have referred to wine, although some sources instead claim it traces back to the name of the Kaffa region of Ethiopia , which is an Omotic word. ( UK ) IPA ( key ): /ˈkɒ.fi/, (Conservative RP, dated) /ˈkɔː.fɪ/ Audio (UK) coffee ‎( countable and uncountable , plural coffees ) A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.

1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers , “chapter IV ”, in The Younger Set OCLC 4241346 : "He was here," observed Drina composedly, "and father was angry with him." ¶ "What?" exclaimed Eileen. "When?" ¶ "This morning, before father went downtown." ¶ Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a careless word or two; and coffee was served—cambric tea in Drina's case. 2008, Agnes Poirier, The Guardian, 12 April: As I sip a coffee at Brasserie Balzar, two well-known intellectuals, one publisher and a Sorbonne professor were discussing Sarkozy's future: "He won't finish his mandate" says one. The Economist , volume 407, number 8841, page 68: […] a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, misnamed ‘beans’ due to their shape. A tropical plant of the genus Coffea . ( Discuss ( + ) this sense) A pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee. coffee colour: The end of a meal, when coffee is served. He did not stay for coffee.‎ 14 Common Food and Drink Words With Arabic Origins | Mental Floss 14 Common Food and Drink Words With Arabic Origins istock Like us on Facebook A surprising number of common English food and beverage words have Arabic backgrounds. Spanish absorbed many Arabic words during the centuries that the Moors occupied the Iberian Peninsula, 711 to 1492 AD. Some of these words spread to other European languages, including French. Following the Norman Conquest, some of them entered English. Sometimes, though, the words traveled other routes from Arabic to English. 1. Alcohol The word originally referred not to intoxicating drink, but to enticing eye make-up. The Arabic word al-kuḥl meant "(the) kohl," the black powder used for eyeliner since ancient Egyptian times.

The cosmetic was still used in North Africa and the Middle East when the word entered English in the 1500s. Although the powder was made by grinding various minerals, alcohol came to mean any fine powder or a distilled essence or spirit. In the 1700s, alcohol acquired its current meaning: a colorless volatile flammable liquid that is the intoxicating constituent of wine, beer, spirits, and other drinks. 2. Apricot This word has a baroque history. It entered English in the 16th century from Portuguese albricoque or Spanish albaricoque, but later was modified by the related French word abricot. Old Spanish albarcoque came from Spanish Arabic al-borcoque, from Arabic al-burqūq. The Arabic word derives from late Greek praikokion, from Latin praecoquum, a variant of praecox, "early ripe." 3. Artichoke The ancient Egyptians, Romans, and classical Greek inhabitants of Sicily ate cardoons, the wild relative of artichokes. Most likely, the artichoke was cultivated from the wild cardoon in the Islamic world and distributed throughout it by 1500.

Artichoke came into English in the mid 16th century from northern Italian articiocco, which came from Spanish alcarchofa, ultimately from Arabic al-karšūfa. 4. Coffee Coffee comes from Arabic qahwah, meaning coffee or wine, perhaps originally “dark stuff.” The word entered European languages about 1600 from Turkish kahve. It may have passed into English through Italian caffè or Dutch koffie. 5. Lemon Lemon may come from Arabic līmūn (a collective term for citrus fruits), via Old French limon (which means "lime" in modern French), although similar words occur in Persian and Sanskrit, making the origin uncertain. 6. Lime Lime appeared in English in the 17th century from French lime or from modern Provençal limo, from Spanish lima, from Arabic līma. 7. Orange Orange has a long and complex history. The American Heritage Dictionary traces the word back to the Dravidian languages of southern India and Sri Lanka, where the fruit likely originated.

The editors say that in ancient times, a Dravidian word similar to the modern Tamil word for orange, nāram, was adopted into the Indo-European language Sanskrit as nāraṅgah. As the fruit moved westward, the word entered Persian as nārang and Arabic as nāranj. The Arabs brought oranges to Spain and Sicily between the 8th and 10th centuries and from there the fruit spread to the rest of Europe. Italian adopted the Arabic word as arancio. French altered the first vowel to o-, perhaps influenced by the place name Orange and also by the Old French word or, "gold," in reference to the color. What happened to the n-? It was probably absorbed by the preceding /n/ sound in the indefinite article in French and Italian, although in some cases the n- was already lost in Arabic. The word came into English from Anglo-Norman about 1400. It was first used to denote a color in the mid 1500s. 8.

Saffron It takes a heap of crocus flowers to produce enough stigmas (the part of a pistil that receives the pollen during pollination) to impart the distinctive flavor and bright orange color needed for paella or other dishes in which saffron is used. That’s why it’s so costly. The word entered English before 1200 from Old French safran. In one of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes Sir Thopas: “His heer, his berd was lyk saffroun.” The origin of the word is Arabic za‛farān. 9. Sherbet Sherbet was originally a Middle Eastern beverage made from fruit juice and sweetened water, often cooled with snow. English picked up the word in the early 1600s from Turkish and Persian. Those languages got the word from Arabic sharbah, from shariba to drink. In 19th-century England, sherbet came to mean a sweet, fizzy drink. Now in British English sherbet refers to a fizzy, flavored powder eaten by dipping a finger into the packet.

In American English, it refers to a frozen dessert made with fruit juice added to milk or cream, egg white, or gelatin. 10. Sorbet In the late 16th century, English got the word sorbet from French, which got it from Italian sorbetto, which came from Turkish shorbet, which goes back to sharbah, the same Arabic word that is the origin of sherbet. In American usage, sorbet tends to be lighter than sherbet, often made with just ice and flavoring. 11. Carob The carob tree is a small evergreen native to the eastern Mediterranean that bears long brownish-purple edible pods. The flour made from the pods is sometimes promoted as a chocolate substitute (as if!). According to the OED, the carob pod is “generally identified with the ‘husks’ eaten by the prodigal in the parable, Luke 15:16; and by some taken to be the ‘locusts’ eaten by John the Baptist, whence the names locust-pods, and St.

John's bread.” Carob entered English in the mid-1500s, from Old French carobe, from medieval Latin carrubia, from Arabic kharrūba. 12. Caraway The seeds of the caraway plant, a member of the parsley family, have an anise-like taste and are used to flavor desserts, cheese, Indian rice dishes, and other foods. Caraway entered English around 1440, either from medieval Latin carui, or from a Romance language cognate. (The word is carvi in French, Italian, and Spanish.) In Old Spanish, it was alcaravea or alcarahueya, from Arabic al-karawiyā or –karwiyā. The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary believe that the Arabic word is probably derived from Greek karon, "cumin," an idea disputed by the OED. 13. Syrup The word entered English at the end of the 14th century, from Old French sirop or medieval Latin siropus, ultimately from Arabic sharāb wine or other beverage, syrup, shurb drink. 14.

Tamarind Tamarind refers to the sticky brown acidic pulp from the pod of a tree of the pea family, widely used as a flavoring in Asian cooking; the pod from which this pulp is extracted; or the tropical African tree that yields the pods. The word shows up in English in the 1500s from medieval Latin tamarindus, from Arabic tamr hindī, "Indian date." Sources Oxford English Dictionary Online, accessed via ; New Oxford American Dictionary, (2nd ed.); Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World , p. 64; American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). All images courtesy of iStock. Talk:قهوة - Wiktionary Talk:قهوة "قهوة" and "wine"[ edit ] Evidence that this term also means or once meant "wine": Collins Word Exchange: History: C16: from Italian caffè, from Turkish kahve, from Arabic qahwah coffee, wine [1] Online Etymology Dictionary: 1598, from It. caffe, from Turk.

kahveh, from Arabic qahwah "coffee," said originally to have meant "wine," but perhaps rather from Kaffa region of Ethiopia, a home of the plant (Coffee in Kaffa is called buno). [2] Wikipedia (previous version of the "Coffee" article): the name later evolved from Arabic word قهوة qahwa, over Ottoman Turkish kahve, which originally meant wine or other intoxicating liquors [3] The QARR Coffee: Qahwah (قهوة in Arabic), though an Arabic word for wine, is the original name of the coffee beverage made from its infusion [4] blurtit: since the word coffee is derived from the Arabic word, قهوة Qah'wa, which originally meant wine or liquior [5] Reason Magazine: A member of the Sufi order of Shadhili mystics is credited with first brewing coffee, or qahwa (short for qahwa al-bon, "wine of the bean" in Arabic), and it quickly spread through the group [6] gardfoods.com: One of the characteristics of the coffee bean is it can be fermented. Fermentation is the process of making alcohol form high sugar content plants.

The word "qahwa" in Arabic means wine. Qahwa is the origin of the word coffee. In Europe, coffee was called "the wine of Arabia." Fermenting the coffee berry is still done today in Ethiopia and some Arabian countries. It is not commonly known that the coffee berry can be fermented. [7] JSTOR: The Oxford English Dictionary further notes that Arabic qahwah is said by certain Arabic lexicographers to have originally meant 'wine' or 'some kind of ... [8] Saudi Aramco World: Even the origin of the word itself is debated—in classical Arabic, qahwa originally referred to a kind of dark red wine [9] American Heritage Dictionary: Also khw. Central Semitic, to be(come) weak, dim, dull, dark. café, cafeteria, caffeine, coffee, ultimately from Arabic qahwa, coffee, wine (originally perhaps “dark stuff”), akin to Arabic kahiya, to be(come) weak, Aramaic kh, qh, Hebrew khâ, qhâ, to be(come) dim, faint, dull. [10] It's very easy to find many many references with Google.

Even if the story is false it is commonly enough believed, even by dictionaries, that it needs to be mentioned in the Etymology section and makes the real Arabic words for "wine" and "alcohol" relevant for the See also section. — Hippietrail 01:46, 8 December 2006 (UTC) I only find mentions in English sources, all based, like Online Etymology.com, on hypothesis and conjecture, but I don’t see any evidence in Arabic sources that it ever meant wine. It’s not even formed like a native word and, unlike most roots, it has no other senses than about coffee. Many Arabs will consider a wikilink from قهوة to نبيذ to be an insult. It would be better to link to كحل and نبيذ directly from the coffee page. —Stephen 02:04, 8 December 2006 (UTC) Perhaps the same feelings that would consider the linking of two pages insulting to the point that you're recommending bowlderization contribute to the lack of references in Arabic sources. We have many other insulting words, definitions, etc.

Do you find even the AHD's and OED's etymologists to be of a low standard? Might the Saudi Aramco World reference be taken as an Arabic source to some degree? In my search I've found references that state that in certain eras coffee drinkers were persecuted by certain mulsim sects just as wine drinkers. This should also be enough to warrant a See also link and outweigh any insulting feelings. — Hippietrail 02:13, 8 December 2006 (UTC) This article in Foodie's Corner covers the history of coffee and of the word and includes multiple theories: [11] — Hippietrail 13:01, 8 December 2006 (UTC) Arabic Coffee (Qahwa) - a poem by Sai Babas Lotus. All poetry poets - All Poetry Most warm elixir of Arabia Flavoured with cardamom, Qahwa Served in small handleless cups When over four people meet up. In Europe when it was forbidden Rule breakers were overridden Sewn alive into a leather sack Then tossed into the sea back.

'Wine of Islam' its other name In cities it tastes fairly tame In the desert, Bedouins Serve it very bitter to kin. Reciting the ratib 'Ya Qawi' Alongwith sandalwood beads Invokes the Possessor of All Strength 116 times when said at length. Drink no more than three servings This signifies greediness beginning Under two half-filled cups is impolite Wobbling upsets the hostess outright. Once finished shake your cup Let all know your through till up Else the server will keep refilling From the 'dallah' keep pouring. Now careful don't drain your cup At the bottom lie grounds of luck The shapes formed shall be seen Your future's revealation let's begin! Next hot tea is brought out With dates stuffed, some without Sesame seeds some contain The event concludes with a treat Of Belgium chocolates very sweet No more than two each are allowed The hostess smiles and thanks all. Marqaha, divine bliss, qahwa produces As friends come close, tension reduces Coffee, prayer and good intention Unlock mysteries epitomising devotion. 13th June'2006 8:20 p.m.

Arabic Coffee is known as Qahwa and pronounced as Kah-wa. It is greenish-brown in colour due to the presence of ground cardamom. Few kinds of qahwa: Qahwa meherris is coffee with a dab of milk. The opposite is helib meherris: milk with a dab of coffee. In between these two are qahwa nus-nus: half coffee, half milk; and of course, café au lait or qahwa helib . 'Qahwa ma'nawiyya' and 'qahwat al-Sufiyya' refer to the ideal qahwa! Qahwa with a dab of sugar is 'qahwa areeha', sugar free is 'saada qahwa' and with sugar is 'khafeef qahwa'. It is believed that were coffee is served there is grace, splendour, happiness, friendship and God. Note: 'Marqaha' refers to the euphoria or feeling of happiness qahwa produces. 'Dallah' refers to the traditional pot. 'Ratib' is the term used for Divine name of God.

A personal qahwa story: It was served to me after dinner and I was told it is good for digestion. This was many years back when I had gone to dine in an Arab family's home and they really are warm people just like most of the other Arabic people and served us a feast followed by some hot Qahwa. After the dinner was over, my hostess brought out a 'kangdi' or what really was a small wicker basket filled with live coals carried inside her 'pheran'(loose garment she wore), sat on the floor and asked all her female guests to step one at a time before the kangdi. We did as we were told. On reaching her and the kangdi, she would lift our dress up(ofcourse we all had pants down) and wave some of the hot embers from the live coal inside our dress. I shook ecstatically when she did this to me. It felt like I was being touched and tickled by fire!

I must have been in my teens then, but today also that experience is fresh in my mind You may see a picture of the Qahwa cups, traditional dates and the jug it is served from here: The most common recipe to prepare this is: Boil 3 cups water in a pot. Add 2 tbsps. Arabic coffee powder to it. Bring to a boil on low heat. Remove from heat. Give 5 minutes to the coffee to settle. Add 3 tbsps. cardamom(coarsely ground) and then strain the coffee. Then if you wish you may add a teaspoon of rosewater or orangewater. Bring to a boil once again and serve in kahwa cups. Originally, the unroasted beans were ground and brewed but the Persians added the roasting process later on. Arabic coffee is so popular where I live(in Muscat) that there is in Darsait, a popular area of the city, an entire roundabout made in which you will find a huge golden colour kahwa jug and small golden colour kahwa cups around it at the base amidst colourful fresh (real) flowers. It is a beauty to behold!

Coffee was first mentioned in literature by Rhazes, an Arabian physician. Warriors ate coffee seeds for energy beforebattle. Coffee, drank as a beverage, is about 700 years old. Ethiopians were the first people to drink coffee as a beverage,and coffee was first brewed as a hot beverage in the middle east. Thereare many stories about the origin of coffee. Origin of coffee - a Story: Once upon a time in Arabia, there lived a goat herder named Kaldi. Kaldi was a sober and responsible goat herder. One day, Kaldi's goats didn't come home so he went looking for them. He found them hopping with glee acting in an eccentric behavior around a shiny dark-leafed shrub with red berries. Kaldi noted that the goats were eating the red berries. So, he tried the berry. Kaldi was soon dancing around the tree too. A learned man from a local town named Aucuba came by, he was sleepy, tired, and hungry. Aucuba saw Kaldi acting wildly. He saw the goats acting wildly too. Because he was hungry he tried the berries. He became wide awake and was instantly ready to keep traveling.

He took some berries back to his town and used it with other foods. He mixed the berries with drinks at his monastery which kept people awake during prayer. It then spread to other towns and monasteries. Aucuba became a rich man. No one knows what happen to Kaldi. Here is a different version of the same story from a different book: Kaldi was an Ethiopian, grazing his flock on the uplands plains of Ethiopia and noticed his flock becoming frisky after eating the leaves and berries of the coffee plant. He tried some and he felt frisky too. He took the "magic" berries to a nearby monastery where the Abbot believed them to be the work of the devil, threw them into the fire. This released such an aroma that the beans were quickly rescued from the flames and the monks eventually learned how to make the hot black beverage we know today. The monks considered coffee as a gift from God because it kept parishioners awake during prayers. Another origin story, attributed to Arabian tradition relates that the civet cat carried the seeds of the wild coffee plant from central Africa to the remote Ethiopian mountains. The cat is actually a cat-faced relative of the mongoose and has a predilection for climbing coffee trees and eating coffee cherries.

There the plant was first cultivated, in Arusi and Ilta-Gallas, home of the Galla warriors. Finally, an Arab merchant brought the plant to Arabia where it flourished and became known to the world. Other etymologies trace the word coffee to quwwa or cahuha which means power or strength holding that the drink was named for its invigorating effects of caffeine. A story associated with this etymology is that toward the 15th century, a poor Arab traveling in Abyssinia stooped near a stand of trees. Cutting down a tree covered with berries for firewood to cook his dinner of rice, he immediately noticed that the partially roasted berries were fragrant and that when crushed, their aroma increased. By accident, he dropped some into his water supply and discovered that the foul water was purified. When he returned to Aden, he presented the beans to the mufti, an opium addict, who when tasting the roasted berries, recovered his health and dubbed the tree of origin, cahuha. In the early 16th century, coffee even acquired an angelic reputation: according to one Persian legend, it was first served to a sleepy Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel.

After a few sips of this brew from heaven, Mohammed felt so good that he was able to unhorse forty man and make forty women happy. Consecutively, coffee is always present on Mawlid(Prophet's birthday). In another story, King Solomon was said to have entered a town whose inhabitants were suffering a mysterious disease; on Gabriel's command, he prepared a brew of roasted coffee beans, and thereby cured the townspeople. The Sufi sheikh esh Shadhilly (also transcribed as ash-Shadhili), founder of one of the great Sufi orders, is the Islamic “patron saint” of coffee. Traditionally, one pours out coffee libations to esh Shadhilly or Al Qahwai(Ya Qawi). Throughout the first few centuries of its history in the Islamic world, coffee's popularity engendered great controversy. Many were suspicious of the effects of caffeine and the gatherings in which it was consumed — they seemed debauched to some and subversive to others. Coffeehouses competed with mosques for attendance, and as unsupervised gathering places for wits and learned men, provided spawning grounds for sedition.

The wags of Istanbul jokingly called the coffeehouses mekteb-i 'irfan, "schools of knowledge." Chess started being played in coffee houses and as it made people think, the kings got angry with this game and the game was condemned as a game of the devil. It wasn't until the Jester was renamed the Bishop, did chess recover it's popularity among the common folk. It then regained its position as a popular game to play in coffee houses. Even the women got involved in making coffee illegal. Their husbands were affected by this substance. At first, women wanted coffee to be outlawed. Then they started drinking coffee. After women started sucking coffee down, another law was made which allowed women to divorce their husband if he was unable to procure coffee for his wife. Efforts were launched, and persisted for at least a hundred years, to declare coffee an intoxicant forbidden by Islamic law. Despite coffee's eventual secularization, the fondness for it in Sufi circles and the motives for its use were not lost. Helveti dervishes were among those who enthusiastically drank coffee to promote the stamina needed for extended dhikr ceremonies and retreats.

Once coffee was readily available throughout the Ottoman Empire, it became a fixture of daily life in the Helveti dergahs, and a legend was born that linked the beneficial effects of a miraculous spring to a morning cup of brew: Mosslahuddin Mergez, the head of the Dervishes Khalveti... once said to his fakirs, "I heard here underneath the ground a voice saying: "O Sheikh! I am a spring of reddish water imprisoned in this place for seven thousand years, and am destined to come to the surface of the earth by thy endeavor as a remedy against fever. Endeavor then to release me from my subterraneous prison." Upon this speech all his fakirs began to dig a well with him, and forth rushed a sweet water of a reddish color, which if drank in the morning with coffee, is a proved remedy against fever, known all over the world by the name of the Ajasma of Mergez. In the late 1500s, a man called Baba Budan snuck some coffee seeds out of Arabia. Legend has it he bound seven coffee seeds to his belly.

When he reached his home, he found a cave in the hills near Chikmagalgur in south India in which he started the coffee seedlings off. Later he planted coffee in the jungles near Chikmagalgur. Today, offspring of these original coffee trees are officially known as "Old Chick." Old Chick, as they say, still supplies about one third of India's coffee. Written June 13th, 2006 © on Jun 13 2006 11:17 AM , Charishma Ramchandani 0 poems • 10 poems Coffee - The Wine of Islam: From Serving the Guest: A Sufi Cookbook & Art Gallery Essays | Recipes | Gallery Coffee  The Wine of Islam Most modern coffee-drinkers are probably unaware of coffee's heritage in the Sufi orders of Southern Arabia. Members of the Shadhiliyya order are said to have spread coffee-drinking throughout the Islamic world sometime between the 13th and 15th centuries CE. A Shadhiliyya shaikh was introduced to coffee-drinking in Ethiopia, where the native highland bush, its fruit and the beverage made from it were known as bun .

It is possible, though uncertain, that this Sufi was Abu'l Hasan 'Ali ibn Umar, who resided for a time at the court of Sadaddin II, a sultan of Southern Ethiopia . 'Ali ibn Umar subsequently returned to the Yemen with the knowledge that the berries were not only edible, but promoted wakefulness. To this day the shaikh is regarded as the patron saint of coffee-growers, coffee-house proprietors and coffee-drinkers, and in Algeria coffee is sometimes called shadhiliyye The beverage became known as qahwa  a term formerly applied to wine  and ultimately, to Europeans, as "The Wine of Islam . " It became popular among the Sufis to boil up the grounds and drink the brew to help them stay awake during their night dhikr . (Roasting the beans was a later improvement developed by the Persians . ) The Shadhili Abu Bakr ibn Abd'Allah al-'Aydarus was impressed enough by its effects that he composed a qasida (poem) in honor of the drink . Coffee-drinkers even coined their own term for the euphoria it produced  marqaha .

The mystic and theologian Shaikh ibn Isma'il Ba Alawi of Al-Shihr stated that the use of coffee, when imbibed with prayerful intent and devotion, could lead to the experience of qahwa ma'nawiyya ") and qahwat al-Sufiyya , interchangeable terms defined as "the enjoyment which the people of God feel in beholding the hidden mysteries and attaining the wonderful disclosures and the great revelations . " The Shadiliyya dervishes were active in the world; it is said that Shaikh Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili, the founder of the order, was reluctant to take on a student who did not already have a profession . It soon became apparent that coffee's benefits could be extended to the workday and the local economy as well. The southern Arabian climate was ideal for coffee cultivation, and the ports of Yemen, particularly the port of Mocha, became the world's primary exporters of coffee.

Coffee's use spread to Mecca, where, according to an early Arab historian, it was drunk in the Sacred Mosque itself, so that there was scarcely a dhikr Another early Yemeni Sufi devotional ritual involved coffee-drinking accompanied by recitation of a ratib , the invocation 116 times of the divine name Ya Qawi , "O Possessor of All Strength!"  a prayerful and witty juxtaposition of sound and sense . Over time, coffee even acquired an angelic reputation: according to one Persian legend, it was first served to a sleepy Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel . In another story, King Solomon was said to have entered a town whose inhabitants were suffering a mysterious disease; on Gabriel's command, he prepared a brew of roasted coffee beans, and thereby cured the townspeople . By the early 16th century CE coffee-drinking moved to the secular sphere, and a new institution evolved which transformed social life throughout the Islamic world. Coffee-houses supplied more than beans  they had the needed equipment, the expertise to prepare the brew, and a convivial milieu in which to enjoy it.

Ahmet Pasha, the governor of Egypt during the late 16th century CE, actually built coffeehouses as a public works project, thereby garnering great political popularity . In the mid-seventeenth century two Syrian businessmen, Hakm and Shams, introduced coffee to Istanbul, established the city's first coffeehouses, made a fortune in the process, and established a new and profitable arena of economic activity . Evliya Efendi wrote of the coffee-merchants of Constantinople: The Merchants of coffee are three hundred men and shops. They are great and rich merchants, protected by Shaikh Shadhili, who was girded by Weis-ul-karani with the Prophet's leave. Evliya Efendi Throughout the first few centuries of its history in the Islamic world, coffee's popularity engendered great controversy. Many were suspicious of the effects of caffeine and the gatherings in which it was consumed  they seemed debauched to some and subversive to others. Coffeehouses competed with mosques for attendance, and as unsupervised gathering places for wits and learned men, provided spawning grounds for sedition.

The wags of Istanbul jokingly called the coffeehouses mekteb-i 'irfan , "schools of knowledge . " Efforts were launched, and persisted for at least a hundred years, to declare coffee an intoxicant forbidden by Islamic law. ...As to the coffee it is an innovation, which curtails sleep and the generating power in man. Coffee-houses are houses of confusion. Coffee has been by law declared illicit in the great collections of fetwas Evliya Efendi During Ramadan in 1539 CE Cairo's coffeehouses were raided and closed, although only for a few days. Soon after coffeehouses achieved popularity in Constantinople, Sultan Murat IV closed them all; they were to remain dark until the last part of the century . But as soon as the Sultan's edict went into effect, the coffeehouse patrons, their money and their social life, went elsewhere: In Brussa there are seventy five coffeehouses frequented by the most elegant and learned of the inhabitants. All coffeehouses, particularly those near the great mosque, abound with men skilled in a thousand arts... These became famous only since those of Constantinople were closed by the express command of Sultan Murat IV.

Evliya Efendi The moralists fought a losing battle, for they were opposed by well-educated coffee-drinkers from the highest ranks of the religious and political hierarchy who did not look fondly upon innovative legal prohibitions. The "tavern without wine" offered a respectable gathering place for men to socialize and entertain away from home. Business was especially brisk during Ramadan, when proprietors made extra efforts to draw crowds with storytellers and puppet shows . Despite coffee's eventual secularization, the fondness for it in Sufi circles and the motives for its use were not lost. Helveti dervishes were among those who enthusiastically drank coffee to promote the stamina needed for extended dhikr ceremonies and retreats. Once coffee was readily available throughout the Ottoman Empire, it became a fixture of daily life in the Helveti dergahs , and a legend was born that linked the beneficial effects of a miraculous spring to a morning cup of brew: Mosslahuddin Mergez, the head of the Dervishes Khalveti... once said to his fakirs , "I heard here underneath the ground a voice saying: "O Sheikh!

I am a spring of reddish water imprisoned in this place for seven thousand years, and am destined to come to the surface of the earth by thy endeavor as a remedy against fever. Endeavor then to release me from my subterraneous prison." Upon this speech all his fakirs began to dig a well with him, and forth rushed a sweet water of a reddish color, which if drank in the morning with coffee, is a proved remedy against fever, known all over the world by the name of the Ajasma of Mergez. In Persia, coffeehouses evolved into hotbeds of lasciviousness and political dispute soon after they were introduced. Shah Abbas I responded to this situation by installing a mullah in the leading Isfahan establishment; he would arrive early in the morning, hold forth on topics of religion, history, law and poetry, then encourage those assembled there to be off to their work. A pious ambience was thereby promoted, an example was set for other coffeehouses, and a potentially volatile social milieu was somewhat controlled .

Poets and mystics occasionally took up permanent residence; for example, Molla Ghorur of Shiraz settled in Isfahan in his old age and established himself at a coffeehouse, which soon became a gathering place for those seeking spiritual guidance . The 17th Century French traveler Jean Chardin gave a lively description of the Persian coffeehouse scene: People engage in conversation, for it is there that news is communicated and where those interested in politics criticize the government in all freedom and without being fearful, since the government does not heed what the people say. Innocent games... resembling checkers, hopscotch, and chess, are played. In addition, mollas, dervishes, and poets take turns telling stories in verse or in prose. The narrations by the mollas and the dervishes are moral lessons, like our sermons, but it is not considered scandalous not to pay attention to them. No one is forced to give up his game or his conversation because of it.

A molla will stand up in the middle, or at one end of the qahveh-khaneh , and begin to preach in a loud voice, or a dervish enters all of a sudden, and chastises the assembled on the vanity of the world and its material goods. It often happens that two or three people talk at the same time, one on one side, the other on the opposite, and sometimes one will be a preacher and the other a storyteller. Jean Chardin In private valises, coffee reached Venice in 1615, Marseilles in 1644, and London in 1651; but it did not make its official debut into European high society until 1669, when it was introduced to Parisians by the Turkish ambassador, Suleyman Mustapha Koca . By the end of the century coffee was fashionable throughout Europe, and its cultivation and use subsequently spread to North and South America. Wherever it has been introduced it has become a symbol of hospitality and a vehicle of sociability. The current resurgence in popularity of the coffeehouse is undoubtedly a response to the aggressive marketing efforts of coffee producers and enterprising restaurateurs.

It may also contain a longing for the sort of companionship the Shadhiliyya dervishes enjoyed six hundred years ago, as they gathered to remember Allah and passed the cup from hand to hand. from Serving the Guest: A Sufi Cookbook Copyright © 1999, 2000 by Kathleen Seidel Sources of previously published material by other authors used by permission, and print sources for images, may be found at

Question: Which drink originated from the Arabic word ‘qahwa’?
Answer: Coffee