Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 182, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1919 — EARLY HISTORY OF COFFEE [ARTICLE]

EARLY HISTORY OF COFFEE

Traditions Differ, but the Beve'rage Has Been Appreciated for Many Hundreds of Years.

There is a tradition to the effect that coffee was found growing wild in Arabia some 600 years ago by Hadji Omar, a dervish. Hadji Omar was dying of hunger in the desert, when he found some small, round berries and tried to'eat them. They were, however, too bitter. After roasting them he finally steeped them in water —and found the decoction as cefreshing as if he had partaken of solid food. Upon his return to Mohka, he brought his discovery to the attention of “the wise man.” who were so well pleased therewith that they pro- . claimed Hadji Omar a saint. In the Bibliotheque Nationale 'at Paris there is a Manuscript written in Arabic by one Abdelcader, who avers that coffee was drunk for the first time in Arabia in the fifteenth century. Other authorities have it that coffee was used in Persia as early as the ninth century, but there Is little evidence to bear out their contention. Abdelcader’s story of the discovery of coffee is as follows: A certain Arab, Gemalledin, a judge fn Aden, while traveling to Persia —or, as the historians correct the manuscript, to Abyssinia—observed people using coffee as medicine. Gemalledin so eni; ployed it, and was cured of an illness. Later, on becoming a monk, he taught his brethren in Aden the use of the berry. ' No opposition to the use of coffee appears to have been offered until the middle of the sixteenth century,-when the Egyptian sultan sent a new governor, Chair Bey, to Mecca. The governor knew nothing of the beverage and became greatly enraged at the Sight of the dervishes drinking coffee In the mosques. Upon consulting with two Persian physicians he decided that coffee was a substitute for wine, which was prohibited by the Koran, "and" that, therefore. "coffee - drinking was a violation of Mohammed’s law. The result was a decree forbidding the use of coffee. All berries that could be found were gathered and burned in the market place. When Chair Bey reported his action to the sultan, it is said that he received this written reply: “Your physicians are asses. Our lawyers and physicians in Cairo are better informed. They recommend the use of coffee, and I declare that no faithful will lose heaven because he drinks coffee.”