All About Coffee Part 100

The author is Abd-al-Kadir ibn Mohammad al Ansari al Jazari al Hanbali.

That is, he was named Abd-al-Kadir, son of Mohammed.

_Abd-al-Kadir_ means "slave of the strong one" (i.e., of G.o.d); while _al Ansari_ means that he was a descendant of the _Ansari_ (i.e., "helpers"), the people of Medina who received and protected the Prophet Mohammed after his flight from Mecca; _al Jazari_ means that he was a man of Mesopotamia; and _al Hanbali_ that in law and theology he belonged to the well known sect, or school, of the Hanbalites, so called after the great jurist and writer, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who died at Bagdad A.H. 241 (A.D. 855). The Hanbalites are one of the four great sects of the Sunni Mohammedans.

Abd-al-Kadir ibn Mohammed lived in the tenth century of the Hegira--the sixteenth of our era--and wrote his book in 996 A.H., or 1587 A.D.

Coffee had then been in common use since about 1450 A.D. in Arabia. It was not in use in the time of the Prophet, who died in 632 A.D.; but he had forbidden the drink of strong liquors which affect the brain, and hence it was argued that coffee, as a stimulant, was unlawful. Even today, the community of the Wahabis, very powerful in Arabia a hundred years ago, and still dominant in part of it, do not permit the use of coffee.

Abd-al-Kadir's book is thought to have been based on an earlier writing by Shihab-ad-Din Ahmad ibn Abd-al-Ghafar al Maliki, as he refers to the latter on the third page of his ma.n.u.script; but if so, this previous work does not appear to have been preserved. La Roque says Shihab-ad-Din was an Arabian historian who supplied the main part of Abd-al-Kadir's story. La Roque refers also to a Turkish historian.

Research by the author has failed to disclose anything about Shihab-ad-Din save his name (_al Maliki_ means that he belonged to the Malikites, another of the four great Sunni sects), and that he wrote about a hundred years before Abd-al-Kadir. No copy of his writings is known to exist.

The ill.u.s.trations show the t.i.tle page of Abd-al-Kadir's ma.n.u.script, the first page, the third page, and the fly leaf of the cover, the latter containing an inscription in Latin made at the time the ma.n.u.script was first received or cla.s.sified. It reads:

Omdat al safouat fl hall al cahuat.

De usu legitimo et licito potionis quae vulgo Cafe nuncupatur.

Auth.o.r.e Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansari. Constat hic liber capitibus septem, et ab auth.o.r.e editus est anno hegirae 996 quo anno centum et viginti anni effluxerant ex quo huius potionis usus in Arabia felice invaluerat

The translation of the Latin is:

Concerning the legitimate and lawful use of the drink commonly known as cafe by Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansari. The book is composed in seven chapters and was brought out by the author in the year of the Hegira 996 at which time a hundred and twenty years had pa.s.sed since the use of this drink had become firmly established in Arabia Felix.

_Coffee in Poetry_

The Abd-al-Kadir work immortalized coffee. It is in seven chapters. The first treats of the etymology and significance of the word cahouah (kahwa), the nature and properties of the bean, where the drink was first used, and describes its virtues. The other chapters have to do largely with the church dispute in Mecca in 1511, answer the religious objectors to coffee, and conclude with a collection of Arabic verses composed during the Mecca controversy by the best poets of the time.

De Nointel, amba.s.sador from the court of Louis XIV to the Ottoman Porte, brought back with him to Paris from Constantinople the Abd-al-Kadir ma.n.u.script, and another by Bichivili, one of the three general treasurers of the Ottoman Empire. The latter work is of a later date than the Abd-al-Kadir ma.n.u.script, and is concerned chiefly with the history of the introduction of coffee into Egypt, Syria, Damascus, Aleppo, and Constantinople.

The following are two of the earliest Arabic poems in praise of coffee.

They are about the period of the first coffee persecution in Mecca (1511), and are typical of the best thought of the day:

IN PRAISE OF COFFEE

_Translation from the Arabic_

O Coffee! Thou dost dispel all cares, thou art the object of desire to the scholar.

This is the beverage of the friends of G.o.d; it gives health to those in its service who strive after wisdom.

Prepared from the simple sh.e.l.l of the berry, it has the odor of musk and the color of ink.

The intelligent man who empties these cups of foaming coffee, he alone knows truth.

May G.o.d deprive of this drink the foolish man who condemns it with incurable obstinacy.

Coffee is our gold. Wherever it is served, one enjoys the society of the n.o.blest and most generous men.

O drink! As harmless as pure milk, which differs from it only in its blackness.

Here is another, rhymed version of the same poem:

IN PRAISE OF COFFEE

_Translation from the Arabic_

O coffee! Doved and fragrant drink, thou drivest care away, The object thou of that man's wish who studies night and day.

Thou soothest him, thou giv'st him health, and G.o.d doth favor those Who walk straight on in wisdom's way, nor seek their own repose.

Fragrant as musk thy berry is, yet black as ink in sooth!

And he who sips thy fragrant cup can only know the truth.

Insensate they who, tasting not, yet vilify its use; For when they thirst and seek its help, G.o.d will the gift refuse.

Oh, coffee is our wealth! for see, where'er on earth it grows, Men live whose aims are n.o.ble, true virtues who disclose.

COFFEE COMPANIONSHIP

_Translation from the Arabic_

Come and enjoy the company of coffee in the places of its habitation; for the Divine Goodness envelops those who partake of its feast.

There the elegance of the rugs, the sweetness of life, the society of the guests, all give a picture of the abode of the blest.

It is a wine which no sorrow could resist when the cup-bearer presents thee with the cup which contains it.

It is not long since Aden saw thy birth. If thou doubtest this, see the freshness of youth shining on the faces of thy children.

Grief is not found within its habitations. Trouble yields humbly to its power.

It is the beverage of the children of G.o.d, it is the source of health.

It is the stream in which we wash away our sorrows. It is the fire which consumes our griefs.

Whoever has once known the chafing-dish which prepares this beverage, will feel only aversion for wine and liquor from casks.

Delicious beverage, its color is the seal of its purity.

Reason p.r.o.nounces favorably on the lawfulness of it.

Drink of it confidently, and give not ear to the speech of the foolish, who condemn it without reason.

During the period of the second religious persecution of coffee in the latter part of the sixteenth century, other Arabian poets sang the praises of coffee. The learned Fakr-Eddin-Aboubeckr ben Abid Iesi wrote a book ent.i.tled _The Triumph of Coffee_, and the poet-sheikh Sherif-Eddin-Omar-ben-Faredh sang of it in harmonious verse, wherein, discoursing of his mistress, he could find no more flattering comparison than coffee. He exclaims, "She has made me drink, in long draughts, the fever, or, rather, the coffee of love!"

The numerous contributions by early travelers to the literature of coffee have been mentioned in chronological order in the history chapters. After Rauwolf and Alpini, there were Sir Antony Sherley, Parry, Biddulph, Captain John Smith, Sir George Sandys, Sir Thomas Herbert, and Sir Henry Blount in England; Tavernier, Thevenot, Bernier, P. de la Roque, and Galland in France; Delia Valle in Italy; Olearius and Niebhur in Germany; Nieuhoff in Holland, and others.

Francis Bacon wrote about coffee in his _Hist. Vitae et Mortis_ and _Sylva Sylvarum_, 1623-27. Burton referred to it in his "_Anatomy of Melancholy_" in 1632. Parkinson described it in his _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_ in 1640. In 1652, Pasqua Rosee published his famous handbill in London, a literary effort as well as a splendid first advertis.e.m.e.nt.

Faustus Nairon (Banesius) produced in Rome, in 1671, the first printed treatise devoted solely to coffee. The same year Dufour brought out the first treatise in French. This he followed in 1684 with his work, _The manner of making coffee, tea, and chocolate_. John Ray extolled the virtues of coffee in his _Universal Botany of Plants_, published in London in 1686. Galland translated the Abd-al-Kadir ma.n.u.script into French in 1699, and Jean La Roque published his _Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse_ in Paris in 1715. Excerpts from nearly all these works appear in various chapters of this work.

Leonardus Ferdinandus Meisner published a Latin treatise on coffee, tea, and chocolate in 1721. Dr. James Douglas published in London (1727) his _Arbor yemensis fructum cofe ferens, or a description and history of the Coffee Tree_. This work laid under contribution many of the Italian, German, French, and English scholars mentioned above; and the author mentioned as other sources of information: Dr. Quincy, Pechey, Gaudron, de Fontenelle, Professor Boerhaave, Figueroa, Chabraeus, Sir Hans Sloane, Langius, and Du Mont.