The Origins of Coffee

!±8± The Origins of Coffee

It is commonly believed that coffee had its ascent in the classical time period of Arabian practice of medicine, which dates back from Rhazes, who adopted the schools of thought of Galen and was a pupil of Hippocrates. According to certain authorities, Rhazes (850 - 922 A.D.) was the first writer to make reference to coffee. He was the first person to handle medicine in an encyclopedic way. He adopted the poetic name of Razi since he was a native-born of the urban center of Raj in Persia (Iraq). He was a distinguished philosopher and astronomer, and at one particular time, he was the superintendent of the Bagdad hospital. He penned numerous knowledgeable books on the practice of medicine and surgical procedure.

Philippe Sylvestre Dufour (1622 - 1687), a French merchandiser, philosopher, and author, says in his treatise on coffee ("Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Cafe", published in the Hague, 1693), that the first author to acknowledge the attributes of the bean with the name of "bunchum" was this aforesaid Rhazes, which happened in the ninth century. Some authorities, nevertheless, is of the belief that "bunchum" signified something different and had nothing in common with the drink. In a later edition of his treatise, Dufour was prepared to acknowledge that "bunchum" could have been a root and not coffee, after all; nonetheless, he is heedful to add that there is no question that the Arabs knew about the drink as far back as the year 800. Other, more contemporary authorities, place the time that the beverage was known by the Arabs as early as the sixth century.

Conceding that by "bunchum" Rhazes implied that coffee, the plant and the beverage, must have been familiar to his direct following; and this, indeed, appears to be suggested by like-minded acknowledgments in the authorships of Avicenna (Ibn Sina), the Muslim doctor and philosopher (980 - 1037 A.D). The earlier Arabians named the bean and the tree that yielded it, "bunn"; and the beverage, "bunchum". Rhazes expresses that "bunchum" (the drink) is hot and dry and very beneficial for the stomach.

Certain authors claim the discovery of the beverage was in Persia (Iraq); only there are no grounds to back up the claim. Nevertheless, there are enough facts to justify a notion that in Persia, as was the case in Ethiopia, the drink has been celebrated from time gone by. However, it is a known fact that at an early time the coffee house in Persia (Iraq) turned into an instituted establishment in the main townships. These establishments were described as generally being large halls; their floors covered with carpets, and lit up by a large number of lamps at night. Many of these establishments featured singers and dancers, and many visitors came to hear to the fantastic stories of the "Thousand and One Nights."

In some countries it used to be the custom at one time to give a cup of "bad coffee" (which was a poisoned beverage) to those officials or other individuals who had demonstrated themselves unenviable to the authorities.

Although the drinking of the beverage commenced as a non-public religious occasion, it was not long after being introduced by the coffee houses that it got secularized and was relished more and more in the houses of the masses, although it did retain a specific religious importance for a number of centuries.