Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/315

in form of a paste, something like chocolate. It was introduced into Arabia in pre-Islamic times, probably not later than the time of the famous Crusade undertaken by Elesbaan, or Caleb Negus, the Nagash of Arab authors, in order to punish the Himyaritic Jewish ruler, Yusif Yartsh, surnamed ‘“Dhu Nowds,” who had been persecuting the Christians. When Mohammedans were prohibited the use of wine, its place was taken by decoctions of cofiee-berries. The name “ coffee’ is derived from the Arabic Kahweh (pronounced Kahveh by the Turks), and, in its primary sense, denoted wine or other intoxicating liquors. “ The city of Aden,” says Crichton, “is the first on record that set the example of drinking it as a common refresh- ment, about the middle of the fifteenth century. A drowsy mufti, called Jemaleddin, had discovered that it disposed him to keep awake, as well as to a more lively exercise of his spiritual duties.” This is clearly a version of the story of the Abyssinian monks above given. Jemal-ed-din, according to Crichton, died a.p. 1470, “‘ and such was the re- putation which his experience had given to the virtues of coffee, that in a short time it was introduced by Fakreddin at Mecca and Medina.” It seems, how- ver, that it was not till the commencement of the sixteenth century that it was introduced to Cairo. Its introduction caused a bitter theological con- troversy among the Moslems. In .p. 1511, it was publicly condemned at Mecca by a conclave of the ‘ulema, who declared its use contrary to Islim and hurtful both to body and soul. This decision of the