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The coffee habit perhaps took root in Persia
even before it came to Arabia. Persian warriors were said to have driven
back the Ethiopians when they tried to settle in the Yemen. The Persians
would have undoubtedly found to their liking the coffee cherries growing
on the trees planted by the Ethiopians, and taken them back to their own
country. The story of the Mufti of Aden also refers to coffee drinking
in Persia in the mid 15th century.
From very early on, most major Persian
cities boasted stylish and spacious coffee houses situated in the best
parts of town. These establishments had a reputation for serving coffee
quickly, efficiently, and "with abundance of Respect". As a rule, the
political discussions and resulting disturbances usually associated with
the coffee house scene were kept low-key; it seems the clientele were
more interested in hedonistic pursuits. Persian coffee houses developed
a reputation for talking, music, dancing and "other things of that
kind", and there are even several reports of how the government was
obliged to put a stop to "the infamous practices committed there".
An English traveler tells the tale of
how the wife of Shah tactfully appointed a mullah - an expert in legal
and ecclesiastical matters - to make a daily visit to a particularly
crowded and popular coffee house. His job was to sit there and entertain
the patrons with civilized discussion of poetry, history and law, a man
of discretion, he avoided controversial political issues, and
disturbances were therefore rare. The mullah became a welcome visitor.
Having seen that the scheme was a
success, other coffee houses soon followed suit and employed their own
mullahs and story-tellers. These newfound entertainers sat in a
centrally placed high chair "from whence they make speeches and tell
satirical stories, playing in the meantime with a little stick and using
the same gestures as our jugglers...as in England".
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