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Brewing Controversy: How Coffee Sparked Fierce Debate in the 16th-Century
A bitter new drink swept through the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the early 1500s – and ignited one of the fiercest religious debates of the late-medieval Islamic world [medievalists.net]:
A new study, published in Darah: Journal of Arabian Peninsula Studies, explores how the arrival of coffee transformed the sacred landscape of the Hijaz. Drawing on chronicles, fatwas, poetry, and eyewitness travel accounts, historian Reda Asaad Sharif reveals how what is now a daily ritual was once denounced as a dangerous novelty — banned from marketplaces and even burned in the streets of Mecca.
Sharif traces coffee's journey from Abyssinia to Yemen, where Sufi mystics used it to stay awake for night-time dhikr (remembrance of God), before it reached Mecca around the year 1500 (AH 905). Its rapid popularity with pilgrims and townspeople provoked suspicion from conservative jurists. The very word qahwa — traditionally a poetic synonym for wine — cast a shadow over the new beverage.
According to Sharif, tensions came to a head in 1509 when Meccan scholars convened at the Mujāhidiyya hall near Bāb al-ʿUmra to debate coffee's legality. The chief Shāfiʿī judge Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Nāṣir issued a fatwa permitting coffee, praising its ability to sharpen alertness for worship.
Opponents countered that it altered the mind; two witnesses even swore it was intoxicating. The Mamluk governor responded by ordering the arrest of coffee-sellers and the burning of their coffee husks.
In June 1511, the market inspector Khāʾir Beg enforced a sweeping ban, citing reports that people were gathering in coffeehouses "in a manner similar to taverns, where certain people gather over it, pawn their possessions, and partake in other activities that are forbidden."
Sharif notes that the dispute escalated to the top of the Mamluk state. Sultan Qānṣūh al-Ghūrī issued a decree declaring:
As for coffee, we have been informed that certain people drink it in a manner similar to wine, mixing intoxicants into it, singing to it with instruments, dancing, and swaying. It is well known that even the water of Zamzam, if consumed in such a manner, would be forbidden. Therefore, its consumption and its circulation in the markets must be prevented.
Violators were punished with "around ten lashes or more," and some were paraded through the market as a warning.
When the Ottomans replaced the Mamluks in 1517 they, too, tried to curb the spread of coffee. Several times during the 16th century orders were sent from Constantinople banning not only the drink but coffeehouses too, as they were accused of promoting immoral behaviour.
[...] Various scholars also criticized the Ottoman ban, noting that these authorities were more lenient to the use of wine and hashish. However, it was the sheer number of people who enjoyed coffee that would soon turn the tide in favour of the drink. By the end of the 16th century, the debate was practically over, not only in the Hijaz, but throughout the Middle East and Ottoman territories, with coffee and coffeehouses becoming very popular.
Journal Reference: Sharif, R. A. (2025). The Role of Hijaz Coffeehouses in Serving Pilgrims from Their Emergence until the Beginning of the 20th Century. [OPEN] Darah Journal of Arabian Peninsula Studies, 3(2), 214-255. https://doi.org/10.1163/29501768-20250203 [doi.org]
