home, Middle Eastern women prepare and serve
coffee to guests and friends. Also, in almost any
gathering of women, there are several who offer
to tell friends’ fortunes by reading the patterns of
the fine black coffee sediment created when the
empty cups are turned upside down, then right
side up again.
Some Muslim religious and political authori-
ties attempted to either outlaw coffee drinking or
close coffeehouses as they became more and more
popular in the 16th century. There were suspi-
cions that coffee was an intoxicating beverage and
that it should therefore be banned like alcoholic
drinks, which are forbidden according to Islamic
dietary laWs. Religious conservatives also wanted
it banned because they believed it was a harmful
innovation (bidaa), not explicitly permitted by
the qUran and hadith. Coffeehouses were suspect
because immoral activities reportedly occurred
there. Also, some government officials became
concerned because of the seditious talk and plots
that might be hatched when men gathered to drink
coffee. None of these efforts to prohibit coffee suc-
ceeded, however, as any visitor to the Middle East
today can see with his or her own eyes.
The coffee trade was originally in the hands
of Muslim merchants working out of the port of
Mocha (al-Mukha) in Yemen, from which the best
coffees originally came. Some types of coffee still
carry the name mocha. Before the end of the 18th
century, two things happened to end the Muslim
monopoly on coffee cultivation and trade. First,
the Europeans had not only acquired a taste for
coffee themselves, but they had successfully intro-
duced coffee cultivation to their colonies in the
New World and tropical Asia. Muslim merchants
lost access to the European market, and they had
to compete against the lower prices offered by
European merchants. Second, more and more of
the world’s maritime commercial traffic fell into
the hands of Europeans; even the port of Mocha
was opened to Dutch, French, and British sail-
ing vessels. Although coffee is still produced in
Yemen, most of the coffee consumed in the Middle
East and other parts of the world comes from
Latin America (especially Brazil). Coffee drink-
ing in the United States began in the days of the
British colonies, but it did not become a popular
beverage until after the Boston Tea Party of 1773,
when Americans boycotted British tea and drank
coffee instead.
See also Food and drink; sUFism.Further reading: Eric Hansen, “Yemen’s Well-Traveled
Bean.” Saudi Aramco World 48, no. 5 (September/Octo-
ber 1997): 2–9; Ralph S. Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses:
The Origin of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985); Ben-
nett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer, The World
of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World’s Most
Popular Drug (New York: Routledge, 2001).colonialism
Colonialism is a historical process whereby one
state subdues another state or territory for politi-
cal and economic advantage. In addition to the
use of armed force, colonialism usually involves
the establishment of a colonial government and
migration to the new territories by settlers who
occupy the most productive land and control
important sectors of the region’s society andUmm Kulthoum Café, Cairo, Egypt ( Juan E. Campo)colonialism 155 J