History Part 2 - Coffee in Arabia in the Middle Ages

Following the mythical legend of the goat-herder Kaldi it wasn’t long enough before goat-herders and then all peoples in the Middle Eastern region started chewing on the delicious coffee berry because of it’s fame for bestowing a vitalizing energy. As we mentioned before, the condemned and hapless Sheik Omar, had wandered through the dessert surviving merely on the red coffee berry and water. Quite fittingly it is known that the town which Sheik Omar came to inhabit was a Yemeni town by the name of “Mocha.” It is said that in this area c. 10th century A.D that the first actual domestic cultivation of coffee began in the area in the Middle East now known as Yemen. 

The popularity of the coffee berry had by now grown so profusely that even an emerging sect of Islam had found that the coffee berry had great uses in

sustaining their visionary pursuit of religious thoughts. 

Today, the Sufis are well known for their trance like meditations in pursuit of their worship of Allah. Sufism as a philosophy emerged around the 8th century A.D. with its main tenet of Wahdat or "Unity with God." By the 10th cent A.D. Sufism was widespread with it's penchant for metaphysics and mysticism taking a deep root within a new wave of liberalism sweeping through the Middle East finding expression in all schools of learning from astronomy to mathematics to literature.

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the ensuing Dark Ages this was a great age of learning indeed; a new age where great thinkers and scholars dwelt upon all questions of humanity, philosophy, and the meaning of life, finding ingenuity over a now renown yet simple cup of coffee brew -  

The great mathematician and writer of the time, Omar Khayyam was once said to have an equal penchant for wine and coffee when reflecting upon life and the questions of destiny and human will. Although life maybe be a stellar script, he concluded, make haste and make merry, and savor every moment whilst it lasts. As in his own words from the immortal Rubaiyat ...
 
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

By the time of the 12th century A.D. the first local Yemeni coffee houses began to emerge and they became to be known as qahveh khaneh. The word qahveh became the root word for the modern word 'coffee.' Qahveh proved to be an instant delight amongst all kinds of people who were fond of its consumption in social company. These gatherings evolved into the first local houses for the sole purpose of consumption of coffee beverages. They quickly became centers of discussion and thoughts and reflected the birth of the new age amongst men with the indomitable spirit of reason and scientific inquiry. 

There is always a limit to liberalism and by the 14th and 15th centuries A.D. the consumption of coffee beverages became synonymous with boisterous and animated cafe lounges. The popularity of such coffee houses did not come without notice and subsequent resistance amongst some people. In the early 14th century A.D. The Ottomans of Turkey came to absorb Yemen with a strict aversion for political opposition. The Ottomans had already encountered the practice of drinking coffee and its popularity with Sufism spreading to all corners of its empire. Questioning

the morality of unfettered minds in animation in houses of coffee, fervent religious men soon began to voice their concern and the need for disciplining restrictions to tame the animated spirit of the local coffee houses. Rulers began to fear that congregations and animated discussion could lad to future political and religious dissent. In 1511, Governor of Mecca and the head of the police, Kha’ir Beg had come to observe the unruly behavior of coffee drinkers with some disdain. he questioned the morality of consumers stupefied with  excessive consumption of coffee and would not tolerate such revelry as he enforced a local ban on all coffee drinking in the city of Mecca.

East meets West as coffee arrives in 17th century Europe ... http://thegenteelworldofcoffee.blogspot.com/2015/03/history-part-3-coffee-and-renaisance.html

Pieter Bergli -  Reflections upon the history of coffee drinking