Translations:History of coffee/1/en

The Coffee Bearer by John Frederick Lewis (1857)

Kaffa kalid coffeepot, by French silversmith François-Thomas Germain, 1757, silver with ebony handle, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The history of coffee dates back centuries, first from its origin in Ethiopia and later in Yemen. It was already known in Mecca in the 15th century. Also, in the 15th century, Sufi Muslim monasteries (khanqahs) in Yemen employed coffee as an aid to concentration during prayers. Coffee later spread to the Levant in the early 16th century; it caused some controversy on whether it was halal in Ottoman and Mamluk society. Coffee arrived in Italy in the second half of the 16th century through commercial Mediterranean trade routes, while Central and Eastern Europeans learned of coffee from the Ottomans. By the mid 17th century, it had reached India and the East Indies.