Coffee: a dangerous and revolutionary drink. Part 1

When coffee first came to the Ottoman Empire, from Yemen, some of the ulama (religious scholar, judges: the religious establishment) claimed that coffee should be banned. They reasoned that coffee was an intoxicant, and since intoxicants, wine, was forbidden by the Qur’an (the Qur’an was written before humans drank coffee) so to should coffee be forbidden. However, coffee was so popular with the masses, including less conservative ulama, that the opinions of religious scholars were ignored in favor the will of the people. With the advent of coffee came another institution, the coffeehouse.