The Road of Coffee
Contents › Chapter 2 Coffeehouses
The Coffeehouses of Istanbul
North from Yemen — places where people gather
View in 3DA Place to Drink Together
Coffee drinking began in Yemen and spread north through Mecca and Cairo. Around 1554, coffeehouses opened in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. People gathered there to drink coffee, talk and share the news.
Why?In Muslim societies, where people do not drink alcohol, coffee was a drink people could share in a group. So the coffeehouse became the place where neighbors met.
Learn moreWhen people gathered to talk about politics, rulers grew worried about coffeehouses. In 1511, coffee was even banned in Mecca. But the ban did not last long.
- When
- 1554
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Wikipedia: Coffeehouse · Wikipedia: History of coffee
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Routes are simplified — drawn as the shortest path between two places — and dates vary between records. Café counts come from Korea's local business license records (rest-food shops registered as coffee shops), shown with the date of the snapshot.