Coffee plays an important role in many societies throughout the world today. From the coffeehouses of the 16th century to modern day cafés, coffee has had a profound effect on the lifestyles of people from all walks of life. When coffee first appeared in Africa and Yemen, coffee was commonly used as a type of religious intoxicant. This usage in religious rites among the Sufi branch of Islam led to coffee being put on trial in Mecca for being a “heretic” substance much as wine was. It was briefly repressed, and was later part of a larger ban in Ottoman Turkey under an edict that led to the death of thousands of people. Coffees early association in Europe with rebellious political activities led to coffee being in England, among other places.
In India the Indian Coffee Houses became an icon of the worker’s struggle. This restaurant chain is now owned by the workers of ICHs, as a result of the struggle performed by the thrown-out workers from the Coffee Houses of Coffee Board. This struggle was led by famed Communist leader of India A. K. Gopalan. The ICHs became the meeting places of leftists in India later.
In Nordic countries, coffee parties are a popular, informal kind of home entertainment. In Swedish culture, coffee plays an extremely important role as a social lubricant through a process known as fika, or a leisurely coffee break — perhaps even more so than in other coffee-drinking cultures.
In ancient times, coffee was initially used for spiritual reasons. At least 1,000 years ago, traders brought coffee across the Red Sea into Arabia (modern-day Yemen), where Muslim monks began cultivating the shrubs in their gardens. At first, the Arabians made wine from the pulp of the fermented coffee berries. Thus coffee became known as “Qahwah,” which is the Arabic word for wine, from which the modern word coffee derives. This beverage was known as “Qishr” (”Kisher” in modern usage) and was used during religious ceremonies. Coffee became the substitute beverage in spiritual practice in place of wine where wine was forbidden.
Coffee drinking was briefly prohibited to Muslims as “haraam” in the early years of the 16th century, but this was quickly overturned. Later, regarded as a “Muslim drink”, coffee was prohibited to Ethiopian Orthodox Christians (along with khat and tobacco) up until as late as around 1900. This fact is not widely known today, as it is now considered a national drink of Ethiopia, for people of all faiths.
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