Negative Space: Islam
- The Coming of Coffee to the Near East
- From its origin among the Sufi of Yemen, coffee spread throughout the Muslim world. It generated controversy as it spread because it was a new thing and religious leaders needed to decide if it was forbidden or not.
- Drinking and Attitudes toward Drinking in a Muslim Community
- J. Midgley surveys Cape Town and finds that the low rates of reported drinking among the Muslim community match “previous findings”.
- The Great Coffee Controversy
- As with other drugs, it isn’t coffee itself that attracts prohibition, but rather, who is drinking it and the fact that they are gathering together that causes uneasiness and fear in rulers.
- Hashish and the Arabs
- In Arabia, marijuana may have been the drug of choice of those who could not afford wine. As today, prejudice against marijuana use may have reflected class warfare.
- Society and the Social Life of the Coffeehouse
- While visiting coffeehouses, people could show hospitality outside of its traditional place in the home: they could even buy rounds for the bar, so to speak, and show hospitality to strangers. The actions described here in coffeehouses strongly resembles what we see men do in bars: talk trash about women, tell tall tales, and listen to music.
- Wine, Coffee, and the Holy Law
- From its introduction to Islamic culture, coffee has been equated with wine, an explicitly forbidden drug. Part of the controversy is the application of traditional but apocryphal sayings of the prophet to this new drink.