chant,
philosopher, and writer, in an accurate and finished treatise on coffee,
tells us (see the early edition of the work translated from the Latin)
that the first writer to mention the properties of the coffee bean under
the name of _bunchum_ was this same Rhazes, "in the ninth century after
the birth of our Saviour"; from which (if true) it would appear that
coffee has been known for upwards of 1000 years. Robinson[23], however,
is of the opinion that _bunchum_ meant something else and had nothing to
do with coffee. Dufour, himself, in a later edition of his _Traitez
Nouveaux et Curieux du Cafe_ (the Hague, 1693) is inclined to admit that
_bunchum_ may have been a root and not coffee, after all; however, he is
careful to add that there is no doubt that the Arabs knew coffee as far
back as the year 800. Other, more modern authorities, place it as early
as the sixth century.

_Wiji Kawih_ is mentioned in a Kavi (Javan) inscription A.D. 856; and it
is thought that the "bean broth" in David Tapperi's list of Javanese
beverages (1667-82) may have been coffee[24].

While the true origin of coffee drinking may be forever hidden among the
mysteries of the purple East, shrouded as it is in legend and fable,
scholars have marshaled sufficient facts to prove that the beverage was
known in Ethiopia "from time immemorial," and there is much to add
verisimilitude to Dufour's narrative. This first coffee merchant-prince,
skilled in languages and polite learning, considered that his character
as a merchant was not inconsistent with that of an author; and he even
went so far as to say there were some things (for instance, coffee) on
which a merchant could be better informed than a philosopher.

Granting that by _bunchum_ Rhazes meant coffee, the plant and the drink
must have been known to his immediate followers; and this, indeed, seems
to be indicated by similar references in the writings of Avicenna (Ibn
Sina), the Mohammedan physician and philosopher, who lived from 980 to
1037 A.D.

Rhazes, in the quaint language of Dufour, assures us that "_bunchum_
(coffee) is hot and dry and very good for the stomach." Avicenna
explains the medicinal properties and uses of the coffee bean (_bon_ or
_bunn_), which he, also, calls _bunchum_, after this fashion:

As to the choice thereof, that of a lemon color, light, and of a
good smell, is the best; the white and the heavy is naught. It is
hot and dry in the first degree, a