the product were
granted Messrs. Trigg and David S. Pratt in 1921; and all were assigned
to John E. King.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE EARLIEST COFFEE MANUSCRIPT, 1587

Pages from the Arabian writing by Abd-al-Kadir, photographed for this
work in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.]

CHAPTER XXXII

A HISTORY OF COFFEE IN LITERATURE

_The romance of coffee, and its influence on the discourse, poetry,
history, drama, philosophic writing, and fiction of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries and on the writers of today--Coffee quips
and anecdotes_

Any study of the literature of coffee comprehends a survey of selections
from the best thought of civilized nations, from the time of Rhazes
(850-922) to Francis Saltus. We have seen in chapter III how Rhazes, the
physician-philosopher, appears to have been the first writer to mention
coffee; and was followed by other great physicians, like Bengiazlah, a
contemporary, and Avicenna (980-1037).

Then arose many legends about coffee, that served as inspiration for
Arabian, French, Italian, and English poets.

Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Mocha, is said to have discovered the virtues
of coffee about 1454, and to have promoted the use of the drink in
Arabia. Knowledge of the new beverage was given to Europeans by the
botanists Rauwolf and Alpini toward the close of the sixteenth century.

The first authentic account of the origin of coffee was written by
Abd-al-Kadir in 1587. It is the famous Arabian manuscript commending the
use of coffee, preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, and
catalogued as "Arabe, 4590."

Its title written in Arabic is as follows:

[Arabic]
___ ___ ___ ___
4 3 2 1

which is pronounced (reading right to left):

omdat as safwa fi hall al kahwa
___ ___ ___ _____
1 2 3 4

or; in the literary style: omdatu s safwati fi hallu 'l kahwati which
means--literally, (the corresponding words being underlined and
numbered)

"The maintenance of purity as
___________ ______
1 2
regards the legitimacy of coffee."
_________ ______
3 4

or, more freely, "Argument in favor of the legitimate use of coffee."

[Arabic] kahwa, is the Arabic word for coffee.

The author is Abd-al-Kadir ibn Mohammad al Ansari al Jazari al Hanbali.
That is, he was named Abd-al-Kadir, son of Mohammed.

_Abd-al