-Kadir_ means "slave of the strong one" (i.e., of God); while _al
Ansari_ means that he was a descendant of the _Ansari_ (i.e., "helpers"),
the people of Medina who received and protected the Prophet Mohammed
after his flight from Mecca; _al Jazari_ means that he was a man of
Mesopotamia; and _al Hanbali_ that in law and theology he belonged to
the well known sect, or school, of the Hanbalites, so called after the
great jurist and writer, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who died at Bagdad A.H. 241
(A.D. 855). The Hanbalites are one of the four great sects of the Sunni
Mohammedans.

Abd-al-Kadir ibn Mohammed lived in the tenth century of the Hegira--the
sixteenth of our era--and wrote his book in 996 A.H., or 1587 A.D.
Coffee had then been in common use since about 1450 A.D. in Arabia. It
was not in use in the time of the Prophet, who died in 632 A.D.; but he
had forbidden the drink of strong liquors which affect the brain, and
hence it was argued that coffee, as a stimulant, was unlawful. Even
today, the community of the Wahabis, very powerful in Arabia a hundred
years ago, and still dominant in part of it, do not permit the use of
coffee.

Abd-al-Kadir's book is thought to have been based on an earlier writing
by Shihab-ad-Din Ahmad ibn Abd-al-Ghafar al Maliki, as he refers to the
latter on the third page of his manuscript; but if so, this previous
work does not appear to have been preserved. La Roque says Shihab-ad-Din
was an Arabian historian who supplied the main part of Abd-al-Kadir's
story. La Roque refers also to a Turkish historian.

Research by the author has failed to disclose anything about
Shihab-ad-Din save his name (_al Maliki_ means that he belonged to the
Malikites, another of the four great Sunni sects), and that he wrote
about a hundred years before Abd-al-Kadir. No copy of his writings is
known to exist.

The illustrations show the title page of Abd-al-Kadir's manuscript, the
first page, the third page, and the fly leaf of the cover, the latter
containing an inscription in Latin made at the time the manuscript was
first received or classified. It reads:

Omdat al safouat fl hall al cahuat.

De usu legitimo et licito potionis quae vulgo Cafe nuncupatur.
Authore Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansari. Constat hic liber
capitibus septem, et ab authore editus est anno hegirae 996 quo
anno centum et viginti anni effluxerant ex quo huius potionis usus
in Arabia felice invaluerat

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