Always tasty...(Photo: Emily O'Dell)
They drank coffee every Monday and Friday eve, putting it in a large vessel made of red clay. Their leader ladled it out with a small dipper and gave it to them to drink, passing it to the right, while they recited one of their usual formulas, mostly “La illaha il’Allah…”
— Ibn ‘Abd al-Ghaffar
One of my favorite morning rituals is brewing a fresh cup of Turkish/Arabic coffee, as I was taught how to do several years ago by a Sufi Sheikh in Istanbul. Coffee, however, wasn’t always welcome in Turkey. In fact, the first ships bringing coffee to Istanbul in 1543 were sunk at the Port of Tophane upon a decree issued by Sheikh-ul Islam Ebussuud Efendi. Despite the initial religious opposition to coffee, its intoxicating smell and stimulant perks eventually gained too much popularity for the authorities to stamp out its consumption completely–though Sultan Murad IV (d. 1651) certainly tried by issuing several serious and bloody bans. Coffee allowed Sufis to stay up all night doing their whirling and dhikr/zikr, and it brought many people together in the coffeehouses to discuss a range of topics–which is what the political and religious authorities found so threatening…
