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Arabian Coffee Trade Crop
Coffee (Coffea arabica), native to the Ethiopian highlands, was cultivated in Yemen and exported via Mocha, becoming a key Red Sea–Indian Ocean commo…
Timeline
- c. 1400–1550Yemeni highlands · YemenAfter coffee spread from Ethiopia to Yemen, dedicated plantations were established on slopes around Sana'a and Taiz; Sufi monasteries promoted its stimulating effects, and Mocha gradually monopolized Arabian coffee exports.
- c. 1550–1630Istanbul · IstanbulFrom the 16th century coffee entered the Ottoman Empire; coffeehouses appeared in Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus, and elsewhere, becoming spaces for information exchange and public sociability. The empire repeatedly issued and revised bans and regulations on coffee.
- 1631Mocha and Jeddah · Mocha–Jeddah routeIn the 1630s highland Yemeni coffee was shipped from Mocha north up the Red Sea to Jeddah, then onward toward Suez or the Indian Ocean. Dutch and English East India Company merchants had begun purchasing, as the Arabian coffee trade entered the final phase of monopoly before global competition.
Sources
- Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East — Ralph S. Hattox (1985)
- Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World — Mark Pendergrast (1999)