Coffee houses
The first coffee came from the seeds of a tree in Ethiopia. Sufis — Islamic mystics — used a brew from the seeds in their devotional practice. In a ceremony called ‘remembrance of God’, Sufis would go through long night sessions, reciting or chanting their love of God. Coffee was used as a stimulant to keep them awake. Coffee was introduced to Istanbul in the early seventeenth century and men gathered in coffee houses to drink coffee, smoke tobacco and be entertained (see SOURCES7 and 8 ). Coffee houses were also centres of political discussion and, frequently, Sultans would have them closed or even burned down if their spies
SOURCE7 A nineteenth-century illustration of a coffee house in Constantinople
reported that mutinous talk was going on. Examples of this occurred during the reign of Murad IV (1623–1640). The drinking of coffee and the cafe society spread from the Ottoman Empire to Vienna, Paris and London, and is very popular in Australia today.
4.6 SkillBuilder activity USING HISTORICAL SOURCES AND COMMUNICATING
SOURCE8 Turkish traveller Evliya Efendi (1611–1682) writes about coffee houses. He is describing a coffee house in Bursa, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire. There are seventy-five coffee-houses each capable of holding a thousand persons, which are frequented by the most elegant and learned of the inhabitants; and three times a day singers and dancers execute a musical concert in them ... ... All coffee-houses, and particularly those near the great mosque, abound with men skilled in a thousand arts. Dancing and pleasure continue the whole night, and in the morning everybody goes to the mosque. These coffee-houses became famous only since those of Constantinople were closed by the express command of Sultan Murad IV. There are also no less than ninety-seven Buza-houses, which are not to be equalled in the world; they are panelled with faience [coloured tiles], painted, each capable of accommodating one thousand men.
You have just spent time investigating what daily life would have been like in a society that existed 700 years ago. Imagine that historians in the 2720s are studying what daily life was like in the 2020s and complete the following activities. 1. Construct a summary of your daily life using the same or similar headings as this lesson. Include images to assist your explanation. 2. Complete a table to compare and contrast daily life in the Ottoman Empire and your life today. Use the headings ‘Similarities’ and ‘Differences’ to help structure your analysis.
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator