Coffee cup

Found in the Beirut city centre digs, this cup, with a slightly raised base, is adorned with a compartmented motif that is repeated over its circumference. Vaguely reminiscent of Chinese characters, it is drawn in black on a cream-coloured background. The shape and size of the cup immediately betrays its purpose: for drinking coffee. These cups, which became standardised as coffee gained in popularity throughout the Ottoman Empire from the beginning of the sixteenth century, were made in Turkey, especially in the cities of Iznik and Kutahya, of which a large part of the production was destined for export. It is very likely that this cup comes from Kutahya. Some time later, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the production of various coffee-related objects (cups, sugar bowls, creamers, etc.) was undertaken in Istanbul itself, in the Tophane[1] quarter, but using a very different technique.

Coffee cups were no doubt influenced by the Chinese tea cups which can keep the liquid hot and thus encourage slow cooling of the beverage. The Chinese and Siamese cups were very popular throughout the Ottoman Empire, and their trade experienced strong growth simultaneously with the lightning-fast spread of coffee. This is demonstrated in two Ottoman miniatures, one depicting a coffee ceremony at the court of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520)[2], the other showing the inside of a coffee house in Istanbul[3], where all the cups used seem to be made of Chinese porcelain. The trade of porcelain cups from the Far East was nonetheless threatened by European faience around the end of the seventeenth century.

Coffee originates from Ethiopia. Its consumption for its stimulating properties is attested in Yemen in the fifteenth century in the Sufi brotherhoods, where it was used at night for their religious rituals. From Yemen, coffee travelled throughout the Ottoman territories from the beginning of the sixteenth century, in particular to Mecca and Cairo. According to known sources, the first coffee house was opened in Mecca in en 1511 where it raised heated debate among the religious authorities, which attributed it of having a harmful effect on behaviour, morals and health. The political authorities also were suspicious of it, because it encouraged gatherings deemed dangerous for public order. Thus, like for tobacco, several decrees were issued against coffee and the places where it was consumed, but without much effect. Several known theologians even drew up fatwa in its favour. It is thought that coffee was introduced in Damascus directly from Hijaz in the first half of the sixteenth century, probably via the Pilgrimage Caravan.

Europe discovered coffee as a beverage around the end of the sixteenth century. The custom of drinking it quickly spread in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, resulting in the opening of public establishments and growth of the demand. Up until this period, Yemen was the primary producer and supplier of coffee beans from its port of Al-Mukha (the origin of the word "moka"), on the Red Sea. Despite the strict measures taken against any attempt by foreigners to export coffee seeds and plants, the Europeans managed to get around them and establish coffee plantations in Asia and South America from the eighteenth century.

[2] Divan-i Hüseyni, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Supplément turc 993.