Murad IV was a the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, and a particularly insidious one to boot. He’s also a fairly grisly footnote in the history of coffee.
It is said that the Murad often walked the city in disguise in order to hear what the public were saying about him. On his first sojourn into the public, he stopped in a tavern and heard people singing and watched them getting drunk.
He then moved on to a coffeehouse and saw the customers engaging in conversations about the politics, the empire and the sorry state thereof. The coffee drinkers blamed the bad state of the government on the administration and Murad himself. The sultan, clearly concerned, went back to his palace to think upon what he had learned.
His decision? To ban coffee and coffeehouses under the Islamic rule that intoxicants were forbidden.
The cafés in Istanbul were closed and in some cases destroyed. If it was discovered that a person had been drinking coffee, they were beaten. If they were discovered to have consumed coffee a second time, they were sewn into a leather bag and tossed into the Bosphorus (also known as the Istanbul Strait). Murad’s despisement of coffee drinkers (and smokers, which was also associated with coffeehouses) was so great that he was known to walk the streets of Istanbul with an executioner, and ordered the beheading of anyone he saw drinking coffee or smoking. It is reported that between 10,000 to 100,000 people were executed during this purge of coffee.
One of the end results of this? The coffee makers and café proprietors of Turkey moved out of the country and migrated to places such as Italy, France, Austria and Britain.
The punchline? Murad died at the age of 28. The cause? Alcohol poisoning. It seems that Murad was an alcoholic. Under his reign, Alcohol was technically forbidden, and many drinkers of alcohol were also executed, but Taverns were allowed to stay open while drinkers of coffee were put to death and the coffee industry was forced to immigrate.
Technorati Tags: Drink, Coffee, Food History, Murad IV
That’s awesome. Thanks.
Murad’s public policy reminds me of the whole Soma thing in Brave New World.
As far as I know, Murad IV banned alcohol and tobacco. The reason behind this prohibition was the big city fires caused by the drunk smokers in Istanbul those years.
I have never heard about coffee prohibition before. And I would never guess, since coffee has an important place in the culture.
(Quick Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_IV)
I added these books to my must read list.
Thanks.
Why and when do we celebrate International coffee day
I hate coffee, any kind of coffee. There are a lot of diseases caused by coffee. For example your liver will become weak from the addiction that coffee can prevent. So be careful.
Ha! This type of knee-jerk reaction that tackles the symptom and not the cause is unfortunately still alive and well. (here via Twitter, btw: http://twitter.com/Thandelike/status/12161125620)
This article talks about a dark story attached to the coffee world but shows that even in the mid 1600′s, coffee was influencing people’s lives and the impact resulted in the coffee trade moving into European countries.
Now in the 21st century, our demand for coffee is far greater and has become a popular worldwide beverage. This means that the demand for coffee huge and the market for coffee franchises is a constantly expanding market. I would defiantly recommend researching into franchises before you invest, as the more knowledge you have the more capable you will be to succeed.
its greate ,,,
Nice story, but NOT true according Ottoman archives. Murad IV banned both alcohol and tobacco. Coffee houses were banned because people were sitting around and not doing anything. Also, only western sources claimed that Murad IV drank alcohol and died of alcohol poisoning. Ottoman sources claim that he died of gout. Hmmmm, I wonder which source would be more reliable?
we need to check up this information history
becouse it was conflict