However, there was more at play than simply concerns for public health. Coffee houses had become meeting places for Muslims and non-Muslims, and soon became venues beyond governmental control. Forming the stage for various cultural expressions and political debate, coffee houses were a meeting place for people of diverse social positions.

Tobacco only became common in the first half of the 17th century. Prohibition of tobacco consumption was officially maintained until 1646, but largely evaded. Several decades later, the Turkish government started actively supporting the local tobacco industry, making it into a principal source of governmental revenue.

The 15th century was a time when the world became a much larger place. Europe’s economic expansion around the globe introduced many new commodities into the continent and its elite classes. Chocolate, tea, coco, coffee and tobacco were imported from regions New World, south-central Asia and the Horn of Africa. Gradually these commodities found their way into daily consumption patterns throughout Europe.

Introduced to the Ottomans around 1555, coffee and the concept of coffee houses spread rapidly across the Empire and Europe in the following decades. At first many beneficial effects were attributed to coffee by Western specialists, but a before long negative effects were attributed to coffee and its immense popularity caused a backlash. Religious leaders in Mecca and Turkey issued bans on the intake of this intoxicant.

Coffee drinking in Amman (www.voyagevirtuel.co.uk)

Images of people from the Ottoman Empire smoking (Source: Robinson 1985).