Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 143

by ay b. Abd Allāh al-Aydarūs,
died 990/1582). His claim to fame is, it is
true, qualified by the note “that, before he
prepared the beverage, only the kernel of
the husk, i.e. , the bunn , was used and the
husks were thrown on the dung-heaps.
In a verse attributed to him, however, he
praises the ahwat al-bunn as a dispeller
of sleep and aid to devotional exercises.
While al-arī says not a word of his
connection with coffee, Abd al-ādir
al-Aydarūs numbers the introduction of
the beverage among his miracles.
The legend as given by āī alīfa
seems to have made two individuals out
of Alī b. Umar, of whom Alī represents
the founder of the āiliyya order, Abu
'l-asan Alī b. Abd Allāh (d. 656/1258)
and his disciple Umar the saint of
al-Maā (Muā). The latter was ordered
to settle, by command of his teacher who
had appeared to him at his own funeral,
at the place where a wooden ball which
he gave him should come to rest. This is
how he came to Muā. On the charge
of having misconducted himself with the
daughter of the king who was staying
with him for a cure, he was banished into
the mountains of Uāb (Wuāb, N.E. of
Zabīd). He and his disciples, who followed
him into exile, are said to have sustained
themselves with ahwa (here the berry) and
finally to have made a decoction from it.
His visitors were cured of an itch, epi-
demic in Muā, by taking coffee and this
procured the saint an honourable return.
The third person who is given credit for
the introduction of coffee is Abū Bakr b.
Abd Allāh al-Aydarūs. An essay by Alawī
al-Saāf contains a statement from the
Tarī of Nam al-azzī ( i.e. , appar-
ently al-Kawākib al-sāira bi-manāib ulamā
al-mia al-āira by Nam Dīn al-azzī),
according to which the ūfī, who is called
here a āilī, once came upon a coffee
tree in his wanderings and ate the berries.

As he noticed their stimulating effect he
took them as a food and recommended
them to his disciples, so that they became
known in different countries. The refer-
ence here is probably to the ūfī of this
name who died in Aden in 914/1508-9,
whose grave is still honoured there. Abd
al-ādir (Ibn) al-Aydarūs only mentions
his fondness for coffee and quotes his
aīda in praise of it. On the other hand,
Abu 'l-asan Muammad al-Bakrī in his
treatise Iifā al-afwa li-tafiyat al-ahwa ,
fol. 2b mentions Abū Bakr al-Aydarūs as
the introducer ( muni ) of ahwa.
The fact that the merit of introducing
coffee as a beverage is given to different
individuals, suggests that we have to deal
with various local traditions. The tradition
of Muā is the most firmly established
and most widely known; therefore Alī b.
Umar al-āilī—who is frequently con-
fused with the founder of the āiliyya
order—has become the patron saint of
coffee-growers, coffee-house keepers and
coffee-drinkers. In Algeria coffee is also
known as āiliyye , after him. He is pop-
ularly regarded as the founder of Muā,
which is, however, already mentioned
by al-Hamdānī, although it owed its rise
to coffee. A well, a gate and the mosque
over his grave preserve the memory of
al-āilī in Muā.
Al-āilī and al-Aydarūs (prob-
ably not aydar) have become Christian
monks named Sciadli and Aidrus in the
legend given by Naironi. The motif of the
camels or goats on which the enlivening
effects of coffee were first noticed has so
far not been found in Oriental sources.
According to a popular legend, the cof-
fee tree shot up from goat's dung sown
by the saint.
The legends are probably correct in say-
ing that the taking of coffee in Arabia first
began among Yemenī ūfīs. They were
particularly fond of the beverage because