From hence the custom extended itself to many other towns of
Arabia, particularly to Medina, and then to Grand Cairo in Egypt, where
the Dervises of Yemen, who lived in a district by themselves, drank
coffee on the nights they intended to spend in devotion.
Coffee continued its progress through Syria, and was received at
Damascus and Aleppo without opposition; and in the year 1554, under the
reign of Solyman, one hundred years after its introduction by the Mufti
of Aden, became known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, when two
private persons of the names of Schems and Hekin, the one coming from
Damascus, and the other from Aleppo, opened coffee-houses.
"It is not easy," says Ellis, "to determine at what time, or upon what
occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western
parts of Europe. It is, however, likely that the Venetians, upon account
of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade to the
Levant, were the first acquainted with it; which appears from part of a
letter wrote by Peter della Valle, a Venetian, in 1615, from
Constantinople; in which he tells his friend, that, upon his return he
should {26} bring with him some coffee, which he believed was a thing
unknown in his country.
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