Coffee reached Istanbul from Yemen in the middle of the sixteenth century, and the first coffeehouses opened soon after. They quickly became the places where men met to talk, play backgammon, listen to storytellers and hear the news.
Not everyone was pleased. Some religious scholars argued about whether coffee was permitted, and more than one sultan closed the coffeehouses for fear they bred gossip and rebellion. Each time they reopened.
Within a century the habit had travelled to Venice, London and Paris, where coffeehouses played much the same role.
