an
unpopular minority. He was rewarded with the reproaches and affronts of
the religious zealots.

So the governor had his way, and coffee was solemnly condemned as thing
forbidden by the law; and a presentment was drawn up, signed by a
majority of those present, and dispatched post-haste by the governor to
his royal master, the sultan, at Cairo. At the same time, the governor
published an edict forbidding the sale of coffee in public or private.
The officers of justice caused all the coffee houses in Mecca to be
shut, and ordered all the coffee found there, or in the merchants'
warehouses, to be burned.

Naturally enough, being an unpopular edict, there were many evasions,
and much coffee drinking took place behind closed doors. Some of the
friends of coffee were outspoken in their opposition to the order, being
convinced that the assembly had rendered a judgment not in accordance
with the facts, and above all, contrary to the opinion of the mufti who,
in every Arab community, is looked up to as the interpreter, or
expounder, of the law. One man, caught in the act of disobedience,
besides being severely punished, was also led through the most public
streets of the city seated on an ass.

However, the triumph of the enemies of coffee was short-lived; for not
only did the sultan of Cairo disapprove the "indiscreet zeal" of the
governor of Mecca, and order the edict revoked; but he read him a severe
lesson on the subject. How dared he condemn a thing approved at Cairo,
the capital of his kingdom, where there were physicians whose opinions
carried more weight than those of Mecca, and who had found nothing
against the law in the use of coffee? The best things might be abused,
added the sultan, even the sacred waters of Zamzam, but this was no
reason for an absolute prohibition. The fountain, or well, of Zamzam,
according to the Mohammedan teaching, is the same which God caused to
spring up in the desert to comfort Hagar and Ishmael when Abraham
banished them. It is in the enclosure of the temple at Mecca; and the
Mohammedans drink of it with much show of devotion, ascribing great
virtues to it.

It is not recorded whether the misguided governor was shocked at this
seeming profanity; but it is known that he hastened to obey the orders
of his lord and master. The prohibition was recalled, and thereafter he
employed his authority only to preserve order in the coffee houses. The
friends of coffee, and the lovers of poetic