Coffee Travels Arab

The cultivation of coffee began sometime in the fifteenth century, and for many centuries to follow, the Yemen province of Arabia was the world's primary source of coffee. Mohammed was once told in one of the legends that under the invogoriting influence of coffee, he could unhorse forty men and possess fifty women. The demand for coffee in the Near East was very high. The beans living the Yemeni port of Mocha for trade with Alexandria in Egypt and Constantinople were highly guarded. In fact, no fertile plants were allowed to leave the country. Despite the restrictions, Muslim pilgrims from across the globe during their pilgrimages to Mecca managed to smuggle coffee plants back to their homelands, and coffee crops soon took root in India.