In the last ten years, a number of Western-style cafes have opened all over the Arab world. People from all walks of life, young and old, have become victims of coffee mania, rediscovering in different surroundings a beverage which originated in the Arab world. The coffee house and coffee itself for that matter are quintessentially Arab.
Coffee was first consumed in mid-fifteenth century Yemen. By the end of the first decade of the sixteenth century, the drink had reached the Hijaz (the area of Saudi Arabia which includes Jeddah and Makkah). Coffee then spread to Cairo from Al-Azhar University to which the Yemenis and Hijazis had carried their habit. In fact, much of the coffee grown in the mountains, and shipped from the ports, of Yemen was destined for the great warehouses of Cairo where coffee drinking had become familiar and popular among all classes. It had become a public pastime, providing the sixteenth-century city dweller with a perfect excuse for getting out of the house. “One went to the coffee house not merely because one wished to drink coffee. One went to the coffee house because one wished to go out, to spend the evening in the society of his fellows, to be entertained, to see and be seen. There is no more eloquent testimony to this than the relative success enjoyed by coffee houses over the door-to-door coffee-seller, and the ultimate disappearance of the latter,” wrote one early traveler.
A late sixteenth century Turkish traveler in Ottoman Cairo noted: “...the multitude of coffee-houses in the city of Cairo, the concentration of coffee-houses at every step, and of perfect places where people can assemble. Early rising worshippers and pious men get up and go, drink a cup of coffee, adding life to their life. They feel, in a way, that its slight exhilaration strengthens them for their religious observances and worship. From that point of view their coffee houses are commended and praised...”
The coffee house — the café — also became an ideal place for talk, whether serious or light, political or literary. At a time when there were no newspapers, radio or TV, men were delighted to listen to the latest news and rumours, exchange jokes and simply have a good time.
Five centuries later, coffee shops in Cairo are as popular as they ever were. One can still find humble establishments, especially in less well-known traditional areas where customers are practically seated in the street. Unfortunately, the grand coffee houses of the past when patrons sipped their coffee on luxurious divans around a large room with a fountain in the center have been replaced by the likes of Café Riche, one of Cairo’s best known coffee houses.
From politics to art, if it happened in Egypt in the last century, it probably started at Café Riche. Established in 1908, this historic café is situated on Talaat Harb Street. It was the Greek businessman Michel Politis, who turned Café Riche into an intellectual hub where many politicians and authors such as Taha Hussein or Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz gathered. The latter held informal discussions every Friday, and many of the fictional characters in his stories were based on real people who visited the café. Other famous writers such as Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Yusuf Idris and Abdel Rahman Al-Abnoudi were also regular customers.
Mohamed Sadek Hussein, known as “Felfel,” has been working at the café since 1943. He can still remember how, in the years before the revolution, young officers including Abdel Nasser and Anwar Al Sadat met there frequently.
“Writers still come to Café Riche. Khairy Mansour, Ahmed Al-Gamal, Dr Ashraf Al Bayoumy, Mahmoud Salah and Ibrahim Abd El-Meguid are regular customers,” says Maged Abdel Malek the current owner.
Nowadays many of the café’s customers are students and travelers who come to have a glimpse of the city’s history while listening to the timeless music of Abdel Halim Hafez, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Asmahan and Umm Kulthum.
