{"id":3814,"date":"2023-05-27T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/?p=3814"},"modified":"2023-05-27T16:36:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T13:36:06","slug":"the-last-house-of-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/the-last-house-of-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last House Of Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are various stories about the first appearance of coffee, but the most common theory is that it came to Yemen from Ethiopia and spread to the world from there. Famous coffee historian Ralph S. Hattox, author of the book \u201cCoffee and Coffeehouses\u201d, explained that from the middle of 15th century Sufis started using coffee to stay awake before dhikr rituals. This habit of the Sufis spread in the Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire over time, and after the 17th century, when European travelers, especially those who came to Istanbul, were introduced to coffee, its use increased first in Europe and then in Anatolia eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to some sources, Yemeni\u00a0Veysel Karani<\/em>, whose real life and legendary personality are still confused, observed that his camels became more active after eating a plant, and he tasted this plant out of curiosity, but threw it into a fire because it had a very bitter taste. It is rumored that when he liked the smell of these burnt beans, he tasted them again and discovered coffee. Whether this information is correct or not is unknown, but we may say that coffee is the symbol of awakening in Sufism. Drinking the coffee offered by a \u201cfriend of God\u201d\u00a0(vel\u00ee)<\/em>\u00a0can be a blessing in disguise to wake us from the deep sleep that the material world has sank us into.\u00a0I think there is such a symbolic meaning that\u00a0Aynal\u0131 Baba<\/em>\u00a0offers\u00a0Raci<\/em>\u00a0coffee in every chapter of the valuable book\u00a0Amak-\u0131 Hayal<\/em>. The name\u00a0Raci<\/em>\u00a0means both seeker and requesting at the same time and contains the meaning of a request as well as a recourse. The root of the word fasting, which means returning to its origin, is also recourse. Request, on the other hand, represents the person who demands and wants the truth. The coffee offered to\u00a0Raci<\/em>, who will go through these stages, will lead to his awakening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coffeehouses, which used to be meeting places of pleasant conversations in the Sufi culture of the past, have unfortunately taken a completely different form today. In the past, coffee houses were also called “k\u0131raathane<\/em>“. \u201cK\u0131raat<\/em>\u201d means \u201creading\u201d, \u201chane<\/em>\u201d means \u201chouse\u201d, so the word \u201ck\u0131raathane<\/em>\u201d means \u201creading house\u201d. As it stands, the name coffeehouse is an older term, when coffeehouses also kept newspapers and magazines for customers to read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coffeehouses are defined as spots where books, daily newspapers or magazines were read, important literary conversations and meetings were held, and political agendas were determined in the past. In this respect, coffeehouses, which are the meeting centers of intellectuals, paved the way for the birth of some literary, political and artistic formations; They were also defined as cultural spaces where social problems are discussed and communicative activity reaches its peak.\u00a0Today, however, we come across people sitting all day in coffee houses in the neighborhoods without doing anything, or in some chain coffee shops, instead of people chatting with each other we see individuals burying themselves into their computers accompanied by their coffees. The last representative of this ancient and sophisticated culture still lives in Istanbul, in Kad\u0131rga district, which was one of the two great ports of Byzantium in its time.\u00a0Arif Abi<\/em>\u2019s place, also known as,\u00a0Kad\u0131rga<\/em>\u00a0Tulumbac\u0131lar Kahvesi<\/em>\u00a0(Kad\u0131rga Coffeehouse of Fire Brigade) is still alive in the nearly 150-year-old building with its 89 year old owner\u00a0Arif Abi<\/em>. Getting to know this place and this special historical personality, which is mentioned in Re\u015fat Ekrem Ko\u00e7u’s Istanbul Encyclopedia and who we met thanks to a very valuable history teacher, will not only enable us to understand the true culture of coffee and coffee houses, but it will also take us to those colorful streets of old Istanbul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arif Abi<\/em> was born in 1934 in Kad\u0131rga, Istanbul. He says that when he opened his eyes to the world, the first thing he saw was the fountain in the middle of the coffee house. Today, both the fountain and the last of the seven pumps of Kad\u0131rga are still in working condition. In addition to these, the historical plane tree continues to reach the sky with all its majesty and surrounds the place. Arif Abi<\/em>, who is proud to have lived in the same period with Atat\u00fcrk until he was 4 years old, told us in his conversation that we all have a starting point in life and that we should always remember this, that we should learn about love and see the beauty in everyone. Give love and observe how you will be rewarded, he said. He also told us that love shields all ill-will. In this charming place, while smelling Istanbul of the past, you listen about the virtue of the old-time neighborhood culture and the importance of neighborliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to drink your coffee accompanied by Arif Abi<\/em>‘s conversation, you can spend a very special day with a very enjoyable walking route. It is an exciting experience to walk through history step by step from Sultanahmet Square to Kumkap\u0131, feeling the traces of many different characters, from Sufis to fire brigade, from the hoodlums to janissaries, as if hearing their voices and seeing them turn around a corner as you walk along this route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While walking downward from the old hippodrome of Sultanahmet Square towards the seaside, you will first notice the Binbirdirek<\/em> Cistern (The Cistern of Philoxenos), which is the second largest water reservoir in Istanbul and 212 of its 224 original columns have survived to the present day. Then you can also see the \u015eerefiye<\/em> Cistern (Cistern of Theodosius), which has a history of 1600 years, and then continue towards Kad\u0131rga. The first important work of art that you will come across is the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque which is a complex of a mosque, madrasah, dervish lodge, shops and fountains built by Mimar Sinan in the second half of the XVI century. Spot the Little Hagia Sophia Mosque located between Kad\u0131rga Harbor and Cankurtaran district and then, from here, visit the Cinci<\/em> Square, which is claimed to have been named after a spiritualist hodja, but in fact, it\u2019s real name was Cundi meaning javelin because of the cavalry soldiers during the Ottoman period but because of mispronunciation ended up as \u201cCinci<\/em> Square\u201d today. When you arrive at Kad\u0131rga Tulumbac\u0131lar Kahvesi<\/em>, you can have a chat with Arif Abi<\/em> and at the end of this friendly conversation walk down to Kumkap\u0131, find the little shop of Boris which was opened in 1936, buy some cream and butter and finish off the day flavored with history with a little more essence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the last house of coffee that has gone through similar experiences with Sufis, by being stripped of its cover, roasted, beaten and boiled and many different characters has passed through this place, which is both the home and the workplace, actually the whole life of Arif Abi<\/em>. Who knows what conversations this coffeehouse has witnessed from different cultures, different religions, from men of letters to historians, from writers to artists, from film shoots to visits by statesmen, from the rebellion plans of the Janissaries to the secret meetings of the Unionists. With that pleasant sound of water, the fountain has kept all the conversations that have come and gone and did not let anyone hear them. And while you are there, you feel as if you hear all the whispers of history, breath in the smells of the past, as if a pumper man will enter through the door or realize that you have been zoomed over to the Ottoman era when you walk out the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can recall our colorful and rich culture there, think about why we are divided, why we fight so much, and become aware of the truth of Oneness within us by realizing how we can be a whole despite all the opinion differences with a conversation over a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heart wishes no coffee, no coffeehouse.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coffee is only a pretended reason,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The<\/em><\/strong> heart wishes a friendly conversation.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are various stories about the first appearance of coffee, but the most common theory is that it came to Yemen from Ethiopia and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":3816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hernefes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_1906-1.jpg?fit=1125%2C819&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3820,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814\/revisions\/3820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernefes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}