☕ The role of coffee in Middle Eastern sociability

🧭 One drink, a thousand conversations

From the Levant to the shores of the Persian Gulf, coffee is more than just a hot beverage. It's a social ritual, a tool of local diplomacy, and a force for community cohesion. In the alleys of Aleppo, the cafes of Amman, the souks of Baghdad, or the homes of Beirut, coffee is never drunk alone: it is shared, given, and interpreted.

In the Middle East, coffee—especially Arabic coffee or "qahwa"—feeds speech as much as it nourishes the palate. Each sip is a pretext for discussion, debate, agreement, and disagreement. Enjoying coffee is engaging in a form of codified dialogue. It's saying "I respect you," "I'm willing to listen," or even "I forgive you."

🏛️ Sacred origins: coffee as an offering and ritual

The history of coffee in the Middle East begins in Yemen in the 15th century, in Sufi monasteries. Monks used it to stay awake during their long nighttime prayers. Soon, the "qahwa" left the mountains of Yemen to reach Mecca, then Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul. The drink became a prestige commodity, a culture in itself.

The first coffee houses—the qahwat al-qahwa—appeared in Cairo in the 16th century. Drinking took place there, but debate was also held. These places became spaces for public discourse. Poetry was recited there, newspapers were read, and politics were discussed. Coffee was so powerful at the time that it worried the Ottoman authorities: coffee houses were banned several times for being hotbeds of protest.

📖 Arabic coffee: between hospitality and social hierarchy

Arabic coffee (often made from lightly roasted beans, spiced with cardamom) is central to the traditional code of hospitality in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Syria and Jordan.

When a guest arrives, the host prepares the coffee in three steps:

1. He roasts the beans in front of his guests.

2. He pounded them with a traditional mortar (the "mihbash").

3. He prepares coffee in a large brass coffee pot called a "dallah."

   
   

It is then served in small, handleless cups (finjan), often three times—an unwritten rule signifying respect and hospitality. The first cup is bitter, the second is the "honor coffee," and the third is the "coffee of relaxation." Refusing coffee is frowned upon, unless it's a sign of social distancing.

📉 Coffee and hierarchy: a coded language

In some Bedouin tribes, the way coffee is served reflects the social order. The elder or honored guest is served first, always with the right hand. They may refuse to drink or put down their cup without a word, which can be interpreted as a signal of disagreement or even a request for mediation.

In tribal negotiations, such as land disputes or marriage proposals, coffee is the obligatory preamble. It is not a simple beverage, but a ritual act binding on both parties. It is called "truce coffee," "peace coffee," or "forgiveness coffee." A cup poured at the wrong time or ignored can be enough to derail a mediation.

🗺️ Urban cafés: cultural and political hotbeds

In the 20th century, the cafés of Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo became hybrid spaces, somewhere between modernity and tradition. Intellectuals, writers, and musicians were found there. Newspapers were published in cafés, political movements were born, and novels were written there.

In Baghdad, the famous Shabandar café, founded in 1917, was a refuge for Iraqi writers and poets. In Beirut in the 1960s, Hamra was full of cafés where Palestinian activists, Lebanese Marxists, and European artists met. These spaces gave rise to an intellectual sociability that shaped national narratives.

📸 Coffee as a witness to modern revolutions

During the Arab Spring in 2011, cafes were sometimes the only space where protests could still be expressed, between power outages or while waiting for a demonstration. In Tunis, terraces became forums. In Cairo, some cafes improvised screenings of the Tahrir rallies. In Damascus, before the war, certain cafes like "Rawda" or "Nofara" hosted satirical poets who still dared to rhyme against the regime.

Even in times of war, cafes have survived as social refuges. In Syria, in some areas held by civilian councils, small cafes have served as meeting places to discuss reconstruction, mutual aid, or exile. In Iraq, improvised cafes in displacement camps have helped recreate a semblance of normalcy, a space for exchange and remembrance.

🧬 Transmission, modernity and resilience

Today, coffee culture in the Middle East has lost none of its vitality. In major cities like Doha, Amman, and Istanbul, modern cafes coexist alongside traditional coffee houses. Large global chains like Starbucks have established themselves, but they have often had to adapt their offerings and opening hours to respect local culture (for example, by staying open late during Ramadan).

At the same time, young entrepreneurs are revitalizing traditional coffee by exporting it as a brand identity. In Dubai, startups are marketing high-end Bedouin coffee. In Beirut, Syrian women's collectives prepare and sell "qahwa" in artisanal markets, telling the stories of their village around the coffee pot.

Coffee then becomes an act of intergenerational transmission, a form of gentle resilience in societies often fractured by conflict.

🧵 When coffee connects people

In the Middle East, coffee is a common language among Arabs, Kurds, Persians, and Turks. Each has its own way of preparing it and accompanying it (Turkish delight, dates, pistachios), but all recognize its social significance.

Even in the diaspora, Middle Eastern cafes are anchors of identity. In Berlin, Paris, Montreal, and Sydney, they become places of remembrance, where exiles share memories, projects, and news of their homeland. The cafe thus acts as an invisible bridge between here and elsewhere.

✅ Conclusion: more than a drink, a mirror of society

Coffee in the Middle East is much more than a taste pleasure: it's a social tool, a communication code, a cultural marker. From the Arabian Peninsula to the Syrian cafés of Berlin, it embodies a certain idea of community, of speaking, of listening, and of respect. It accompanies joy as well as sorrow, the arrival of a guest as well as the reconciliation between two clans.

In a fragmented world, where speech is often disembodied, coffee remains a moment of presence, an anchor in the shared moment.

📚 Sources

Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East , University of Washington Press, 1985. UNESCO, Arab coffee culture listed as intangible heritage , 2015. Field interviews, Syria and Jordan, 2019–2022. Ethnographic observations in the cafés of Beirut, Istanbul, Berlin.