COFFEE: DEVIL’S OR BLESSED POTION - Fatwa of sheikh-l-Islam Bostanzade Mehmed effendi

Abstract

UDK: 663.93

Coffee consumption has been the focus of many Christian and Muslim theological debates regarding its permissibility in religious views. When it first appeared in the Ottoman state, coffee stirred differing reactions of ullama, since it was something new and not discussed in traditional sources of Islam. Numerous fatwas were issued on the subject, however, the lengthiest fatwa of this kind was the one issued by Bostanzade Mehmed effendi. It was written in rhyme (64 couplets or bayts). Mehmed effendi, who was also a poet and a translator of Al-Gazali’s Ihya, here argues that coffee is not haram giving evidence to its beneficent properties, proving that there is nothing in coffee that would suggest its harmful effect on human health or the need to prohibit its consumption.