THE OTTOMANS AND THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

Author(s): JANE HATHAWAY

Source: Oriente Moderno, Nuova serie, Anno 25 (86), Nr. 1, THE OTTOMANS AND TRADE (2006),
pp. 161-171
Published by: Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25818052
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JANEHATHAWAY
(OHIO STATEUNIVERSITY)

THE OTTOMANS AND THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

the saga of thefirstOttoman period inYemen, 1538-1636, coffeeplays the

role of the object of the quest, both blessing and curse, the mysterious
substancewhose allure endured for theOttomans despite years of ugly, draining
warfare against various Zayd
imams, not to mention a harsh climate and
In

unfamiliar diseases. Coffee was difficult enough to cultivate, harvest, transport,

and ship in the best of circumstances, but inYemen, the difficultyof its extrac
tionwas compounded by the region's peculiar natural and communal geogra
phy. Coffee treesgrew in the interiorhighlands,which were largely inhabited by
c
Ism l Shicite tribeswhose allegiances were notoriously fissiparous. To their
north and eastwas theZayd Shicite stronghold, an equallymountainous region
that theOttoman governors controlled only with great difficulty.To get the
Mocha for
coffeebeans from the growing regions to the port ofAden and, later,
c
some
sort
Ism
l s, ideally
with
the
thus
of
required
shipment
understanding
was
a
The
formida
with
subdued
Zayd population.
relatively
challenge
coupled
ble, yet somehow the Ottomans managed it, not only while they nominally
ruledYemen but well after their expulsion in the 1630s. This paper attempts to

frame the coffee tradewithin theOttoman administration ofYemen and, for the
post-expulsion period, to link it to the economic strategiesof notables in the
Ottoman provinces, chieflyEgypt.
Ottoman Rule, 1538-1636

Yemen became a formal addition to theOttoman empire under theHungarian

eunuch admiral Hadim Siileyman Pa a in 1538. Originally appointed governor
of Egypt, Siileyman Pa a was ordered to the Indian Ocean to protect the
empire's southern extremityfrom the Portuguese, who had just killed the sultan
of Gujarat; along theway, he took effectivecontrol of Yemen in its entirety,
then pursued the Portuguese admiral,Afonso de Albuquerque, to India.1
al-Makk
1 -Qutb
b. Ahmad al-Nahrawal
al-D n Muhammad
(1511-1582),
al-Barq al-ya
t
a.k.a. Gazaw
utm n [The Yemenite
m n
The Ottoman Conquest],
al-c
Lightning:
fiJl-fath
*
wa
l-Atr kfi gan b al-gaz rah [The Incursions of the Circassians and Turks into
al-gar kisah
edited by G sir Hamad,
the South of the [Arabian] Peninsula],
Riy d, Dar al-Yam mah,
b. cAl (1625-1689),
b. al-Husayn b. al-Qasim b. Muhammad
1968, p. 70, 80-92; Yahy
G yat al-am n fi ahb r al-qutr al-yam n [The Utmost
Security: Events in the Yemenite
OM, XXV n.s. (LXXXVI), 1,2006, p. 161-171
C. A. Nallino - Roma
Istituto
per l'Oriente

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I 2

JANEHATHAWAY

a
During the ensuing years,Yemen existed in virtual symbiosiswith Ottoman
at the completion of their
were
to
Yemen
often
of
Governors
posted
Egypt
Egypt.
vice

and

terms,

versa. One

resilient

particularly

governor,

Hasan

Pa

a, governed

Yemen for an astonishing 25 years (1580-1604) before being transferredto Egypt;

while in Yemen, he amassed an enormous fortune.2Meanwhile, the Ottoman
seven
garrisons at Sanca3, Aden, Mocha, and Zab d consisted of troops from the
a
in
commanded
Ottoman
stationed
of
by
soldiery
bey of
Egypt,
regiments
was probably no accident that the land tenure system inOttoman
It
Egypt.3
Yemen was virtually identical to the system inEgypt, based on grants of taxation
a bey or aga with the
rights over specific cities and cdistricts, each headed by
Mamluk-sultanate-era titleof mil or k sif.^This made it all the easier for offi
edited by Sacid

Region],

cAbd al-Fatt h

1968, II, p. 667-668, 684-685; Katib

cAs r, 2 vols., al-Q

hirah, Dar

al-K

tib al-cArab

elebi (1609-1657),Tuhfet l-Kibar

ft Esfar il-Bihar

[The Gift of theGreat: Naval Expeditions], Istanbul, Matbaa-i Bahriye, 1329/1911, p. 57-58. See
also Evliya
elebi Seyahatnamesi [Evliya elebi's Book of Travels],
elebi (c. 1611-1682), Evliya
X: Misir ve Sudan [Egypt and Sudan], edited by Mehmed
Zill oglu, Istanbul, U dal Ne riyat,
1966, p. 585, 634, for a much more favourable account of Siileyman Pa a.

2 - Yahy
cAbd al-Mucti al-Ish q ,
b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 756-781; Muhammad
Kit b ahb r al-uiual ft man tasarrafa ft Misr min arb b al-duwal
[The Book of the Most
al
Important Events: The Statesmen who Administered
Egypt, 1623], B l q, al-Matbacah
cUtm niyyah, 1304/1887, p. 167.
3

Basbakanhk

1554-January
February

Osmanli

Arsivi,

Istanbul

962/November-December

(Muharrem

(hereafter BOA),
1554);

1478,

1636,

himme Defteri
1637

1, Nos.

1303

(all Safer 962/December

1555); M himme Defteri 2, Nos. 42, 132 (both Rebiyulewel

963/January
lahir 963/February-March
193, 226 (both Rebiy
1556); 716 (Receb 963/

1556);

1556); 1281, 1351 (both

May-June 1556); 1213, 1245 (bothRamazan 963/July-August
ewal

October

963/August-September
1556); 2025
(Rebiy

1556), 1472, 1476, 1478, 1485 (all Zilkade

963/September
lahir 964/February-March
himme Defteri 3, Nos.
1557); M

252 (Zilkade 966/September1559); 550 (Rebiyulewel967/December 1559);M himme

Defteri
720

4, No.

2013

(Cemaziyelewel

himme Defteri 5, Nos.

1561); M
(Cemaziyelahir 968/February-March
973/November-December
1565); 731, 739 (Cemaziyelahir 973/January

1566);M himmeDefteri6,No. 382 (Rebiy lahir

1566); 1754, 1756 (Zilkade973/May-June

10, No.
1564); M himme Defteri
c
,Duh
al-D n cAbd al-Samad b. Ism
l al-Mawzac
972/November

89

1571); Sams
978/February
ila al-Yaman
niyyin al-awwal
n duh lmamlakat al-Yaman
ft

(Ramazan

l al-c Upn
a.k.a. al-Ihs

into Yemen],
[The First Entrance of theOttomans
tahta zill cad lat Alc Upn n [The Beneficence: The Entry of the Realm of Yemen
of Osman],
Shadow of the Justice of the House
edited by cAbd Allah Muhammad
Bayr

t,Dar

al-Tanw

r, 1986, p. 131, 167-168,

under

the

al-Hibs

225.

4-BOA, M himmeDefteri 1,Nos. 428, 1204 (bothZilkade 961/October1554); 1224 (9

Muharrem

962/December

1554); M

himme Defteri

2, Nos.

300

(Rebiy

lahir 963/March

1556); 1473-1474, 1479 (allZilkade 963/October1556);M himmeDefteri4, Nos. 540,

580, 596 (allReceb 967/April-May
1560); 644, 667 (both aban 967/May-June
1560);M
himmeDefteri 5,Nos. 780 (Cemaziyelahir
Zilkade
1756
1566);
(12
973/June
973/January

,Duh
l al-c Upn niyyin, p. 86, 90, 92, 96, 134, 143, 153-154, 161, 169
1566); al-Mawzac
170, 192, 212, 221, 222, 225. The smaller, less commercially and strategically critical towns,
such as Tacizz, Mawzac,
and al-Huguriyyah, were evidently administered by agas or beyswith
the rank of aga
i.e., below the rank of sancak beyi. On Egypt's land tenure system, see Omer
L tfi Barkan (ed.), "Misir Kanunnamesi"
of Egypt] in Barkan, XV veXVI met
[Law Code

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163

THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

rials based inEgypt tomake a smooth transition toYemen and vice versa.
The fact remained, however, that itwas virtually impossible for a single
imperial power to control all ofYemen. Like earlier regimes, theOttoman gov
ernors held swaymainly in the southern coastal region, particularly around the

administrative capital of Zab d and the ports ofAden and Mocha. In the latter
part of the 16th century, the Ottoman central authority experimented with
dividing Yemen into two administrative units, each governed by a beylerbeyi:
one,

known

as

Yemen

consisting

of

12 sancaks,

the other,

known

as

Sanc

consisting of 17 sancaks? The cosmopolitan late 16th-centurychronicler al-Na

hr wal al-Makk confirms the impression, conveyed by imperial orders, that
:>
,which included the interiorhighlands, was typicallyassigned to a pasa
Sanc
from Istanbul, while Yemen or Tih ^im (the Arabic plural of Tih mah,

Yemen's western coastal plain), which comprised the central and the southern
coastal regions,was more readily assigned to localized beys of Egypt and their

sons,who were promoted to the rank ofpasa.6 Al-Nahr wal claims that the di
vision was the brainchild of the deposed governorMahmud Pa a (1561-1565),
who wanted to torment his successor, Ridvan Pa a, by saddling him with the
turbulenthighlands.7 Notwithstanding, the strategicrationale behind thesedeci
sionswas doubtless the difficultyof controlling the highlands, on the one hand,

and theEgyptian grandees' experiencewith theRed Sea trade and the port cus
toms, on the other. Control of the ports was critical to the effortagainst the
was critical to the flour
Portuguese, while control of both ports and highlands
ishing coffee trade.
Coffee had been introduced intoYemen fromEthiopia, where it grewwild,
sometime in the 15th century.8 It invaded Egypt via theHijaz in the early to
veMal
Esaslari [The Legal and
Imparatorlugunda Zira Ekonominin Hukuk
of the Agricultural Economy of the Ottoman
Foundations
Empire in the Fifteenth
I: Kanunlar
Sixteenth Centuries],
(Istanbul
[Laws], Istanbul, B rhaneddin Matbaasi

Astrlarda Osmanli
Financial
and

Stanford J. Shaw, The

niversitesi Edebiyat Fak ltesi Yayinlanndan),
1943, CV, p. 355-387;
and Development
and Administrative Organization
of Ottoman Egypt, 1517-1798,
Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1962, p. 28ff., 60-62.

Financial

5- BOA,

5, Nos.

himme Defteri

710,

718

711,

973/28

(5 Cemaziyelahir

December

1565); 752 (9Cemaziyelahir973/1January1566); 1236 (20 aban 973/12March 1566). See

also al-Nahr wal

, al-Barq al-yam n ,p. 159; Yahy

BOA, M

5, Nos.

6-

himme Defteri

710,

711,

b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am

718,

720,

731,

752,

780

n , II, p. 724.

(9 Cemaziyelahir

973/1 January1566), 1702 (6 Zilkade 973/25May 1566); al-Nahrwal ,al-Barqal-yamn ,

p. 159.
7 This was

Pa a who, as governor of Egypt, would be assassinated by an

is still standing. See al-Nahr wal , al-Barq
in Cairo
in
His
1567.
mosque
gunman
n , p. 154-155. Ridvan Pa a, meanwhile,
founded an influential family of notables in
the same Mahmud

unknown
al-yam
Ottoman

Palestine;

1600s, Albany,
55-57.

see Dror

Ze'evi,

State University

An Ottoman

of New

York Press,

in the
Century: The District of jerusalem
1996, p. 39-41, 45, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53,

8 - Ralph S. Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in theMedieval
b. al-Husayn, G yat
Near East, Seattle, University ofWashington
Press, 1985, p. ll ff.;Yahy
and Zaidis
al-am n , II, p. 689; Manfred Kropp, "The realm of evil: the struggle of Ottomans

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JANEHATHAWAY

164

mid-16th century, then spread quickly to Syria and Istanbul and from there to
Italy and the rest of Europe.9 Haci Ali, the Turcophone continuator of al
Nahr wal ,mentions a man fromHarput in easternAnatolia, whom he calls a
Yemeni merchant, living in Egypt in 1623 while Evliya elebi, some 50 years

later, reportsmerchants from Sammanud in theNile Delta tradingdirectlywith

Yemen and India;10 by this time,Anatolia, Egypt, and Yemen were linked in an
international coffee network. Coffeehouses (Turkish kahvehaneler)were already
an exiled Chief
ubiquitous in theEgyptian countryside by the late 17th century;
Eunuch of the imperial harem had established a coffee enterprise in theNile

Delta town ofMinyat Zifta in the 1670s.11The widespread popularity ofYemeni

coffee allowed theOttomans to compensate for the Portuguese inroads into the
Indian spice trade that resulted fromVasco da Gama's discovery of the Cape
Route around Africa.12 By the 18th century, coffeewas so pervasive that ithad

turnedYemen into a forerunnerofWashington state today: coffeewas everywhere.

The Danish naturalistCarsten Niebuhr repeatedly recounts spending the night
in one of the coffeehuts thatdotted the countryside of theTih mah.13
One problem with the coffee trade,however,was that the coffee trees them
selves grew not on the coast but inYemen's centralhighlands,which were largely

in B. Knutsson, V. Mattsson,
centuries as reflected in historiography",
and
(eds.), Yemen: Present and Past, Lund, Lund University Press, 1994, p. 93. On
in the region, see Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of
coffee cultivation and preparation
in the 16th-17th

M.

Persson

Ethiopia, 1800-1935, Addis Ababa, Haile Sellassie I University Press, 1968, p. 198-203.
9 Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses, p. 17-41, 74-81; al-Nahr wal ,al-Barq al-yam n , p. 128,
himme
himme Defteri 5, No. 612 (Cemaziyelewel
973/November
401; BOA, M
1565); M
Defteri 7, Nos. 377, 389 (Rebiy lahir 975/October
1567) (on closing down coffeehouses in
and Customs of the
Jerusalem and Cairo). See also Edward W. Lane, An Account of theManners
Modern Egyptians, fifth edition, edited by Edward Stanley Poole, new introduction by John
1973, p. 332-333.
Manchip White, New York, Dover Publications,
10 - Haci

Ali, Ahbar iil-Yemani [Yemeni Events, 1666-1667],

Istanbul, S leymaniye Library,
886, fo. 206v; Evliya
elebi, Seyahatname, X, p. 609; see also p. 675.
Hamidiye
11 - Jane Hathaway,
"The wealth and influence of an exiled Ottoman
eunuch in Egypt: the
c
of
Economic
Abbas
the
and
Social
Journal
Agna",
waqf inventory
of
History of the Orient,

MS

XXXVII

(1994),

p. 296, 302, 307-308,

317.

592, 600, 605, 606, 624, 675.

12 - Andre Raymond,
m nKatkhuaa, Paris,
13 Carsten Niebuhr,
Robert Heron,

See also Evliya

Le Caire des Janissaires: L Apog

ditions CNRS,
Travels

Edinburgh,

R. Morrison

e de la ville ottomane sous cAbd al-Rah

1995, p. 55-56; Hattox,

through Arabia

elebi, Seyahatname, X, p. 551,

Coffee and Coffeehouses, p. 72.

and Other Countries

and Son, Booksellers,

in the East,

translated by

Perth; G. Mudie,

Edinburgh;
1792; reprint in Beirut, Librairie du Liban, n.d., p. 55, 68, 94 (on grow
280, 299, 307, 309, 314, 333, 350. The botanist Albert
ing and trading regions), 265-266,
Deflers in the late 19th-century reports a mix of coffee huts and huts serving qisr, the tradi
and T. Vernor, London,

coffee-bean husks; this may attest to the decline in the interna

coffee, resulting in renewed catering to local tastes. See Albert Deflers,
au Y men: Journal dune excursion
en 1887 dans lesmontagnes de VArabie
Voyage
botanique faite
Heureuse, Paris, Paul Klincksieck,
1889, p. 29, 31, 38, 40, 52, 78, 80, 82, 86, 88, 93, 98, 100,
tional Yemeni

drink of boiled

tional trade in Yemeni

103, 105.

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165

THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

c
c
thedomain of Ism l tribes.14
The Ism l swere, so to speak, thewildcard in the
politics ofOttoman Yemen, existinggeographically and politically in-between the
Zayd s,who were loyal to theirimam, and theOttoman authorities,alongwith the
c
mostly Sh f coastal population who tended to support them.To get the coffee
beans from themountains to the coast for shipment thereforerequired theOtto

mans
Any

to reach

some

sort of
agreement,

tribal unrest would,

naturally,

or at least modus

threaten

tax and

vivendi, with

customs

revenues,

these

tribes.

to say noth

About such agreementswe have distressinglylittle

ing of the coffee supply itself.
direct information.During the late 16th century,however, theywould have been
thepurview of thepasa who governed Sanca\ We also know from archival sources
that theOttomans levied taxeson the tribalregionsof the interior,and that thegar

rison forces' salarieswere drawn from customs levies on baharat, literally"spices",

which came to be virtually synonymouswith coffee.15Small wonder, then, that
Ridvan Pa a, the firstgovernor of Sanc :>,resolved to complete the pacification of
c
the Ism l territories
under his control.Oppressive taxation and ruthlesspacifica
c
tion attempts,however, could easilypush the Ism l s into the arms of theZayd
imam,who might use their support to launch a revoltagainst theOttomans. To
c
balance thingsout, therefore,theOttoman administration rewarded those Ism l
leaderswho were quietist, ratherthanmilitant, and content to liveunderOttoman
rule; thus,Ridvan Pa a bestowed tax farmson the sons and grandson of the chief
c
c
c
Ism l missionary, Ism l al-D
.16
Subsequently, two aacis of theHamd n family fought for theOttomans.17
c
Like the Zayd s, however, the Ism l s seldom, if ever, acted as a monolithic
entity.As a result of Ridvan Pa a's measures, combined with the activities of a
c
rebellious Zayd imam, al-Nahr wal tells us, the Ism l s were split into five
groups: those quietists who continued to follow their chief d ct, those allied
with Ridvan Pa a, thosewho did not take sides, thosewho supported theZayd
imam, and thosewho fledYemen for India.18
The Zayd imam in question was al-Mutahhar b. Saraf al-D n, who in 1566
declared full-scalegih d against theOttoman administration. The struggle for
Yemen between the Ottomans and al-Mutahhar was particularly hard-fought
and brutal. The Ottomans enjoyed no technological advantage of the sort that
had made Egypt a relatively easy conquest decades earlier.19The Zayd s had
14 - On

their locations, see Deflers, Voyage au Y men, p. 38, 40-41,

46-47,

50.

15- BOA,M himmeDefteri3,Nos. 1493, 1499 (6Zilhicce967/28August 1560).

16-Yahy

b. al-Husayn,

G yat al-am

n , p. 726;

al-Nahr wal

al-Barq

n , p.

al-yam

165

169, 227; BOA, MaliyedenM dewer 4118 (1000/1591-1592),p. 32, 38, 41. See also
[Mustafa Bey al-]Rumuzi, Tarih-i Feth-i Yemen [History of the Conquest
Palace Library, MS Revan 1297, fos. 44r, 45v.

of Yemen,

to 1568],

Istanbul, Topkapi
al-Nahr wal
17
Yemen,
Yemen

n ,p. 227-230, 269, 297, 323-327; Rumuzi, Tarih-i Feth-i

,
al-Barq al-yam
ff. 45v, 65r-v, 88v-89r. Deflers notes that before the second Ottoman
conquest of
au
n
area north of Sanc 3; see
in 1872, a Hamd
missionary controlled the
Voyage

Y men, p. 40-41,46-47.
18 - al-Nahr wal ,al-Barq al-yam n ,p. 167-170.
- cAbd al-Rahm n b. cAl b. Muhammad
Ibn al-Daybac
19

(d. ca.

1537), Kit

h Qurrat

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al

i66

JANEHATHAWAY

acquired firearms and cannon in the early years of the 16th century,when
Yemen was brieflyoccupied by theMamluk sultanate and by a curious regime
ofOttoman naval officers towhom al-Nahr wal refersas l venos, theOttoman
for a mercenary,

designation

above

all a naval
mercenary;20

moreover,

they could

always retreat into themountains. Finally, the grand vezir Koca Sinan Pa a led
an invading force that accomplished what the chroniclersmemorialize as the
second conquest of Yemen .21 Following this ordeal, Ottoman Yemen was
restored to itsoriginal status as an undivided administrativeunit.
Some two decades of inconclusive infightingamong rival lines of imams and

Hasan

Pa

a, the famous

2 5-year Ottoman

governor,

ensued.

In the

closing

years

of the 16th century,however, a new line of Zayd imams, originatingwith al

Q sim (r. 1592-1620), proclaimed a new dacwa, or "call".22Al-Qasim's son, al
Mu^ayyad Bi-ll h Muhammad, forced theOttomans out ofYemen, which, this
time, theOttomans did not tryvery hard to defend. Upheaval in the imperial
capital prevented the Porte from focusing on Yemen,23 which in any case may
have

represented

too

great

an

investment

in manpower

and materiel.

Although

the lastOttoman governor of Yemen, Q ns h Pa a, a former bey of Egypt,

landed with a combined force of close to 14,000 soldiers and Arab tribesmen
from Egypt, their numbers were quickly depleted by desertion and disease, as
well as warfare.24Meanwhile, the imams armies were enlarged by seemingly
n bi-ahb r al-Yaman
n [The Book of the
cuy
al-maym
Delight of the Eyes: Events inYemen
the Fortunate], edited by Muhammad
b. cAl al-Akwac al-Hiw l , 2 vols., al-Q hirah, Mat
bacat al-Sacadah,
b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 644; al-Nahr 1977, II, p. 225; Yahy

,
al-Barq al-yam ni, p. 21; Rumuzi, Tarih-i Feth-i Yemen, ff. 42v, 69r.
n , p. 32-59;
20 - al-Nahrawal
,
b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p.
al-Barq al-yam
Yahy
to naval
refer to any type of mercenary; however, it is
668-685. Levendczn
frequently applied
(levends of the imperial navy)
personnel. See the references to levendler-i donanma-i Hiimayun

wal

in BOA, Kamil Kepeci, Kahve Riisumu 4519 (1129/1717).

See also Gustav Bayerle, Pashas,
Begs, and Effendis: A Historical Dictionary of Titles and Terms in the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul,
Isis Press, 1997, p. 102; M. Yakub
ve Hi
"Portekizli'lerle Kizildeniz'de Miicadele
Mughul,

H kimiyetinin Yerlesmesi Hakkinda

Bir Vesika"
[A document concerning the
the Portuguese
in the Red Sea and the establishment of Ottoman
rule in the
Hijaz], Belleten, 11/3-4 (1965), p. 46; Riza Nour, "L'Histoire du croissant", Revue de turcologie
1/3 (February 1933), p. 88, new series 317.
n , p. 205-213,
21 - al-Nahr wal ,
al-Mutahhar's
surrender occurs
218-443;
al-Barq al-yam
on p. 427-430.
See also al-Ish q ,Ahb r al-uwal, p. 154.
caz'da Osmanli
struggle with

22 - Yahy b.
al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 769-814; Haci Ali, Ahbar iil-Yemani, f. 221r-v.
23 Haci Ali notes that Fazh Pa a, governor from 1622-1624,
could expect no help from the
II
capital in the wake of the Janissary rebellion that resulted in the murder of Sultan Osman

and its aftermath. See Ahbar iil-Yemani, f. 205v.

(1618-1622),
24 - Haci Ali, Ahbar
l-Yemani, f. 210v-2l6r; Yahy b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, p. 831; al
,Duh
Mawzac
l al-c Utm niyyin, p. 218; Anonymous, Kitab-i Tevarih-i Misr-i Kahire-i Hatt-i
Hasan Posa [The Book ofHistories of Cairo in the
Calligraphy of Hasan Pa a, to 1683], Istanbul,

S leymaniye Library, MS Haci Mahmud

Efendi 4877, f. 36r; A.S. Tritton, , The Rise
of the
Imams of Sanaa, London, Oxford University Press, 1925;
reprint inWestport, CT, Hyperion
Press, Inc., 1981, p. 94, 97.

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I67

THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

inexhaustiblewaves of tribesmen.25Q ns h Pa a finally asked the imam for safe

passage toMecca,26 leaving another Egyptian bey,Arnavud Mustafa, with 1,000
soldiers to face theZayd siege ofMocha. Mustafa Bey sent a desperate message
to the governor of Egypt, pleading for reinforcements,but never received a reply.

By this time, his men were utterly demoralized. Three hundred died in the
course of the siege. Finally, in 1636, Arnavud Mustafa Bey and the remnant of
his army evacuated Mocha on an Indian merchant ship and sailed back to
Egypt.27With that, thefirstperiod ofOttoman rule inYemen ended.
The Post-expulsion Period

Naturally, Egypt's connections with Yemen did not cease completely once the
Ottomans had been driven from the province. The sons of al-Mutahhar, the
imamwho rebelled in the 1560s, had been taken onto theOttoman payroll and
given tax farms.One of them, Ibrahim b. al-Mutahhar, evidently served as a spy
for theOttomans, although it is questionable whether this relationship contin
ued beyond 1636 or outside of Yemen.28 On the other hand, there is at least

circumstantial evidence of population movement between Ottoman Egypt and

Yemen both before and after theOttoman ouster. Governors relocating from
Egypt to Yemen and vice versa must surely have taken along personnel from
theirprevious posting. Undoubtedly Hasan Pa a, who governed Yemen for 25
years before being assigned to Egypt, served as an unprecedented conduit for

Yemeni influence inEgypt. He had made his fortune inYemen; it is difficult to

believe thathe would have given up his connections thereonce posted toCairo.
Ongoing warfare inYemen, lamentably, provided themost reliable conduit of
exchange. Egyptian beys, soldiers, and bedouin tribesmen routinely served in
Yemen; the soldiers, at least,occasionally deserted to theZayd imam,who used

them either as auxiliary troops or as agriculturalworkers.29 Even decades after

Yemen had been lost,Evliya elebi tellsof a group of Ethiopian rebelswho fled
from theOttoman governor of Abyssinia to theZayd imam-,in the late 18th
meanwhile,

century,

the imam

as

reports occasional
If some Ottoman
soldiers

Niebuhr

gunners.30

vagabond
stayed

Turks
in Yemen,

- Haci
l-Yemani, ff. 2l4v, 217r.
Ali, Akbar
26
Ibid., f. 218r; Yahy b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am n , II, p. 839.
- Haci
27
Ali, Ahbar
l-Yemani, ff.217r-220r; Yahy b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am

who
we

served
can

only

25

ni, II, p. 839.

28-BOA, MaliyedenM dewer 4118 (1000/1591-1592),p. 35, 40, 48; 7555 (1009/1600
1601), p.
Mutahhar

18, 49, 72, 99, 107, 108, 111, 160, 172, 197, 221, 227, 228, 248 (Ibrahim b. al
listed as a spy); Yahy b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 729, 776-777.

- Haci
l-Yemani, f. 217r; al-Nahr wal , al-Barq al-yam nt, p. 128, 196, 269,
Ali, Ahbar
b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 697, 774, 799; R.B. Serjeant, "The post-me
388; Yahy
in R.B. Ser
dieval and modern history of Sanca' and the Yemen, ca. 953-1382/1545-1962"
29

(eds.), Sanca): An Arabian Islamic City, London, World

jeant and Ronald Lewcock
Festival Trust, 1983, p. 80. Agricultural workers are mentioned
specifically by Yahy
sayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 804.
30

Evliya

elebi, Seyahatname, X, p. 677; Niebuhr,

of Islam
b. al-Hu

Travels, p. 91.

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i68

JANEHATHAWAY

imagine thatYemeni soldiers,most of whom were tribesmen, occasionally re

turned to Egypt with theOttoman detachments. In the face of theOttoman
expulsion, tribesmenwho had supported theOttomans must have been tempted
as
to join them in
flight. Indeed, the 18th-centurychronicler of Egypt known
Ahmad Kanya cAzeb n al-Damurd s at several points mentions a tribalpopula
tion of theNile Delta whom he calls Zayidiyyah.31 These could conceivably
have included the descendants of Zayd tribesmenwho opposed the Q sim
dynasty-perhaps even the familyof al-Mutahhar and theirfollowers.
So far as the coffee trade specifically is concerned, theOttoman expulsion
would have dealt a blow toOttoman attempts to control the transportof coffee

within Yemen. For the remainder of the 17th century, in any event, theOtto
mans were at the virtual mercy of theQasim
imam, who derived a healthy
court
from
the
coffee
trade.
The
Ottoman
historian Mustafa Naima
profit
revenues
the
outflow
Ottoman
of
(1655-1716) deplores
enriching Yemen, as
well as India.32 Niebuhr, writing in the 18th century, reports that the imam

received one-quarter of the retailprice of all coffee sold.33Undeniably, though,

the coffee trade fromMocha to Egypt continued briskly, peaking only two or
three decades after the Ottoman ouster. Indeed, the great coffee fortunes of
some of Egypt's
grandee households, such as theGediks, theKazdaghs, and the
were
made
well after theOttomans had leftYemen.34 One key reason,
Sarayb s,

c
s , al-Durrah al-musanah
K hya Azeb n al-Damurd
[The
fi ahbar al-Kinanah
in Egypt [land of the Kin nah tribe], c. 1755], British Museum, MS
Events
Protected Pearl:
Or. 1073-1074, p. 187-188, 364-367; Ahmed
elebi b. cAbd al-Gani, Awdah al-is r tfi man
31- Ahmed

tawallaMisr al-Q hirah min al-wuzara* waD l-b s t [The Clearest Signs: The Ministers and Pasas
who Governed Cairo, c. 1737], edited by A.A. cAbd al-Rah m, al-Q hirah, Maktabat
al-H n
g , 1978, p. 528. For the term used to describe Zayd swithin Yemen, see Ibn al-Daybac, Qur
ratal-cuy n, II, p. 133, 160, 172, 174-175, 225; al-Nahr wal , al-Barq al-yam n ,p. 20, 21,

b. al-Husayn, G yat al-am ni, II, p. 645. See also JuliusWellhausen,

27, 28, 49, 289; Yahy
The Arab Kingdom and itsFall, translated by Margaret Graham Weir, Beirut, Khayats (Khayats
Oriental Reprint Series, no. 7), 1927, p. 384-385, where the term
applies to the original
followers of Zayd b. cAl .
in Zeki Arslantiirk, Naimaya
Y zy Osmanli Toplum Yapist [Sev
32 Quoted
gore XVII.
to Naima],
Social Structure
Istanbul, Ayi igikitaplan,
eenth-Century Ottoman
according
1997, p. 89.
-

See Niebuhr, Travels, p. 88. See also Paul Dresch,

"Imams and tribes: the writing and
in Philip S. Khoury, and Joseph Kostiner (eds.), Tribes and
acting of history inUpper Yemen"
State Formation
in theMiddle
East, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990, p. 267;
Tritton, Rise of the Imams ofSanca', p. 119. Fran ois Blukacz notes a tax on profits from the
c
India trade imposed by the expansionist imam al-Mutawakkil
on the
l (r. 1644-1676)
Ism
western
Hadramawti
of
after
his
in
Sihr
of
this
(in
Oman)
1655;
port
today's
conquest
region
33

see Fran ois Blukacz,

sous
"Le Yemen
"
m re unit
inMichel Tuchscherer
ph

Monde Musulman
-

et de laM

l'autorit

des

imams zaidites

au XVIIe

(ed.), Le Y men, pass et pr sent de Tunit

diterran e, no. 67, Paris,
disud, 1994, p. 48.

si cle: Une
,Revue du

The Politics

in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the

ofHouseholds
Qazdaghs,
Press,
1997,
25, 35-36, 74-80, 132, 134-137; Raymond,
p.
University
Cambridge, Cambridge
Le Caire des Janissaires, p. 80-85; Doris Behrens-Abouseif,
itsEnvirons: From
Azbakiyya and
Azbak to Ismail, 1476-1879, Cairo, Institut Fran ais d'Arch
1985, p. 55-60,
ologie Orientale,
34

Jane Hathaway,

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169

THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

no doubt, was that the

grandees could compensate for their lack of control of
internal transportby dominating other features of the trade, notably shipping
overseas and overland. The ships that transported coffee
through the Red Sea
were frequently owned by
higher officersof Egypt's Janissary regiment.Typi
cally, thesewere Indian ships that the officerspurchased, sometimes in partner
shipwith other officersorwith overseasmerchants; Egypt itselfdoes not appear
to have had a ship-building industry formost of the Ottoman era.35 That
Yemen lacked a reliable supply of ships of its own in the 17th century is
illustratedby the evacuation ofArnavud Mustafa Bey on an Indian commercial
vessel, but evenmore damningly by the 1679 episode inwhich theZayd imam
3
and the highlands. Driven to the inland town of
expelled the Jews of Sanc
Mawzac, theywaited in vain for a ship to appear to transport them into exile; in
the end, they remained inMawzac for roughly a year until, alarmed by the
decline of thehandicrafts industryin theirabsence, the imam permitted them to
return home.36

Egypt's Janissaryofficersalso monopolized the tax farmsof the customs at the

Red Sea and Nile ports throughwhich Yemeni coffeehad to pass. The household
known as Gedik used theircontrol of the customs at theMediterranean ports of
Alexandria, Rosetta, and Damietta to profitfromEuropean importsand exportsof
coffeeand other goods. Thus, in 1720, the French consul in Egypt mourned the

death of the JanissaryofficerGedik Mehmed Kanya, who had allowed French

merchants to export coffeefromEgyptwithout paying exorbitant taxes,doubtless
in exchange for reciprocalfavours.37The Gedik household cannot have been alone
in this sortof practical arrangement.
Duties connected to the annual pilgrimage toMecca added to the Janissa
ries' control over the transport of coffee. Red Sea ships typically stopped at

Jidda,where coffeewas sold to pilgrims. Ships coming from Egypt with grain
for theHoly Cities could presumably reload at Jiddawith coffee.38Three Janis
saryofficersfromEgypt served as officialprotectors of the pilgrimage caravan all
mo
along its route; by the early 18th century,officersof theKazdagh household
a
nexus
coffee
lucrative
of
and
all
these
posts, creating
pilgrimage
nopolized
trade.39Small wonder that among the possessions in the tent of S leymanKah

63-67.
"Le
Politics ofHouseholds,
p. 77, 80, 135 and n. 50; Michel Tuchscherer,
35-Hathaway,
en 1739",
, sird r de la caravane de laMekke
P
mir Sulaym n G wis al-Qazdugl
lerinage de l'
Annales Islamologiques, XXIV
(1988), p. 162, 172.
- P.S. Van
Yemenite Authorities and JewishMes
36
Koningsveld, J. Sadan, and Q. al-Samarrai,

in Seventeenth
sir al-Zayd 'sAccount of the Sabbathian Movement
sianism: Ahmad
ihn N
of Theology,
1990, esp.
Century Yemen and itsAftermath, Leiden, Leiden University, Faculty
p. 11-19,41-117.
et commer ants au Caire
37 Andr
Raymond, Artisans
Institut Fran ais de Damas,
1973-1974,1,
p. 177.
38
39

Hathaway,

Politics ofHouseholds,

p. 35-36,

au XVIIIe

69, 80, 98,

si cle, 2 vols., Damascus,

134.

Ibid., p. 74, 77, 80.

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JANEHATHAWAY

rjo

ya al-Kazdagh, who died of an apparent asthma attack in 1739 while waiting to

set out on the hajj, were ground coffee beans.40 Stileyman had no doubt in
tended to trade these beans in the course of the pilgrimage, perhaps selling them
in locales that lay along the outgoing route.During the 1750s, the duumvirate
of Ibrahim Kanya al-Kazdagh and Ridvan Kanya al-Jalf , which dominated
a
Egypt, was rooted in partnership in the coffee trade. The chronicler al-Da
murd s records that Ibrahim gave a third of whatever entered his hand to
Ridvan, at length explaining thatwhat came into Ibrahim's hand was six arfi,
or imperial gold pieces, from each load of coffee beans that entered the spice
customs,which theKazdaghs, of course, controlled.41Customs duties, shipping
seem to have
privileges, and trade opportunities provided by the hajj, in short,
tax revenues from the coffee
at
of
for
the
loss
least
partially
compensated
growing regions inYemen.
Only in the latterpart of the 18th century,when theQ sim dynasty's grip
had weakened outside their northern stronghold, does it seem likely that the
or any otherOttoman province could have cultivated a work
grandees of Egypt
c
with
the tribes of theYemeni interior,above all the Ism l s.
ing relationship
Ottomans do seem to have been trading inYemen to a limited extent by this
time; theYemeni chronicler al-Bahkal mentions a dispute between two Turk
ishmerchants and two sarifi,or descendants of the Prophet, who were in the
Q sim imams entourage.42 By this time, however, Yemeni coffeewas being
undercut by the lower-quality beans from France's Caribbean colonies. The
was now an afford
preferreddrink of Egyptians of relativelymodest substance
able blend of theYemeni and the French Caribbean products.43Not coinciden
tally, leadership of theKazdagh household had passed from Janissaryofficers to
beyswho controlled the tax farms of Egypt's subprovinces, including the grain
producing villages endowed to thepious foundations (evkaf) of theHoly Cities.44
We

never

may

the

full

and merchants

ministrators,
of Yemen,

know

or

grandees,
to Yemen's
indeed

extent

alike

or

complexity
connections

own merchants.

What

of

the Ottomans'-ad
to the

we

can

interior

conclude,

tribes
how

ever, is that the experience of administering this troublesome province allowed

the Ottomans to become familiar with the web of communal and regional
loyalties that covered the landscape and that theyhad to negotiate if theywere

"Le P lerinage de l' mir Sulaym n G wis al-Qazdugl

", passim.; Hathaway,
Tuchscherer,
Politics ofHouseholds, p. 85, 135.
s ,Durrah, p. 560, 577;
41
al-Damurd
Hathaway, Politics ofHouseholds, p. 96, 136.
42
al-Bahkal ,Quintessence de l'or du rgne du Ch rif
Muhammad
cAbd al-Rahm n b. Hasan
40

as Imams, notables et b douins du

h. Ahmad, edited and translated by Michel
Tuchscherer
Y men au XVIIIe
si cle, Textes Arabes et Etudes Islamiques, XXX, Cairo,
Institut Fran ais
d'Arch

1992, p. 175.
ologie Orientale,
- Robert L.
or Yemen, Amsterdam,
A
Philo Press; St.
Playfair,
History of Arabia Felix
Leonards, Ad Orientam, Ltd., 1970 (reprint of the 1859 ed.), p. 114-115; Raymond, Artisans
et commer ants, I, p. 156ff.; Hathaway, Politics
ofHouseholds, p. 46, 137.
44 - Hathaway, Politics ofHouseholds, p. 46, 78-79, 98-99, 103, 131, 160.
43

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THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE

to profit from the commerce in coffee.Merchants and grandees used the residue
of this knowledge to entrench themselves in the trade, forming a geographical
and commercial complement to theYemeni growers and carriers that remained
unshakable

even

after the Ottoman

ouster.

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