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Comment by Jun8 | Hacker News Reader

For more information about religious fatwa's against coffee use and early adoption see (https://books.google.com/books?id=7CP7fYghBFQC&pg=PA633&lpg=...)

One interesting thing about coffee culture in Turkey is the tradition of "fortune telling": After one finishes their coffee the cup is turned upside down on the saucer and waits for 5-10 minutes. Then, the shapes that the grounds make in the cup and the saucer is interpreted, usually for fun. For more info: http://www.turkishstylegroundcoffee.com/turkish-coffee-readi...

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"Coffee houses gave men somewhere to congregate other than in homes, mosques or markets, providing a place for them to socialise, exchange information, entertain – and be educated. Literate members of society read aloud the news of the day; janissaries, members of an elite cadre of Ottoman troops, planned acts of protest against the Sultan"

This feels like blaming coffee for people socializing (in todays world this would mean social networking websites, where people hang out). Its sort of saying (in hypothetical world) Twitter lead to downfall of China. Which I think is debatable.

> For more information about religious fatwa's against coffee use and early adoption see (https://books.google.com/books?id=7CP7fYghBFQC&pg=PA633&lpg=...)

Excellent resource! It's an anecdote, but once I heard that governments criminalized coffee more readily than alcohol because people got together and conspired. In the case of alcohol the conspirators forgot what they had talked about by the morning, but with coffee they did not. Your source seems to hint at that as well:

> The fact that current politics were discussed in the coffee-houses, the government's acts criticised and intrigues woven, was the principal cause for the intervention of the authorities.

  people got together and conspired

Hence Charles II's claim that London coffeehouses were nurseries of sedition and rebellion.

and today the same thing is happening with the internet.

This guide is gold, thank you.

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