Food - Drink
There Was A Time When Not Having Coffee Beans Was Reason For Divorce
By AUTUMN SWIERS
Ever uttered the phrase, "Don't talk to me before I've had my coffee?" How about, "If you don't have any coffee, don't talk to me again." For the people of the Ottoman Empire and Arabia in the 15th century, it wasn't a far-off statement, it was the reality.
The Arabs are credited with inventing coffee during the 15th century, and the cultural role of coffee became so prominent for the Arab people that a law was passed to ensure people had access to it. In Saudi Arabia, if you couldn't bring coffee grounds home to your wife, it was regarded as a legitimate reason for divorce.
The role of religion in coffee's popularity and its subsequent progressive divorce law is interesting, considering divorce was regarded as a major social taboo in many other parts of the world during this period. For the Arabs, coffee was a thinking person's gasoline, and without it, a marriage couldn’t survive.