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Free at British Museum
Coffee features in the daily routine of millions around the world. Life without it, in one form or another, now seems unimaginable.
As a drink, coffee has its roots in Yemen. From its consumption in Sufi religious orders, the beverage spread along trade and pilgrimage routes throughout the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and the Levant, reaching the capital of the Ottoman empire in the early 16th century.
Coffeehouses emerged as meeting places where people of different social positions, ethnicities and religions could meet on an equal footing around a cup of coffee. This development often led to decrees banning coffee or coffeehouses on the basis that it endangered health and morals and that the gatherings where it was consumed threatened the established social order.
Life in a cup presents a fascinating beverage story and explores the traditions that make coffee a way of life in parts of the Islamic world.
27 October 2021 – 18 September 2022
Daily: 10.00–17.00
See full opening hoursRoom 43a
The Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world
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