JEDDAH: A rare, 400-year-old manuscript that highlights the important role of coffee in Arab culture has been shared with the public for the first time. It was written by Madyan Qusuni, a renowned Egyptian physician, writer, and historian during the Ottoman era.
King Abdulaziz Public Library decided to show off the document, which is safely preserved and stored in its private collection, as part of the celebrations for the 2022 Year of Saudi Coffee, which celebrates the role of the beverage in the identity, heritage, customs and traditions of the Kingdom.
The manuscript, which has the numeric reference “1213,” summarizes two books by different authors. The first is “Umdat Al-Safwa fi Hill Al-Qahwa” by Abdulqadir bin Muhammad Al-Jaziri, an Iraqi scholar and historian. The second is a book by scholar Ahmad Shihab Addin Al-Maliki, the first chapter of which is titled “On the Meaning of Coffee.”
The manuscript has a poem in praise of coffee that tells how it has spread to the far corners of the earth, gaining prominence even in China.
Qusuni was the chief physician in Egypt. He was also known for his love of literature and history, and wrote many books in which he combined his knowledge of the medicine of the time with literature. He died in Egypt in 1634.
In its role as a preserver of history and ancient manuscripts, the library in 2020 issued a two-part manuscript index. The first discusses the library’s work to preserve and document the historical manuscripts it holds and make the details available to scholars and researchers. The 664-page volume contains information about 300 manuscripts.
The second part includes details of 646 Arabic manuscripts and 19 in other ancient languages, including Turkish, Bosnian and Persian. They cover a wide range of topics including the arts, religion, jurisprudence, Hadith, biographies of the Prophet Muhammad, literature, poetry, philosophy, astronomy, dictionaries, general knowledge, logic, grammar, history and rhetoric.
The Year of Saudi Coffee initiative was launched by the Ministry of Culture, with the support of the Quality of Life Program, in keeping with the aims of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 development and diversification agenda.
