Everyday inventions from the Muslim world
Islamic Studies · Key Stage 3 · The School
Coffee
Coffee was first cultivated and drunk as a beverage in Yemen, from around the 15th century. Sufi worshippers used it to stay awake for night devotions. It spread to Makkah, then across the Ottoman Empire, where the coffeehouse became a fixture of city life, and reached Europe through Ottoman and Venetian trade in the 1600s.
The cheque
Merchants across the medieval Islamic world used a written order called a SAKK — a promise of payment redeemable elsewhere, letting a trader avoid carrying coin across long, risky trade routes. Many historians connect the modern word "cheque" to this term, passed through trade contact, though the exact linguistic path is debated and should be stated as such.
The postal relay
The Abbasid caliphate ran the BARID, a relay network of staging posts and riders carrying official mail and intelligence across the empire, centuries before a comparable postal service existed in Europe. Riders changed horses at each post, the way a modern relay race passes a baton, to keep messages moving quickly over huge distances.
A bean is picked in 15th-century Yemen. It is roasted and brewed by Sufi worshippers to stay alert for night prayer. The habit spreads to Makkah with pilgrims, then across the Ottoman Empire, where coffeehouses become places to talk business and politics. Venetian traders carry the drink and the word for it into Europe in the 1600s. An ordinary cup of coffee carries that whole route, most of it invisible to whoever is holding the cup.