Ancient coffee houses offered gambling

LONDON - Coffee houses are great for lively debates but you should go back to the 16th century to get a hang of how they shaped modern consumerism.

Eminegül Karababa of the University of Exeter, Britain, and Güliz Ger of Bilkent University, Turkey, researched the history of coffee houses in the early modern Ottoman Empire and found they had a lot to offer, reports the Journal of Consumer Research.

Their patrons engaged in gambling, taking drugs, meeting with “young beautiful boys” and performing or watching entertainments such as puppet theatres, storytellers, and musical and dance performances, an Exeter University statement said.

“Formation, normalisation and legalisation of such a site for transgressive pleasures was controversial since formal religious morality of the period (orthodox Islam) considered it sinful and illegal. Thus, they were repeatedly banned by the state,” said the study authors.

Yet, the coffee houses flourished. By the 16th and 17th centuries, Ottomans from all ranks of the society met to drink coffee, socialise and have literary discussions.

Coffee house discourse often challenged the authority of the state and religion and led to changes in the society.

“Simultaneously, a new Ottoman consumer, resisting the prescriptions of the state and religion, actively constructing self-ethics, and taking part in the formation of the coffeehouse culture, was forming as well.

“Obviously, the early modern Ottoman context was very different than any modern capitalist system”, the authors said.

“But the active consumer may not be as recent or even a chronological phenomenon as many consumer researchers think.”