Qahwa, the drink of Arab mystics

steingar

steingar

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steingar
Which was originally imported to Europe though the port of Mocha. Alcohol was originally distilled in Iraq around 800AD and originally called al kuhul. Oh, and lets not forget the Arab invention of the three course meal, according to this article on the BBC.
 
Is the article trying to imply Muslims invented alcohol in 800AD?

(Jesus would take issue with that...)
 
Alcohol has been around for a long time before Jesus too.

While no one knows when beverage alcohol was first used, it was presumably the result of a fortuitous accident that occurred at least tens of thousands of years ago. However, the discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that intentionally fermented beverages existed at least as early as the Neolithic period (cir. 10,000 B.C.) (Patrick, 1952, pp. 12-13), and it has been suggested that beer may have preceded bread as a staple (Braidwood et al, 1953; Katz and Voigt, 1987); wine clearly appeared as a finished product in Egyptian pictographs around 4,000 B.C. (Lucia, 1963a, p. 216).
Click to expand...

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1114796842.html

Maybe what they are getting at in the first article is the origin of the word "alcohol".
 
Big jump from alcohol in the form of wine or beer to distilled spirits. Interesting topic.
 
Don't mix alcohol and algebra, lest you drink and derive.
 
Everskyward said:
Alcohol has been around for a long time before Jesus too.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I've always thought fermentation was the driving force behind grain monoculture and our version of "civilization". None of the reasons stated by anthropologists really make a lot of sense to me.

Everskyward said:
Maybe what they are getting at in the first article is the origin of the word "alcohol".
Click to expand...

Kinda what I thought was interesting. I had no idea distillation was invented in the ME, indeed it comes as a bit of a surprise given the prohibitions against alcohol in the Quaran.
 
The chineese were also distilling spirits in the same rough time frame. While some assert the Han dynasty (100AD or so) knew how to do it, the closest archeological physical evidence comes from later (roughly the same time as the Iranians).
 
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