Rebels in the Coffeehouse

April 2023. In Dublin for sightseeing. Wandering downtown and then discovering the Charles Beatty Library and Museum.

A wealthy, US born mining magnate, Charles Beatty expatriated himself to Ireland in 1933. Then founded a museum to house his extensive collection of arts from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

The first floor features plates from Ottoman books of the 15th and 16th centuries. Minaturists, artists with reed pens sharpened to a fine point, created the “minatures”, which provide a rare glimpse into that world.

I took photos of the plates, housed behind glass walls, eager to capture the images as inspiration.

This plate shows a coffee house, which was a unique space in 16th century Ottoman society. In a society of rigid hierarchies and strictly prescribed roles, the coffee house was where merchants, soldiers, traders, and government officials could mingle, play chess, and, invariably, gossip.

By the 17th century, the coffee house was a symbol of decadence and decay. And a source of unrest as gossip turned into foment against the sultan. So much so that the Sultan Murad !V, who reigns at the time the protagonist of my novel arrives in Istanbul, bans coffee and closes the coffee houses.