To continue our story about the spread of coffee throughout the world: From the Middle East, coffee travelled eastward to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as early as 1505. It has been said that fertile coffee beans were first introduced to south west India by Baba Budan on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 17th century.
By 1517, coffee had reached Constantinople, following the conquest of Egypt by Salim the First, and it was established in Damascus in 1530. Coffee houses were opened in Constantinople in 1554. Their opening provoked for a time religious riots that temporarily closed the coffee houses, but the establishments survived their critics and became a regular rendezvous for those engaged in radical political thought and dissent.
Venetian traders introduced coffee to Europe by 1615; tea had been introduced a few years earlier in 1610. Once more coffee inspired controversy in Italy when some clerics (religious leaders) suggested that it be excommunicated as being the Devil's work. However Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605) enjoyed coffee so much that he declared that coffee should be baptized to make it a true Christian drink.
The first European coffee house opened in Venice in 1683. The famous Cafe Florian, in the Piazza San Marco, which opened in 1720, is the oldest surviving coffee shop in Europe.
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