Controversy in Seventeenth-Century English Coffeehouses: Transcultural Interactions with an Oriental Import
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Controversy in Seventeenth-Century English Coffeehouses: Transcultural Interactions with an Oriental Import Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Pierce, Mary Lynn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 23:06:13 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/594652 CONTROVERSY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH COFFEEHOUSES: TRANSCULTURAL INTERACTIONS WITH AN ORIENTAL IMPORT by Mary Lynn Pierce __________________________ Copyright © Mary Lynn Pierce 2015 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2015 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Mary Lynn Pierce, titled “Controversy in Seventeenth-century English Coffeehouses: Transcultural interactions with an Oriental import” and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (05/12/2015) Laura Tabili _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (05/12/2015) Julia Clancy-Smith _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (05/12/2015) Linda Darling _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (Enter Date) _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (Enter Date) Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: (05/12/2015) Dissertation Director: Laura Tabili 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Mary Lynn Pierce 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many wonderful people. First, I would like to thank Dr. Laura Tabili for her invaluable support, guidance, patience and encouragements. She truly exemplifies what a dissertation adviser should be. I would also like to thank my committee: Dr. Julia Clancy-Smith and Dr. Linda Darling. I was fortunate to have them as my committee, and words are not sufficient to express my gratitude and appreciation to each one of them, who gave unselfishly of their time and energy. I was truly fortunate to have the best advisory committee. I must also extend special thanks to Dr. Oscar Martinéz for his generosity to read my chapters, and provide me with excellent feedback and advice. I am sincerely grateful for his insightful and scholarly attention to my project. The research on which this project is based was carried out in several repositories, including the British Library, the Guildhall Library, the National Archives, the Bodleian Library, the William Andrews Clark Library and the Huntington Library. I owe a considerable debt to the staff in these archives for their continued helpfulness and efficiency. Most importantly, I would like to thank the love of my life, my sweet husband, Humann. I would not have been able to start or finish this dissertation 5 without his love, support, patience and encouragements. I am sincerely grateful for his unconditional belief in me. I dedicate this project to him. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT..................................................................................................7 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................9 CHAPTER ONE: ENGLAND IN THE POST-ENGLISH REVOLUTION ERA, 1649-60…………………………………………………………………………………….31 CHAPTER TWO: COFFEE POLARIZED ENGLAND: COSMOPOLITANS AND ISLAMOPHOBES.........................................................................................60 CHAPTER THREE: THE TURLISH LIQUOR AS “THE PRESENT TERROR OF THE WORLD”........................................................................................97 CHAPTER FOUR: COFFEE MADE CUCKOLDS AND EUNUCHS..................150 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................190 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................196 7 Abstract By analyzing and contextualizing the polarized discourses on coffee and coffeehouses in post-1652 England, this dissertation argues that the divisive worldviews of the English population at this critical historical juncture shaped the contentious reception of coffee. Countless scholarly efforts dealing with seventeenth-century coffeehouses, those of London in particular, have helped explaining the rapid growing popularity of coffee and the establishments in which it was consumed, the coffeehouse. Building upon exiting literature, this work advances a new approach to shed light the interconnection between social and cultural anxieties, paradoxes and contradictions in seventeenth-century English society, and the contradictory discourses surrounding the rise of coffee in England. My project demonstrates that pervasive anxieties about the rise of religious heterodoxy, the ambiguous dispositions of the English people towards the Ottoman Turks, and the ever-present concerns surrounding the tenuous state of patriarchal manhood collectively helped to both encourage and discourage interactions with the Islamic practice of coffee drinking in coffeehouses. Coffee and coffeehouses came from the Ottoman Empire, th eland of the presumed Turks. One sector of society, the optimists, embraced the exotic novelty from the Islamic world and participated enthusiastically in a 8 custom shared with their Turkish, Arab and Persian counterparts since the early sixteenth century. Conversely, the pessimists vilified the adoption of cultural and dietary practices from a non-Christian society; they condemned the enthusiasts’ cosmopolitanism as a sign of disloyalty that would only deepen discord in the nation. Indeed, they proclaimed the craze for the Turkish- imported habit as a sign of degeneration, threatening not just Englishmen’s religiosity, but also their manliness. Coffee and coffeehouse came from the Ottoman Empire, the land of the presumed effeminate Turks at that. Intimate intermingling with this imported novelty thus compromised England’s identity and even sovereignty. By relying upon a borderlands approach that is inspired by gender analysis, this dissertation seeks an alternative theoretical path to explain the controversy and contention swirling around a new drink and novel spaces of sociability among a populace dislocated by years of religious, political and cultural turmoil. 9 Introduction In April, 2006, the far right British National Party, known also as the BNP, exploiting increasing Islamophobia in England, pushed for a referendum on Islam. The BNP, appealing to “white” British nationals, particularly the English, inhabiting areas such as Birmingham with relatively sizeable Muslim populations, stressed the importance of voting before it was “too late,” and they became a minority living in a “Eurabian caliphate.”1 The deputy chairman of the party, Simon Darby, argued that cities like Birmingham, even with only fifteen per cent Muslims, was transforming into an Islamic city, and that it could easily swap over to sharia law.2 Darby and his sympathizers were hoping to capitalize not only on the discontent surrounding the stagnant economy in the region, but more importantly the anti-Islam sentiment that was further exacerbated by the 1 Oliver Duff, “Rising Islamophobia makes Birmingham fertile ground,” The Independent [London, UK], 08 April 2006: 6. In this dissertation, I maintain a distinction between “British” and “English.” When using the word “British,” I am referring to the English, Scots, Welsh and the Irish in the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Northern Ireland, which is the proper name for the commonly used term the UK. On the other hand, those from England are referred to as English, who are the main focus of my project. The BNP, founded around 1982 by John Tyndall and under the leadership of the Cambridge law graduate Nick Griffin, as well other minority parties such as England First, stand up for Englishness and advocate anti-immigrant policies, even the repatriation of non-white immigrants to their land of ethnic origin. The party, mainly because of inadequate financial contributions and mismanagement, is mostly in disarray, but whether its ideological stand has withered remains