Constantinople’s first coffeehouse was opened by two merchants from Damascus in 1555. The small shop in a poor district of town soon proved to be a huge hit and was widely imitated. Just 15 years later there were said to be over 600 different stalls, shops and cafes selling coffee in the cosmopolitan Ottoman capital.
The coffeehouse provided a place for the men of the Ottoman Empire – and it was men only, no women – to gather in a purely social setting. Coffeehouses helped to stimulate art and culture as
