"The Monk of the Brain" - the journey of Arabic coffee from her Yemeni home to America's cafes

Imran Abdullah

Dave Eggers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and novelist, listens to Mukhtar al-Khanshli three years before he writes this unique book and tries to change the stereotype of Yemen, which suffers from war, famine and poverty, and about 24 million people classified as "at risk".

Mukhtar, a Yemeni-American Muslim who grew up in a difficult neighborhood in San Francisco, was a restless young man who struggled to survive in circumstances that forced him to lose many opportunities for education, safe jobs and even loss of money. But he was also smart and was driven by his great pride in Yemen's heritage and origins.

Mukhtar Al Khanshli is currently the CEO of a Yemeni coffee company. The book tells his unique story. From his work as a luxury building concierge, he delves into his personal history, Yemeni origins and Yemeni coffee assets in his province of Ibb, which has been growing coffee for more than 500 years.

The story of a coffee bean in Yemen, the first cup of coffee in which coffee was poured and until the middle of the 17th century, was often Yemenite. When Dutch merchants began trading with Yemen in 1616, coffee was brought to Europe via the port of Makhka, Arabic coffee "Arabica" - to the rest of the world.

Mokhtar established a project to revive the glory of Yemeni coffee. His activities included agriculture, roasting and importing coffee from his homeland. But the coffee produced by Mukhtar is not a regular beverage, but expensive coffee, expensive and served with the cream biscuits made from the recipes of Mukhtar's mother. A country suffering from a brutal collapse, but a product quality as well.

Coffee master
Mukhtar was sent by his parents to live with his grandfather in Ibb for a year when he was in eighth grade. He learned the Arabic language and knew Yemen's struggle. Then he returned to the United States to collide with a famous statue on the other side of the building where he was a gatekeeper or a building guard. Drink coffee and put in a place where the old coffee plant "Hills Bruce".

Inspired by the curiosity and inspiration of the statue, Mokhtar investigated the origin of the coffee, led by the research into Yemen, and learned how the coffee had evolved long ago. Yemen was the only place where coffee had grown, and its theft or violation of its plants was a capital offense. In other countries, French and Dutch stocks rose in coffee making, while Yemen lost its coffee-powered strength.

The glory of Yemen
A new idea struck Mokhtar's mind when he decided that he wanted to restore the glory of Yemen by reviving the coffee industry there, although he knew nothing about coffee and its industry. He did not have the money to invest in it, nor even the value of traveling to Yemen. But once he found the money he needed The coffee produced in Yemen is of poor quality because untrained farmers have lost their farming experience.

In addition, no trader wanted to risk doing business in Yemen because of the war and the nature of dealing with tribes and local traders who were afraid. Also, qat was more profitable and popular for local use, so it would be difficult to persuade farmers to venture more. Of coffee instead of khat.

But Mukhtar succeeded in persuading hundreds of farmers in his homeland to abandon cultivation of khat and start farming Arabika; and raised funding for processing, roasting and shipping. At the same time as Yemen entered into a ferocious war and famine, and also coincided with an era in which American Muslims were increasingly unwelcome in the official discourse of their country. Yemenis were particularly among those exposed to persecution through Trump's travel ban.

Mukhtar had planned to revive Yemeni coffee by marketing it as a distinctive coffee and offering old items. Mukhtar was subjected to a harsh experience in March 2015, where Saudi air strikes bombed Sana'a airport and lived in an adventure where he was kidnapped, smuggled, Coffee.

Two of the samples are highly valued in the coffee lab. Currently, the coffee is being shipped from three regions of Yemen to dozens of American sauces. The author of the book says his work in importing coffee from Yemen coincided with deteriorating conditions in Yemen, While the activity in the ports focused on the import of necessities, the medicine was rare and the vast majority of the country was food insecure.

The United Nations considered Yemen to be on the verge of famine, and no one had given priority to the export of coffee to specialized international hubs.

Monk of the brain
The novel also deals with the story of the "monk of the brain" Sheikh Ali bin Omar al-Qurashi al-Shazly, a mystic monk who went to Ethiopian Harar and married an Ethiopian woman and brought her coffee, which has not yet been planted. In the brain he invented the dark drink, now known as coffee.

Local narrators believe that Sheikh al-Qureshi al-Shazly placed the brain on the map as a coffee trading center, and provided coffee to traders who came to the brain and praised its medicinal benefits.