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Those of us who drink coffee often use it to awaken the senses; to get through the day; or to feed a long-standing habit. But most of us don’t know that our coffee consumption practices come from the Middle East, and are rooted in a worldview that initially treated coffee as a sacred substance. This talk examines some of the earliest Muslim sources on coffee. In examining coffee treatises; material cultures like cups and bean coolers; and coffeehouse architecture, we will see what coffee can tell us about Islam--as well as what it can tell us about ourselves.