Pacifica Institute Womens League organized Coffee Night on the 15th of December. This was the second of a series of Coffee Nights in Westwood.
The theme of second of the series was Rumi, the sufi poet who lived in the 13th century in central Turkish city, Konya . When Rumi completed his 24 000 verses of poems, he was only 37. He was not only a poet but a jurist, a scholar of Islam, a husband and a servant collecting wood, doing the daily chores like his students.
When he died in 1273, Greeks, Persians, Armenians, Arabs, Romans, Turks and Kurds joined his funeral procession. It was the sense of respect and love among the diverse nations living in that part of the world which was a result of his teachings, poems and stories that he wrote
After a short documentary about Rumi was the time for coffee. Dessert was also among the many snacks that was served along with coffee. Turkish coffee is prepared by boiling finely powdered roast coffee beans in a pot, with or without sugar, and serving it into small Turkish coffee cups.
Coffeehouse culture is highly developed in the former Ottoman world. Coffee has affected Turkish culture so much that the word breakfast (kahvaltı) in Turkish literally means “before coffee” (kahve-alti kahve:coffee, altı:below/before).