Coffee drinking originally spread within the network of Sufi convents on the Arabian Peninsula. Its origins lie in Islamic traditions and it became part of religious life for many Muslims in the Ottoman Empire. Coffee was used as an aid to worship for staying awake during long prayers, and to help with fasting during Ramadan. 

However, coffee did have its controversies in the beginning. Some religious scholars believed that its stimulating effects should be considered haram, or forbidden, and that men gathering in coffeehouses instead of the mosque was not good for the religious wellbeing of the community. Despite fatwas, Islamic legal rulings that attempted to ban coffee drinking, the drink remained popular throughout the Ottoman Empire. It remains an important part of Middle Eastern and North African culture for many people today. 

Bathhouses were important gendered meeting spaces in the Ottoman Empire, both for hygienic and religious populars. Cleansing before prayers is an important ritual in Islam, and bathhouses were also public meeting spaces for women. 

Women were not generally permitted in coffeehouses as patrons or servers, and therefore had less public spaces in which to meet and talk. Bathhouses served that purpose, and coffee was often served in their changing rooms or parlors. 

Many men and women held extravagant dinner parties to show off abundance and entertain their friends. In the privacy of their homes, they would hold parties with musical entertainment and sometimes dancers and storytellers. 

At these parties, all the food would be served at once in a show of abundance. Food was served out of communal calabashes, but coffee, often served before or after the meal, used individual cups. 

This miniature, which shows a feast held by the grand vizier for the Janissaries, the elite of the Ottoman army. Note the extravagant textiles, abundance of food, and long sofra (tablecloth on which food is served).