Khat

Abstract

Khat, Cafta, Quat or Qat, Arabian, Abyssinian or African Tea, is a stimulant narcotic whose leaves are used in a fresh state as a masticatory, or after drying are infused and drunk like tea. The earliest known reference to Khat is thatcontained in an Arabic manuscript written by Abd al Kadir in 1587 and preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris [1], in which it is stated that in about 1454, a mufti of Aden, Sheik Gemaleddin Abou Muhammad Bensaid, introduced coffee drinking into Aden from Ethiopia and that lawyers, students, and artisans, as well as those who worked or travelled by night, took to drinking coffee in place of another drink which was then becoming popular, and which was made from the leaves of a plant called Khat or Qat.