Producer unknown to us
Coffee roasting pan
Asia, Iraq, Baghdad
Before 1962
Iron, forged
Lothar Stein (former museum director) acquired this coffee roasting pan during a research trip to Iraq between 1960 and 1962
Purchased by the Museum from Stein in 1962
WAs 1985
Such long-handled cast-iron roasters (“tawa mahmas”) were used by Bedouins to roast green coffee beans to prepare the bitter Arabic coffee. In the early 1960s, the collector observed that this method of coffee making was used exclusively by the Bedouins of Iraq, while the highly sweetened Turkish coffee had already established itself in the cities.
Lothar Stein (*1935) studied Arabic in Iraq from 1960 to 1962, during which time he conducted field research with local communities. From his time there, he brought back 280 objects that he had acquired for the Leipzig museum with funds from the State Secretariat of Higher and Technical Education or items received as gifts from colleagues.
Frank Usbeck