The coffeehouses in Isfahan’s main square or maydan were situated next to each other. Large carpeted rooms opened onto the busy square. Customers would sit or recline directly on the carpets while being served coffee and smoking water-pipes.

Storytelling and performance of folktales and religious accounts were regular activities of the coffeehouse. Safavid coffeehouses were also central in shaping the poetry culture of the age. People would often visit coffeehouses to listen to poetry and poets in debate. Artists brought drawings to show and discuss in coffeehouses, sometimes as payment for their drinks or in exchange for a poem. Travelling dervishes (mystics) and mullahs(preachers) made regular appearances in coffeehouses.

The sound of water from the fountains ran in the background to conversations, storytelling and poetry recitations and was overlaid by the bubbly sound of the water-pipe. The Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I (reigned from 1588 to 1629) engaged in conversation with poets at the ‘Arab’ and ‘Haji-Yusef’ coffeehouses in Isfahan. He occasionally entertained foreign delegates to his court at these coffeehouses, which were decorated specially for royal receptions. The court itself employed a person known as qahvahchi-bashi whose sole responsibility was to oversee the elaborate preparation of coffee and herbal drinks for the royal court.

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