The Armenian Traders of Old Dhaka: Did They Bring Coffee Before the British?

Walk through Armanitola in Old Dhaka today and you’ll see a modest, weathered church tucked between crowded lanes and crumbling colonial buildings. The Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection, consecrated in 1781, is one of the city’s quietest historical landmarks.  Most passersby know it as “the old church.” Few stop to ask: who were these Armenians, and what did they actually trade in a city famous for muslin, jute, and later, tea?[1][2]

And an even more tantalizing question lingers in coffee circles: could they have brought coffee to Dhaka before the British made it a colonial commodity?

Who were the Armenians of Dhaka?

Armenian merchants were among the great “stateless traders” of the early modern world. Without an empire or navy of their own, they built a commercial web that stretched from the Caucasus to Venice, from Isfahan to India, relying on kinship networks, shared faith, and ruthless pragmatism.[3][4]

In Bengal, they arrived under Mughal rule, well before the British Raj peaked. By the 17th and 18th centuries, Armenian communities were established in:

- Saidabad (Murshidabad), where they traded in silk, salt, and textiles under Mughal patronage[5]

- Calcutta, where the Armenian Church of Holy Nazareth was founded in 1707, long before British dominance was assured[6]

- Dhaka, where they settled in what became Armanitola, dominating jute, leather, salt, and piece-goods trade[1][7][8]

The Dhaka church, built in 1781 on the site of an earlier wooden chapel, was the spiritual and social anchor of a small but influential merchant elite.  They were not just traders; they were financiers, middlemen, and connectors between Mughal, Persian, and European commercial worlds.[1][2][4][5]

What did they actually trade?

Historical accounts are clear on the big lines:

- Jute and leather: Core commodities in Dhaka’s hinterland economy[1][7][9]

- Salt and saltpeter: Critical for food preservation and gunpowder, highly profitable under Mughal and early colonial regimes[5]

- Textiles and piece-goods: Bengal’s famed muslin and cotton fabrics, exported through ports like Hugli and Dhaka[5]

- Silk: Especially in Murshidabad, where Armenian merchants were deeply embedded in the silk piece-goods trade[5]

But coffee? That’s where the story gets interesting.

Coffee in pre-partition Bengal: a quick sketch

Coffee didn’t originate in Bengal. It traveled from Yemen’s Mocha port through the Indian Ocean trade, reaching India’s western coast (Malabar) by the late 17th century via Dutch and other European traders.  By the 18th century, coffee was entering Calcutta as an imported luxury, not a locally grown crop.[10][11][12]

In Bengal, coffee remained a niche drink:

- Consumed in small quantities by elites, travelers, and those connected to global trade  

- Overshadowed by tea in the 19th century as British plantations in Assam and Sylhet took off[13]

- Largely forgotten in popular memory until the recent café boom[13][14]

The key question: who brought those early coffee shipments into Bengal’s ports and into Dhaka’s markets?

The Armenian–coffee connection: circumstantial but suggestive

There’s no surviving ledger that says, “Armenian merchant X imported Y kg of coffee to Dhaka in 1760.” But there are enough clues to make the idea plausible, if not provable.

First, Armenians were deeply embedded in the  coffee trade networks of the Indian Ocean world. Historical sources describe Armenian merchants alongside Arabs, Syrians, and Indian traders as principal dealers in coffee at shipping ports, bartering English manufactured goods for coffee and other commodities.  They weren’t just passive carriers; they were active participants in the coffee economy.[15]

Second, Armenians in Bengal were portfolio capitalists: merchants who traded in multiple commodities, often simultaneously silk, salt, textiles, precious stones, and luxury goods.  Coffee, as a high-value, low-volume luxury, fits perfectly into that pattern.[5]

Third, their geographic positioning matters. Armenians in Saidabad, Calcutta, and Dhaka were connected to:

- Red Sea and Persian Gulf trade routes (via Surat, Bombay, and Persian ports)  

- Overland routes through Persia and Central Asia, where coffee was already circulating by the 17th century[16][17]

- European companies (Dutch, British, French) for whom they often acted as agents and intermediaries[4][5]

If coffee was moving from Mocha to India’s west coast, then up the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta and Dhaka, Armenians were exactly the kind of networked traders who would have handled it.

Did they bring coffee before the British?

Here we hit the limits of evidence.

The British East India Company certainly formalized and scaled coffee imports into Bengal in the 18th and 19th centuries, treating it as a colonial commodity alongside tea, opium, and textiles.  But “before the British” doesn’t mean “before British presence.” Armenians were trading in Dhaka under Mughal rule, alongside early British, Dutch, French, and Portuguese traders.[5][10][11][18]

A more precise formulation might be:

- Armenians likely handled coffee in Bengal alongside early British and other European traders, not necessarily in a clean “before/after” sequence.  

- They may have introduced coffee to elite Mughal and local markets in Dhaka and Murshidabad in forms that left few paper trails small shipments, private consignments, gifts among merchant elites.[4][5]

- The British later institutionalized coffee trade, making it visible in ledgers, customs records, and colonial reports, which is why their role is better documented.[10]

In other words, the Armenians might not have been the first to bring coffee to Bengal, but they were almost certainly among the earliest to move it through Dhaka’s markets in meaningful quantities.

Why this story matters

The question “Did Armenians bring coffee before the British?” is more than a trivia game. It’s about how we imagine Bangladesh’s place in global history.

- If coffee arrived via Armenians, it underscores Dhaka’s role as a cosmopolitan node in Indian Ocean trade, connected to Yemen, Persia, and Europe long before colonial narratives dominate.[3][4]

- It highlights the importance of  stateless merchant communities Armenians, Jews, Arabs, Indians in shaping what people ate, drank, and wore, often outside the spotlight of empire.[15][19]

- It complicates the simple “British brought modernity” story. Coffee in Dhaka may have first circulated in Mughal-Armenian commercial worlds, later absorbed and transformed by colonial systems.[5][10]

The quiet church and the missing cups

Standing in front of the Armenian Church in Armanitola today, it’s easy to miss the layers of history embedded in those bricks.  The church is a monument to a community that once thrived in Dhaka, then gradually dispersed as trade patterns shifted and empires rose and fell.[1][2]

We may never find a ledger that definitively proves Armenian merchants brought the first coffee to Dhaka. But the circumstantial evidence is rich enough to imagine a different scene:

- An Armenian trader in 1750s Saidabad, unloading a small crate of Mocha beans alongside bales of silk and sacks of salt.  

- A Dhaka merchant house where coffee is brewed in small quantities for elite guests, long before the British make it a mass commodity.  

- A cup of coffee shared between an Armenian agent and a Mughal official, sealing a deal in a language of trade that predates colonial categories.

Whether or not they were first, the Armenians of Old Dhaka remind us that coffee’s journey to Bangladesh wasn’t a straight line from London to Chittagong. It was a web woven by merchants without a state, moving through ports and caravanserais, long before the maps we know today were drawn.

Citations:

[1] Armenian Church Old Dhaka — Heritage & History Guide https://www.touristplacesbd.xyz/destinations/armenian-church-armantola

[2] Armenian Church Dhaka 1781 — Old Dhaka Historic Church https://www.tiktok.com/@rakib_941/video/7671552326091525396

[3] Armenian Merchant Networks: Silk, Silver, and Survival | The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide https://music.amazon.com/es-co/podcasts/1d6a7c6d-64fa-48e5-b1d8-2c8eb0c49ddd/episodes/51f179b9-a64d-44d2-a67d-cd522c5d82aa/the-story-of-armenia-survival-through-empires-and-genocide-%E2%80%94-fexingo-history-armenian-merchant-networks-silk-silver-and-survival

[4] Armenia–India. The Silk Road's Secret Engine: A Stateless Trade Empire | 8B Research https://www.8b.world/blog/armenia-india-the-silk-roads-secret-engine-a-stateless-trade-empire

[5] A Train Ride to Murshidabad - by Sebouh Aslanian https://sebouhaslanian.substack.com/p/a-train-ride-to-murshidabad

[6] Crossings https://www.telegraphindia.com/life/crossings-brabourne-road-a-calcutta-stretch-paved-with-stories-of-faith-and-history-prnt/cid/2174117

[7] Armenian Church #dhaka @bi365 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLiyj9jgiTo

[8] Armenia Church Dhaka, Bangladesh . . . . ... https://www.instagram.com/thepysolanki/p/DcIS64tRz3i/

[9] 📜 245 Years Old Church ✝️ ⛪️ Armenian ... https://www.facebook.com/babluislambieverofficial/videos/-245-years-old-church-%EF%B8%8F%EF%B8%8F-armenian-church-armanitola-bongshal-dhakafifa-viral-tre/2070489580218464/

[10] Coffee in Pre-Partition Bengal: Colonial Ledgers and Lost ... https://aumisinsight123.blogspot.com/2026/08/coffee-in-pre-partition-bengal-colonial.html

[11] コーヒーとプランテーションの歴史｜植民地時代の世界拡散をたどる | Coffee Pick https://coffee-pick.com/coffee-colonial-history/

[12] Page Revision for The Dutch Coffee Empire | The Coffee Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.puertoricocoffeeshop.com/books/indonesia-pacific-coffee/page/the-dutch-coffee-empire/revisions/1185/changes

[13] বাংলাদেশে কফি চাষ: সম্ভাবনার সুবাসকে শিল্পে রূপ দেওয়ার সময় - Agri Sangbad https://www.agrisangbad.com/5185

[14] ৪ হাজার ৭০০ ক্যাফের ব্র্যান্ড ক্যাফে আমাজনের বাংলাদেশ যাত্রা শুরু | Desh Shamachar https://www.deshshamachar.com/archives/100111

[15] Coffee, its History, Classification and Description | Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/79274/pg79274-images.html

[16] uncommon grounds the history of coffee and how it https://siebel-db.siebelinstitute.com/project/uncommon-grounds-the-history-of-coffee-and-how-it

[17] How Coffee Drinking Conquered the World - kitchenmagic3.com https://kitchenmagic3.com/how-coffee-drinking-conquered-the-world/

[18] Farashganj: In search of Dhaka's first 'office para' - Graduates https://tbsgraduates.net/writeup/farashganj-in-search-of-dhakas-first-office-para/

[19] Episode 12 - The Secret Merchants Behind History's Early Modern Diamond Trade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apsBAxqbNMQ

[20] The story of coffee https://www.thehindu.com/children/the-story-of-coffee/article71246670.ece

[21] ASA-2026-PDF-Final.pdf https://www.asanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/ASA-2026-PDF-Final.pdf

[22] Yemen https://www.coffeesketcher.com/origins/yemen

[23] Page Revision for The Dutch Coffee Empire | The Coffee Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.puertoricocoffeeshop.com/books/indonesia-pacific-coffee/page/the-dutch-coffee-empire/revisions/779/changes

[24] কফি আবিষ্কার করেন যে মুুসলিম রাখাল https://www.kalerkantho.com/online/Islamic-lifestylie/2026/08/05/1721172

[25] The origins of coffee: myths, legends and the road to the Italian cup https://maracatucaffe.it/en/blog/origini-del-caffe-miti-e-leggende

[26] The History of Instant Coffee – From Invention to the Modern Global ... https://maccoffeebd.com/the-history-of-instant-coffee-from-invention-to-the-modern-global-industry/

[27] St. Gregory the Illuminator, Almelo's Armenian church, traces ... https://www.facebook.com/littlearmenias/posts/-st-gregory-the-illuminator-almelos-armenian-church-traces-its-roots-to-1991-whe/1671600788305921/