Turkish bath

For other uses, see Turkish Bath (disambiguation).

A Turkish bath provided for a harem

Golden tap with marble basin in the hamam of the Sultan at the Topkapı Palace

A Turkish bath (Turkish: hamam) is the Turkish variant of a steam bath, sauna or Russian bath, distinguished by a focus on water, as distinct from ambient steam.

In Western Europe, the 'Turkish bath' as a method of cleansing and relaxation became popular during the Victorian era. The process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to ancient Greek and ancient Roman bathing practices.

A person taking a Turkish bath first relaxes in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room (known as the hot room) before splashing themselves with cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.

Architecture

The hamam ordered by Roxelana and constructed by Mimar Sinan in Istanbul

The hamam combines the functionality and the structural elements of its predecessors in Anatolia, the Roman thermae and baths, with the central Asian Turkish tradition of steam bathing, ritual cleansing and respect of water. It is also known that Arabs built versions of the Greek-Roman baths that they encountered following their conquest of Alexandria in 641.

From the 10th century, Turkish kingdoms began to proliferate in Anatolia in lands conquered from the Byzantine Romans, leading eventually to the complete conquest of the remnants of the old empire in the 15th century. During those centuries of war, peace, alliance, trade, and competition, the two cultures - Hellenized Roman and Persianized Turk - had tremendous influence on each other. Moving beyond the re-use of the Roman baths in their new lands, new bath were constructed as annex buildings of mosques, the complexes of which were community center as well as houses of worship.

The Ottomans in particular became prolific patrons of baths, building a number of ambitious structures, particular in Constantinople after it became their capital in 1453. The monumental baths designed by Renaissance Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan (1489-1588), such as the stand alone 1584 "Çemberlitaş Hamamı", the bath in the complex of the 1558 Süleymaniye Mosque (both in Constantinople, the modern Istanbul) and the bath of the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne were particularly influential.

Like its Roman predecessor a typical hamam consists of three basic, interconnected rooms: the sıcaklık (or hararet -caldarium), which is the hot room; the warm room (tepidarium), which is the intermediate room; and the soğukluk, which is the cool room (frigidarium). The main evolutionary change between Roman baths and Turkish baths concerns the cool room. The Roman frigidarium included a quite cold water pool in which patrons would immerse themselves before moving on to the warmer rooms. Medieval Muslim customs put a high priority on cleanliness, but favored running water to immersion baths, so the cold water pool was dispensed with. Also the sequence of rooms was revised so that people generally used the cool room after the warmer rooms and massages, rather than before. Whereas the Romans used it as preparation, the Ottomans used it for refreshment (drinks and snacks are served) and recovery.

The sıcaklık usually has a large dome decorated with small glass windows that create a half-light; it also contains a large marble stone called göbek taşı (tummy stone) at the center that the customers lie on, and niches with fountains in the corners. This room is for soaking up steam and getting scrub massages. The warm room is used for washing up with soap and water and the soğukluk is to relax, dress up, have a refreshing drink, sometimes tea, and, where available, a nap in a private cubicle after the massage. A few of the hamams in Istanbul also contain mikvehs, ritual cleansing baths for Jewish women.^{[citation needed]}

The hamam, like its precursors, is not exclusive to men. Hamam complexes usually contain separate quarters for men and women; or males and females are admitted at separate times. Because they were social centers as well as baths hamams became numerous during the time of the Ottoman Empire and were built in almost every Ottoman city. On many occasions they became places of entertainment (e.g. dancing and food, especially in the women's quarters) and ceremonies, such as before weddings, high-holidays, celebrating newborns, beauty trips.

Several accessories from Roman times survive in modern hamams, such as the peştemal (a special cloth of silk and/or cotton to cover the body, like a pareo), nalın (wooden clogs that prevent slipping on the wet floor, or mother-of-pearl), kese (a rough mitt for massage), and sometimes jewel boxes, gilded soap boxes, mirrors, henna bowls, and perfume bottles.

Tellak (staff)

Tellak
Detail of an illustration from the Hubanname (The Book of the Handsome Ones), an eighteenth-century work. Date of publication uncertain. Said to be by the Turkish poet Fazil bin Tahir Enderuni.

Traditionally, the masseurs in the baths, tellak in Turkish, were young men who helped wash clients by soaping and scrubbing their bodies. They were recruited from among the ranks of the non-Muslim subject nations of the Turkish empire, such work being seen as beneath the dignity of a Muslim.

After the defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman army in the early 20th century, the role of tellak boys was filled by adult attendants.

Operating examples

Cyprus

Dating back to the Frankish occupation and located in the heart of Nicosia in Cyprus is Hamam Omerye - a true working example of Cyprus's rich culture and diversity, hard struggle, yet sense of freedom and flexibility. The site's history dates back to the 14th century, when it stood as an Augustinian church of St. Mary. Stone-built, with small domes, it is historically placed at around the time of Frankish and Venetian occupation, approximately the same time that the city acquired its Venetian walls. In 1571 the Ottoman Turkish ruler Mustafa Pasha converted the church into a mosque, believing that this was where the Khalifa Umar rested during his visit to Lefkosia.

Most of the original building was destroyed by Ottoman artillery, although the door of the main entrance still belongs to the 14th century Lusignan building, whilst remains of a later Renaissance phase can be seen at the north-eastern side of the monument. In 2003 the [EU] funded a bi-communal UNDP/UNOPS project, "Partnership for the Future", in collaboration with Nicosia Municipality and Nicosia Master Plan.

Egypt

Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the hamams of Cairo and other major cities like Alexandria are evidence of this unique Ottoman legacy. There used to be as many as 300 hamams in Cairo. As of 2012, only seven remain. Two of them, located in the El Hussien and Khan el-Khalili districts are closed.

Hungary

Budapest, the City of Spas has four working Turkish Baths, all from the 16th century: Rudas Baths and Király Baths are open to the public; while Racz Thermal Bath is being reconstructed, and the Császár Spa Bath is not a public thermal bath.

Syria

Legend has it that Damascus once had 365 hamams or ‘Turkish baths’: one for each day of the year. Originally part of an ancient Roman tradition, hamams were absorbed by Islam to such an extent that many became almost annexes to nearby mosques. For centuries, hamams were an integral part of community life, with some 50 hamams surviving in Damascus until the 1950s. As of 2012, however, with the growth of modernization programmes and home bathrooms, fewer than 20 Damascene working hamams had survived.

India

Delhi, Hyderabad and Bhopal has multiple working Turkish Baths, which were started during Mughal period in early 16th century.

Introduction of Turkish baths to Western Europe

The 16th century Ottoman era Rudas Baths near Budapest in Hungary. The Király Baths are from the same period.

Turkish baths were introduced to Britain by David Urquhart, diplomat and sometime Member of Parliament for Stafford, who for political and personal reasons wished to popularize Turkish culture. In 1850 he wrote The Pillars of Hercules, a book about his travels in 1848 through Spain and Morocco. He described the system of dry hot-air baths used there and in the Ottoman Empire that had changed little since Roman times. In 1856 Richard Barter read Urquhart's book and worked with him to construct a bath. They opened the first modern Turkish bath in the British Isles at St Ann's Hydropathic Establishment near Blarney, County Cork, Ireland. The following year, the first bath of its type to be built in mainland Britain since Roman times was opened in Manchester, and the idea spread rapidly. It reached London in July 1860, when Roger Evans, a member of one of Urquhart's Foreign Affairs Committees, opened a Turkish bath at 5 Bell Street, near Marble Arch.

During the following 150 years, over 600 Turkish baths opened in Britain, while similar baths opened in other parts of the British Empire. Dr. John Le Gay Brereton, who had given medical advice to bathers in a Foreign Affairs Committee-owned Turkish bath in Bradford, travelled to Sydney, Australia, and opened a Turkish bath there on Spring Street in 1859, even before such baths had reached London. Canada had one by 1869, and the first in New Zealand was opened in 1874. Urquhart's influence was felt outside the Empire when in 1861, M. Hlasko opened one of the first Turkish baths in the United States at his Natatorium at 219 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia. Later municipal authorities also introduced Turkish baths as part of swimming pool complexes, taking advantage of the fact that water-heating boilers were already on site. In the East End of London, following the influx of Jews from Europe the authorities built six Turkish baths.

As of 2001 there were just sixteen Turkish baths remaining open in Britain, but hot-air baths still thrive in the form of the Banya (sauna) and the Finnish sauna.

See also

• Bacha bazi
• Culture of the Ottoman Empire
• Gellért Baths
• Hamam Omerye Baths
• Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamamı
• Jjimjilbang, the Korean equivalent
• Köçek
• Onsen and sentō, the Japanese equivalents
• Public bathing Bath house
• Soapland - Incorrect usage for Turkish bath from misinterpretation in Japan.
• Steam shower
• Süleymaniye hamam

Primary bibliography

• Cosgrove, J. J. (2001), Design of the Turkish Bath, Books for Business, ISBN 978-0-89499-078-6, http://books.google.com/?id=D4cHAAAACAAJ 
• Gazali, Münif Fehim (2001), Book of Shehzade, Dönence, ISBN 978-975-7054-17-7, http://books.google.com/?id=PY2LAAAAIAAJ 
• Toledano, Ehud R. (2003), State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Egypt, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-53453-6, http://books.google.com/?id=uDQJvkYcTeEC 
• Yilmazkaya, Orhan; Deniz, Ogurlu (2005), Turkish Baths: A Light Onto a Tradition and Culture (2 ed.), Çitlembik, ISBN 978-975-6663-80-6, http://books.google.com/?id=psdNPwAACAAJ 
• Meunier; Telmissany, May and Gandossi, Eve, Pascal (2009), The last Hammams of Cairo: A Disappearing Bathhouse Culture, American University in Cairo, ISBN 978-977-416-243-5, http://books.google.com/?id=Rlvp2KmeZMUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+last+hammams+of+cairo&cd=1#v=onepage&q= 

External links

Hamam History

• Hamams in Islamic tradition (cyberbohemia.com)
• Hamams of Turkey (purespahotels.com)

Photos of Hamams in Muslim and Arabic countries

• Baths in Syria, Iran, Turkey, Morocco, Yemen...
• The last public bathhouses of Cairo: photos by Pascal Meunier

Other

• Antic Turkish Bath Products
• Michael Palin at Turkish baths in Istanbul - BBC (From Pole to Pole) Uploaded by BBC Worldwide to Youtube
• How To Bathe In A Turkish Bath: A Guide For Foreigners
• The Guide Of Istanbul Hammams and Every Aspect of Turkish Bath