Hammam

This article is about hammam, the Turkish bath. There is also an article on the movie Hamam.

The Turkish hammam (also Turkish bath or hamam) is the Turkish variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna. They had played an important role in Ottoman culture, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing and as architectural structures, institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to them.

Architecture

The hammam combines the functionality and the structural elements of its predecessors in Anatolia, the Roman thermae and Byzantine baths, with the Turkish-Muslim tradition of bathing, ritual cleansing and respect of water. It is also known that Arabs have built many of their own version of the Greek-Roman baths they encountered following their conquests of Alexandria. However, the Turkish hammam has a more improved style and functionality from these structures that emerged as annex buildings of mosques or as re-use of the remaining Roman baths.

The hammams in the Ottoman culture started out as structural elements serving as annexes to mosques, however quickly evolved into institutions and eventually with the works of the Ottoman architect Sinan, into monumental structural complexes, the finest example being the Çemberlitaş Hammam in Istanbul, built in 1584.

A typical hammam consists of three interconnected basic rooms similar to its Roman ancestors: 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.

Sıcaklık which usually has a large dome decorated with small glass windows that create a half-light, contains a large marble stone at the center where the customers lie on, an 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 and where available, nap in private cubicles after the massage. Few of the hammams is Istanbul also contain mikvehs, ritual cleansing baths for Jewish women.

Customs

Traditionally, the masseurs in the baths, tellak in Turkish, were young boys, helping the men in washing their bodies. Their duties were not just washers, but also sex workers. We know today, by texts left by Ottoman authors, who they were, their prices, how many times they could bring their customers to orgasm, and the details of their sexual practices. The tellak system died out in the early years of the twentieth century, as a result of the increasing westernization of the Turkish Republic. (From the Dellakname-i-Dilkusa, 18th century anonymous work; Ottoman archives, Sulemaniye, Istanbul)

At times the relationships became intensely personal. It is recorded that in the mid-18th century, a janissary had a tellak for a lover. The latter was kidnapped by the men of another regiment, and the boy given to the use of their commander. A days-long battle between the two regiments ensued, which was brought to an end only by the intervention of the Sultan, who had the tellak hung.

As modern plumbing systems grew more common and showers and bathtubs began to be installed at homes more frequently, the importance of hammams started to fade in Turkey.

The hammam, as opposed to its Roman or Byzantine baths, is not exclusive to men only, hammam complexes usually contain separate quarters for men and women. Being social centers, in the Ottoman Empire, hammams were quite abundant, and were built in almost every Ottoman city. Integrated in daily life, they were centers of social gatherings, populated in almost every occasion with traditional entertainment (e.g. dancing and food especially in the women's quarters) and ceremonies, such as before weddings, high-holidays, celebrating newborns, beauty trips, etc.

There existed some special accessories of which some still are being used at modern hammams: such as the peştemal (a special cloth of silk and/or cotton, to cover the body, like pareos), nalın (special wooden clogs that would prevent the wearer from slipping on the wet floor, often decorated with silver or mother-of-pearl), kese (a rough mitt for massage), and sometimes jewel boxes, gilded soap boxes, embroidered mirrors, henna bowls, perfume bottles, and such.

See also

Tellak

External links

• Hammams in Islamic tradition (http://www.cyberbohemia.com/Pages/Islahammam.htm)
• Official website of the Çemberlitaş Hammam in Istanbul (http://www.cemberlitashamami.com)
• Official website of the Cağaloğlu Hammam in Istanbul (http://www.cagalogluhamami.com.tr/about.html)
• http://www.allaboutturkey.com/hamam.htm