Turkish Baths Through the Eyes of Western Travelers
Gülşen SezenWhen reading western travel guides, exotic delights are commonly featured to attract tourism. One such delight is the Turkish bath (hammam), the subject of this study. To determine how western travelers approach and perceive their experience with Turkish baths, we examined their approach, before and after opinions on the bath experience, and what attracted them to partake in this cultural and lifestyle pleasure. We studied and scanned the travel writings of Lady Montagu, Feldmarshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, Guillaume Martin, William Alexander Kinglake, Duran de Fontmagne, Alexander Pushkin, Gérard de Nerval, Lady Hornby, and Edmundo de Amicis. We explored references and provide information on the use and purpose of baths, including architectural structure and history in the introduction. We compare differences and similarities between western and eastern impressions. We reveal inferences in conclusions, such as Turkish bath’s physical structure, bath effect on the body, principles of management, clothes, catering traditions, poems, song, detail of bath equipment and goods used in the bath, the connection of traveling and baths, bathhouses for cooling or warming, traditional rites; such as taking the female slave and bride into baths, place of Turkish baths in social life, and the importance of bathing to women.
Batılı Seyyahların İzleniminden Hamamlar
Gülşen SezenBatılı gezginlerin seyahatnameleri okunduğunda birtakım ortak konular işlendiği görülür. Bunlardan biri hamam kültürüdür. En çok merak edilen mekânların başında gelen hamamlar makalemizin konusu olup Batılı seyyahların hamamlara karşı nasıl bir yaklaşım sergilediği, hamam deneyimi öncesindeki düşünceleri ve hamamda yıkandıktan sonraki izlenimleri arasındaki fark, bir kültür ve yaşam biçimi olarak hamama dair en çok nelerin dikkat çektiği gibi meseleler irdelenmiştir. Bu manada Lady Montagu, Feldmareşal Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, Guillaume Martin, William Alexander Kinglake, Duran de Fontmagne, Alexander Puşkin, Gérard de Nerval, Lady Hornby ve Edmundo de Amicis’in seyahat yazılarındaki görüşlerden faydalanılmış ve bunun için tarama yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Hamamın tarihi gelişimi, hamamın bölümleri, kullanım amaçları gibi konulara dair kısa bilgiler verilerek Batı ve Doğu dünyasının hamam algısındaki farklar ve benzerlikler gösterilmek istenmiştir. 19. yüzyıl Batılı seyyahların gözünden aktarılan seyahatnamelerden hareketle hamam kültürüyle alakalı olarak hamamın fiziki yapısı, vücuda tesiri, işletmenin çalışma prensipleri, giyim kuşam, yeme içme adetleri, hamamda şiir okunması ve şarkı söylenmesi, hamam teçhizatı ve yıkanma sırasında kullanılan eşyaların ayrıntısı, yolculuk ve hamam bağlantısı, serinlemek veya ısınmak için hamamın kullanılması, cariyeler ve gelinlerin hamama götürülmesi, hamamın sosyal yaşamdaki yeri ve kadınlar için önemi gibi konulara dair ulaşılan sonuçlar ortaya konmuştur.
In Arabic, the origin of the hammam (bath, bathhouse) is known as حم) hamem, hmm). Roman baths featured three rooms with different micro-climatic ambiances: the warm room (tepidarium), the hot room (calidarium), and the cold room (frigidarium). Over time, the demands of society changed. Roman baths, the sequel to the Greek and Hellenic gymnasium, were an essential element in a city’s establishment. They served as the center of culture, work, profit, entertainment, social life, diplomacy, policy, sport, medicine, and physical-psychological purification. Baths provided rulers public support and social status to citizens. Spending time in baths, which were open even at night, was a sign of social prominence. Furthermore, baths were used for therapeutic purposes, to make physiotherapy with water, provide mass body cleaning, enemas, cupping or scarification treatments, healing broken bones, cataracts, and for cosmetic use, such as hair or beard shaving. Bath attendants (hamamci, tellak) worked as doctors in epidemy/pandemic times. Christianity had a negative influence on the perception of Roman baths, negating their occupations and promoting their impact in spreading epidemic disease, etc. Ultimately, baths were discredited, lost their function, and collapsed in time. Nevertheless, some edifices remained due to their resemblance to chapels and were repurposed as consul meeting halls, assembly areas, textile and ceramic factories, or prisons.
On the other hand, Anatolian baths were a cross-section of bathing traditions from Hittitian, Ionian, Roman, Byzantines, Seljuks, and Arabs, who lived in the Arab peninsula before Islam. A stereotyped bath standard does not exist. Every structure is adapted according to the demands of society. For example, dressing-rooms (entry/cold room) and warm rooms in Anatolian baths are bigger than those in Roman baths. As far as function, these baths were used as centers of culture, work, profit, entertainment, social life, diplomacy, policy, medicine, and for physicalpsychological purification, same as the Roman baths. However, not used for sport. Otherwise, they were used for religious purposes and Islam regarded them positively. Anatolian baths were accepted as one of three essential architectural elements for a city’s establishment, in the Roman bath tradition. Discussing anarchy while living in the state was discouraged in Anatolian baths. It was said that baths were hazardous places for the community. Furthermore, bathing in homes became discredited over time.
Ottoman/Turkish bath culture always gets attention from western travelers. Mentions frequently appear in travel guides reflecting the rich traditions of Turkish social life. This article examined the travel writings of Montagu, Moltke, Martin, Kinglake, Fontmagne, Pushkin,Nerval, Hornby, and Amicis. This research reveals the differences and similarities between western and eastern impressions, how western travelers perceive and approach Turkish baths, what their opinions are before and after the bath experience, and what initially draws them to the baths, according to the travelers themselves, etc. Certain deductions are made. For example, baths generally look like mosques and consist of three rooms: frigidarium, tepidarium, and calidarium. There are fountains, flowers, couches (sedir) in a high-ceiling frigidarium. When travelers enter the room, they usually stop in their tracks. Some frigidaria have dressing-rooms known as camekân/camegâh. Tepidariums are used to acclimatize to the heat. When the body becomes soft, warmed by the radiant heat, bathers enter the caldarium for even higher heat. In here, small windows known as elephant eyes are arranged on the ceiling. A raised central platform, known as gobek tashi, is the basin of a bath, known as kurna bashi, with a private room, known as halwet, providing an occasional cold-water pool experience. This is where the massage takes place. The massage consists of rubbing (peeling off layers of dead skin) and massaging by hand, with a coarse bathing-glove with foaming water, covering the body with oil, perfuming, again rubbing with a coarse bathe-glove but without water, and washing with cool water at the end. A wet waistcloth, known as peshtamal, is changed and turned back to the tepidarium, then to the frigidarium. It is time for eating, drinking, and relaxing.
Baths relieve fatigue and give vigor. Due to these health benefits, baths have been a tradition before and after travel to rid exhaustion. It is said that anyone who has not experienced a Turkish bath has never had a real bath in their life. Baths are also used to cool and warm the body.
At the entrance to the bathhouse, a paid attendant receives customers. Baths, excluding double baths, occur according to schedule. Women and men attend the bathhouses on different days and hours. To prevent any mixup, timetables are displayed or a hanging red or blue towel is visible on the bath’s wall to signal service by gender.
Bath attire for men consists of a striped peshtamal (waistcloth), headcover, and a wooden patten. For men, baths are a sanctuary of calm and an oasis to spend time.
Traditionally, female slaves and brides participated in bathing. Before weddings, arranged entertainment is customary. A bride’s status is distinguished by honor, guests are bedecked and gorgeous. Bridesmaids sing and read poems while guests eat and drink. The hands and toes of the bride are hennaed and she receives gifts from her guests. Brides kiss the hands of her guests, in a display of respect and gratitude.
The bathhouse is likened to coffee houses, where all types of events are held. Women dress their best when visiting bathhouses. For women, a stay of four or five hours at the bathhouse is not unusual. According to tradition, when a Turkish man wants to divorce his wife, he shows his intention by refusing his wife the money to attend the bathhouse twice a week.
