Life of Ottoman's Sultan

When he felt hungry, the sultan informed the chief white eunuch of his desire to eat. The chief eunuch sent a notice to the chief server through one of the eunuchs who worked under him, and, shortly after, the attendants began to serve the sultan dish by dish. Any food that was placed in front of the sultan had to be tasted by a taster, and the meals were served on celadon dishes, a type of glazed pottery that was believed to change color on contact with poison.1

Ottoman's Coffeehouse
During the reign of Murad IV (16231640), the authorities cracked down on coffeehouses, denouncing them as centers of unlawful and seditious activities. Many coffeehouses were closed down, and several coffee drinkers and smokers were executed.For the sultan and his ministers, the prevailing social chaos and political anarchy were partially caused by the rapid increase in the number of coffeehouses where storytellers, poets, and shadow puppeteers ridiculed the mighty and powerful for their corruption and hypocrisy. When, in September 1633, a devastating fire burned thousands of shops in the capital, the sultan interpreted it as a sign of Gods wrath and demanded the restorationof the moral order. The use of coffee and tobacco was outlawed, and coffeehouses, which had been used as centers of political and social mobilization, were closed. 2 While the small traders were badly hit by the prohibition, the wealthy merchants survived because they possessed a substantial amount of capital and they could make a profit on the black market. 3 The physician Prospero Alpini, who lived in Egypt in 1590,and Pietro della Valle, who visited Istanbul in 1615, wrote of it: The Turks also have another beverage, black in colour, which is very refreshing in summer and very warming in winter, without however changing its nature and always remaining the same drink, which is swallowed hot . . . They drink it in long draughts, not during the meal but afterwards, as a sort of delicacy and to converse in comfort in the company of friends. One hardly sees a gathering where it is not drunk. A large fire is kept going for this purpose and little porcelain bowls were kept by it ready-filled with the mixture; when it is hot enough there are men entrusted with the office who do nothing else but carry these little bowls to all the company,as hot as possible,also giving each person a few melon seeds to chew to pass the time. And with the seeds and this

1 Bcking, Salm-Reifferscheidt, and Stipsicz, The Bazaars of Istanbul, 191. 2 Stanford J. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey , 2 vols . (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 1:198; Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 13001650: The Structure of Power (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 81. 3 Faroqhi, Crisis and Change, 508.

beverage, which they call kafoue, they amuse themselves while conversing sometimes for a period of seven or eight hours. 4

Celebrating Visitors
The popularity of coffee was not confined to the urban centers of the empire. In the distant provinces of the empire, and in the most remote tribal areas of the Middle East, drinking the bitter black liquid brought members of various Arab tribes together. As one foreign traveler observed, the Arab nomadic groups ate very little, particularly when there were no guests, relying primarily on bread and a bowl of camels milk for their daily nutrition. This may explain why they remained lean and thin, but also why, when a sickness befell a tribe, it carried off a large proportion of the clans members. In sharp contrast, when guests visited the tribe, a sheep was killed in honor of the occasion and a sumptuous meal of mutton, curds, and flaps of bread was prepared and eaten with fingers. 5

Wine and Ottoman's

Though wine was prohibited in Islam, Ottomans of all ranks and social standing deviated from the precepts of the seriat (Islamic legal code) and drank wine regularly at various parties and gatherings.A European diplomat who lived in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 17th century wrote that although it was forbidden and banned by Islamic law, wine was commonly used and publicly drunkwithout any caution or fear of causing any scandal. He admitted, however, that high government officials were often worried about their image as wine drinkers.6 He also observed that drinking was often judged in connection to the age of the drinker; thus its use by young men was often tolerated and excused, but it was a scandal and a crime for an old man to drink an alcoholic drink.7 Less than half a century later, the wife of an English ambassador who visited Istanbul from 1717 to 1718 was shocked when one of her Ottoman hosts, a man of power and status, drank wine in her presence with the same ease and freedom as the Europeans did.8 When she asked her host how he could allow himself the liberty to enjoy a drink that had been denounced by his religion, the Ottoman dignitary fired back that all of Gods creations were good and designed for the use of man. In his interpretation of Islam, the prohibition of wine was a
4 Braudel, The Structure of Everyday Life, 1:256. 5 Gertrude Bell, The Desert & the Sown: Travels in Palestine and Syria (London: 1907), 5556. 6 Paul Rycaut, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (New York: Arno Press, 1971), 165. 7 Ibid., 166. 8 Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters, 62.

very wise maxim, but it was meant for the common people and the prophet Muhammad had never designed to confine those who knew how to consume it with moderation.9 Outside the ruling elite, the Bektasi dervises, who believed that their spiritual status absolved them from the prohibitions of Islamic law, consumed wine and arak.10

Tabacco and Ottomans

The historian Peevi, who had expressed his vehement opposition to coffee, joined the conservatives in attacking the fetid and nauseating smoke of tobacco. He wrote that the English infidels had brought tobacco: in the year 1009 (160001), and sold it as a remedy for certain diseases of humidity. Some companions from among the pleasure seekers and sensualists said: Here is an occasion for pleasure and they became addicted. Soon those who were not mere pleasure-seekers also began to use it. Many even of the great ulema and the mighty fell into this addiction. From the ceaseless smoking of the coffeehouse riff-raff the coffeehouses were filled with blue smoke, to such a point that those who were in them could not see one another.In the markets and the bazaars too their pipes never left their hands. Puff-puffing in each others faces and eyes, they made the streets and markets stink. In its honour they composed silly verses, and declaimed them without occasion.11 Peevi admitted that he had arguments with friends about tobacco and smoking; I said: Its abominable smell taints a mans beard and turban, the garment on his back and the room where it is used; sometimes it sets fire to carpets and felts and bedding, and soils them from end to end with ash and cinders; after sleep its vapour rises to the brain; and not content with this, its ceaseless use withholds men from toil and gain and keeps hands from work.In view of this and other similar harmful and abominable effects,what pleasure or profit can there be in it?12 To these questions, his friends responded that smoking was an amusement and a pleasure of aesthetic taste, to which he fired back that
9 Ibid. 10 Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2007),216. 11 Lewis, Istanbul, 13334. 12 Ibid., 134.

there was no possibility of spiritual pleasure from smoking, and his friends answer was no answer but pure pretension. 13 He further argued that tobacco had been on several occasions the cause of great fires in Istanbul, and several hundred thousand people had suffered from these fires.14 Peevi conceded that tobacco could have limited benefits such as keeping the night guards on various ships awake during the night, but to perpetuate such great damage for such small benefits was neither rational nor justifiable. 15

13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid., 135.