Turkish Bath

The Hamam (from Arabic: , amm m) is the Middle Eastern variant of a

steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna.

In Western Europe, the Turkish bath as a method of cleansing the body and
relaxation was particularly 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.

Etymology

amm m is from the Arabic root mm with a general meaning of "heat",

from which many words referring to "hot spring", "fever" etc. According to
Ibn Sidah amm m is derived from al- am m "the vehemence of summer
heat" (Lane). The word amm m simply means "bathroom" or "toilet" in
many dialects of vernacular Arabic, while it means hot springs or spa town
in other dialects.

Architecture

The hamam combines the functionality and the structural elements of its
predecessors in Anatolia, the Roman thermae and Byzantine baths, with the
Central Asian Turkish tradition of steam 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 bath 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.

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The hamams 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 "Çemberlita
Hamamı" in Istanbul, built in 1584.

A typical hamam 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
so ukluk which is the cool room.

The sıcaklık usually has a large dome decorated with small glass windows
that create a half-light; it also contains a large marble 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 so ukluk is to relax, dress up,
have a refreshing drink, sometimes tea, and where available, nap in private
cubicles after the massage. A few of the hamams in Istanbul also contain
mikvehs, ritual cleansing baths for Jewish women.

The hamam, like its early precursors, Roman (at least pre-Christian)
thermae, is not exclusive to men - hamam complexes usually contain
separate quarters for men and women, or alternatively they are admitted at
separate times. Being social centers, in the Ottoman Empire, hamams were
quite abundant, and were built in almost every Ottoman city. Integrated in
daily life, they were centers of social gatherings, populated on 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 are still used at
modern hamams: such as the pe temal (a special cloth of silk and/or cotton
to cover the body, like a pareo), nalın (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, mirrors, henna bowls, perfume bottles and such.

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Tellak (Staff)

Traditionally, the masseurs in the baths, tellak in Turkish, who were young
men, helped wash clients by soaping and scrubbing their bodies. They also
worked as 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 (From the
Dellâkname-i Dilkü â, eighteenth century work by Dervish, Ismail Agha;
Ottoman archives, Süleymaniye, Istanbul).

They were recruited from among the ranks of the non-Muslim subject
nations of the Turkish empire, such as Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Albanians,
Bulgarians, Roma and others.

At times the relationship between a tellak and his client became intensely
personal. It is recorded that in the mid-18th century, a janissary — an elite
soldier in the Ottoman army, also often of European descent — had a tellak
for a lover. When the latter was kidnapped by the men of another regiment
and given over to the use of their commander, a days-long battle between the
two janissary regiments ensued, which was brought to an end only when the
Sultan ordered the tellak hanged.

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

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Operating Examples

Dating back to French rule and located in the heart of Nicosia's old town 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 chronologically
placed at around the time of Frankish and Venetian rule, approximately the
same time that the city acquired its Venetian Walls. In 1571, Mustapha
Pasha converted the church into a mosque, believing that this particular spot
is where the Khalifa Omar 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.

Budapest has four working Turkish Baths, all from the 16th century: Rudas
Baths and Király Baths are currently open to the general public, while Racz
Thermal Bath is just being reconstructed opening 2010 and the Császár Spa
Bath is not a public thermal bath.

Introduction of Turkish baths to Western Europe

Turkish baths were introduced to the United Kingdom 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 had
written The Pillars of Hercules, a book about his travels in Spain and
Morocco in 1848, in which he described the system of dry hot-air baths
which had been in use there, and in the Ottoman Empire, very little changed
from those which had been so popular in Roman times.

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In 1856, Richard Barter, having read Urquhart's book and worked on the
construction of a bath with him, opened the first modern Turkish bath in the
United Kingdom at St Ann's Hydropathic Establishment near Blarney,
County Cork, Ireland. The following year, the first bath of its type to be built
in England since Roman times was opened in Manchester, and the idea
spread rapidly through the north of England. 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, well over 600 baths opened in Britain, while
similar Turkish baths opened in cities in other parts of the then 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 in Spring Street in 1859,
even before the bath had reached London. Canada had one by 1869, and the
first one in New Zealand was opened in 1874. Urquhart's influence was felt
even outside the Empire when, in 1863, Dr. Charles Shepard opened the first
Turkish bath in the United States at 63 Columbia Street, Brooklyn Heights,
Brooklyn.

Today there are just fourteen Turkish baths remaining open in the United
Kingdom, although hot-air baths still thrive in the form of Russian steam
baths and the Finnish sauna.

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