page_title: Turkish bath
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Turkish bath / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Tarihi Ağa Hamamı dış fotografları
context_page_description: A Turkish bath or Hammam is a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Ottoman Empire, as well as other regions and historical periods of the Muslim world. A variation on it as a method of cleansing and relaxation became popular during the Victorian era, and then spread through the British Empire and Western Europe. The buildings are similar to Roman thermae. Unlike Russian saunas, which use steam, Turkish baths focus on water.
  The particular bathing process roughly parallels ancient Roman bathing practices. It starts with relaxation in a room heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air, allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room before they wash in cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.
  Unlike a hammam, Victorian Turkish baths use hot, dry air; in the Islamic hammam the air is often steamy.
context_section_description: The hammam combines the functionality and the structural elements of its predecessors in Anatolia, the Roman thermae and baths, with Islamic  and probably Central Asian Turkic tradition of steam bathing, ritual cleansing and respect of water  From the 11th century, The Seljuk Empire began to proliferate in Anatolia in lands conquered from the Eastern 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 several cultures (Eastern Roman,  Islamic Persian and Turkic ) had tremendous influence on each other. Moving beyond the reuse of the Greek  and Roman baths (for example Byzantine Bath (Thessaloniki)), new bath were constructed as annex buildings of mosques, the complexes of which were community centres as well as houses of worship.
  The Ottomans became prolific patrons of baths, building a number of ambitious structures, particularly in Constantinople, whose Greek inhabitants had retained a strong Eastern Roman bath culture (see Baths of Zeuxippus). The monumental baths designed by Renaissance Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan (1489–1588), such as the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, the bath in the complex of the Süleymaniye Mosque, 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 – in Latin, 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 concerned 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 preferred 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 clerestory windows that create a half-light; in the center of the room is a large heated marble table (göbek taşı or navel stone) 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 with soap and water and the soğukluk is to relax, dress, 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.
  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 (such as 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. 
  Traditionally, the masseurs in the baths, tellak in Turkish, were young men who helped wash clients by soaping and scrubbing their bodies. After the defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, the role of tellak boys was filled by adult attendants.
caption: The Ağa hamamı from Istanbul in Turkey
exif: {}