Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire

DAILY LIFE IN

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

MEHRDAD KIA

To

my mother, Kiadokht Kia

It is certain that Europeans . . . resident in Turkey [are]
as ignorant of all that relates to her political economy, her system of
government, and her moral ethics, as [if] they had never left their own country
. . . If you succeed in prevailing on them to speak on the subject, they never
progress beyond exanimate and crude details of mere external effects . . . It
is a well-attested fact that the entrée of native houses, and intimacy with
native families, are not only extremely difficult, but in most cases impossible
to Europeans; hence the cause of the tissue of fables which, like those of
Scheherazade, have created genii and enchanters . . . in every account of the
East. The European mind has become so imbued with ideas of Oriental
mysteriousness, mysticism, and magnificence, and it has been so long accustomed
to pillow its faith on the marvels and metaphors of tourists, that it [is] to
be doubted whether it will willingly cast off its old associations, and suffer
itself to be undeceived.

Julia
Pardoe,
The City of the Sultan

CONTENTS

Note
on Pronunciation, Transliteration, and Spelling

Introduction

Chronology

1.
      
Historical
Overview

2.
      
Sultan and
the Palace

3.
      
Governing
an Empire

4.
      
Cities,
Towns, and Villages: Merchants,

5.
      
Craftsmen,
and Peasants

6.
      
Religious
Communities

7.
      
Muslims

8.
      
Islamic Law
and Education

9.
      
Sufi Orders
and Popular Culture

10.
   
Courtship
and Marriage

11.
   
Sex and
Family

12.
   
Eating,
Drinking, Smoking, and Celebrating

13.
   
Games and
Popular Sports

14.
   
Sickness,
Death, and Dying

NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION, TRANSLITERATION,
AND SPELLING

The multiplicity of languages used in the Ottoman Empire
and the varieties of spelling that were adopted throughout centuries present a
number of problems, making complete consistency impossible. With a few
exceptions, I have used the modern Turkish spelling system. I have not,
however, applied Turkish spellings and pronunciations to non-Turkish words.
Thus, Sharif (Arabic) has not been spelled as Şerif (Turkish); and Shah (Persian),
not Şah (Turkish).

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written about the rise, decline, and fall of
the Ottoman Empire and the achievements of its greatest and most charismatic
rulers, Mehmed II (1444 –1446, 1451–1481), the conqueror of Constantinople;
Selim I (1512–1520), who brought the Arab Middle East and Egypt under Ottoman
rule; and Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566), who led his armies to the gates
of Vienna after conquering Belgrade and Budapest. Historians have also written
extensively about the causes for the decline of the Ottoman state, which began
at the end of the 16th century, and the military defeats that the empire
suffered at the hands of European powers, forcing Ottoman sultans and statesmen
to introduce administrative, political, social, economic, and educational
reforms throughout the 19th century.

For nearly six centuries, the Ottoman
dynasty ruled a vast empire that at the height of its power stretched from
Budapest on the Danube to Basra at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and from
Crimea on the northern shores of the Black Sea to Tunis on the southern shores
of the Mediterranean. In Europe, the empire comprised Crimea, Hungary, Podolia,
Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina,
Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, as well as the Aegean Isles, Crete, and
Cyprus, while in Asia it ruled Anatolia, the Arab Middle East as far south as
the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden, as well as parts of southern Caucasus.
Finally, in North Africa, the Ottomans controlled Egypt, Libya (Tripoli and
Benghazi), Tunisia, and Algeria.

The population of the empire included Turks, Tatars,
Hungarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Albanians, Romanians, Bulgarians,
Greeks, Georgians, Circassians, Abkhazians, Armenians, Arabs, Berbers, Kurds,
Jews, and many others. Each group possessed its own unique customs and
traditions that distinguished it from others. The majority of the population in
Anatolia, the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of the Balkans, such as
Bosnia and Albania, was Muslim, while the majority of the population in the
Balkans was Christian. The Jews lived predominantly in the urban centers of the
empire. Thus, ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity and heterogeneity
constituted the most basic characteristic of the state. To write a
comprehensive book on everyday life in the Ottoman Empire requires an in-depth
study of the traditions, customs, and beliefs of all the communities that lived
under Ottoman political and administrative control and whose cultures, habits,
and manners, differed so widely. The present monograph, however, is a far more
humble effort; it makes no pretense of using original documents or offering
bold new interpretations. It is designed to provide the general reader with a
series of selective representations of daily life in the Ottoman Empire.

The everyday life of the people of the Ottoman Empire
changed significantly during the six centuries that extended from the formation
of the state in the last decade of the 13th century to the collapse of the
empire in the aftermath of the First World War. As the Ottoman dominion
expanded from a small principality in western Anatolia to one of the largest
and most powerful empires in the world, its increasingly diverse population
grew, and patterns of social, economic, and cultural interaction underwent a
dramatic transformation. This transformation was further intensified in the
18th and 19th centuries as Ottoman society was impacted by the rise of
capitalism and a world economic system that battered down the walls of
traditional and pre-capitalist social formations. The daily life of an Ottoman
subject was greatly affected by the rise of market economy and the arrival of
European ideas, goods, and customs.

It is beyond the scope of this book to include the social
and cultural history of all the ethnic and linguistic communities who lived and
worked as the subjects of the sultan and analyze the profound changes that the
Ottoman society experienced throughout the six hundred years of its existence.
After providing the reader with a brief historical overview of the Ottoman
Empire in chapter 1, in chapter 2, I have discussed the role of the sultan and
the imperial palace in the daily life of the empire. In chapter 3, I have made
a short presentation on the Ottoman ruling elite, which managed the empire and
ensured the smooth functioning of the highly complex and stratified Ottoman
society that assigned exact functions to members of each social strata. From a
discussion of the Ottoman ruling elite, the book moves to a brief presentation
on three important social classes in the Ottoman society, namely the merchants,
the craftsmen, and the peasant farmers. Throughout chapter 4, the reader gets a
glimpse of everyday life in the rural and agricultural communities of the
empire as well as the internal structure of the urban economy, including the
central role played by the guilds. In chapter 5, I have analyzed the
millet
system,
which divided the subjects of the sultan into religious communities, including
the Orthodox Christians, the Armenians, and the Jews. From the non-Muslim
communities, we move to a discussion in chapter 6 on the teachings and the role
of Islam in the Ottoman Empire. As a religion that legislated and regulated all
aspects of a Muslim’s daily life, Islam had a profound and immediate impact on the
social, economic, and cultural institutions of the empire. Building on our
discussion of Islam in chapter 6, we move to a short presentation on Islamic
education and law in chapter 7. Islam was not, however, the only cultural and
spiritual force in the Ottoman Empire. Chapter 8 focuses on the Sufi or
mystical orders, which enjoyed enormous popularity and influence in the Ottoman
Empire, and, at times, challenged the cultural and ideological monopoly enjoyed
by the Islamic religious establishment. From this discussion of religious and
spiritual life, chapter 9 focuses on courtship and marriage, particularly among
the Muslim communities of the empire, and chapter 10 deals with sex, family,
childbirth, childrearing, circumcision, and divorce. In chapter 11, I have
presented an overview of the rich and diverse Ottoman cuisine. Although each
ethnic and religious community had its own rich culinary traditions, after
several centuries of living together and interacting with neighbors who had
also developed their own unique cuisine, a distinctive Ottoman cooking
tradition emerged. From food and popular drinks, the book moves in chapter 12
to a discussion of popular sports that enjoyed an enormous following among all
communities living in the Ottoman Empire. Finally, chapter 13 focuses on
sickness, dying, and death in the Ottoman Empire, introducing the popular
fears, superstitions, and healing methods prevalent among the empire’s diverse
communities.

CHRONOLOGY