Research Article

Turkish baths and their functions as represented in the memoirs of Westerners

Number: 20 September 21, 2020
  • Ercan Kaçmaz *
TR EN

Turkish baths and their functions as represented in the memoirs of Westerners

Abstract

When the social lives and leisure activities of Turkish women are observed, Western travel writers generally share examples of the amusements that occurred in Turkish baths. There is a chapter about amusements in most of the memoirs written by travel writers who came to the Turkish territory during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In this chapter, there is a lot of information about Turkish baths including the lifestyles of Turkish women. The Turkish bath should not be considered a place where people –men and women- just go and take baths. It is a place where Turkish women spend most of their time with their friends and neighbours. Women also use baths as meeting places similar to cafes and restaurants. Thus, foreign writers convey the importance of baths for Turkish women in their works, and sometimes with exaggerated examples. Within this context travel writers such as Lady Montagu, Vahan Cardashian, Lucy M. J. Garnett, and Miss Pardoe either wrote a chapter on baths or shared information about these places in their writings. This study will, therefore, focus on the significance of Turkish baths in Turkish culture based on the works of Western writers and reveal how Turkish women amuse themselves in these places.

Keywords

References

  1. [Blunt, F. J.] (1878). The People of Turkey: Twenty Years’ Residence among Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Turks and Armenians, By A Consul's Daughter and Wife, (Ed.) Stanley Lane Poole. Volume II. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.
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  4. Cardashian, V. (1914). Actual Life in the Turkish Harem. Third Edition. California: University of California.
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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Cultural Studies

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Ercan Kaçmaz * This is me
0000-0001-8304-6482
Türkiye

Publication Date

September 21, 2020

Submission Date

August 17, 2020

Acceptance Date

September 20, 2020

Published in Issue

Year 2020 Number: 20

APA
Kaçmaz, E. (2020). Turkish baths and their functions as represented in the memoirs of Westerners. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 20, 616-625. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.792261

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