Istanbul’s Historic Baths Keep Hammam Tradition Alive

Built 500 years ago, Istanbul's Zeyrek Cinili Hammam recently reopened after a restoration process that took 13 years. (AFP)
Built 500 years ago, Istanbul's Zeyrek Cinili Hammam recently reopened after a restoration process that took 13 years. (AFP)
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Istanbul’s Historic Baths Keep Hammam Tradition Alive

Built 500 years ago, Istanbul's Zeyrek Cinili Hammam recently reopened after a restoration process that took 13 years. (AFP)
Built 500 years ago, Istanbul's Zeyrek Cinili Hammam recently reopened after a restoration process that took 13 years. (AFP)

For centuries, hammams were central to Ottoman society, and while they fell out of use in Türkiye with the advent of running water, many are being restored to revive an ancient ritual bathing tradition.

Often featured in older Turkish films, hammam scenes are highly entertaining, with women not only bathing but enjoying these historical bathhouses as a place to socialize, eat, and even dance.

Last year, the 500-year-old Zeyrek Cinili Hammam -- built during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent by the celebrated Ottoman architect Sinan -- reopened to the public after a painstaking 13-year restoration.

Alongside a functioning hammam, it also houses a museum explaining its history and the Ottoman ritual of bathing.

"The restoration somehow turned into an archaeological dig" that gave insight into how the hammam once looked, museum manager Beril Gur Tanyeli told AFP.

"Around 3,000 pieces of missing tiles were found which helped solve the puzzle of why this hammam was called Cinili" -- Turkish for "covered with tiles".

The beautiful Iznik tiles that once lined its walls were exclusively produced for the hammam, with no other bathhouse having such a rich interior, museum officials say.

Although most were damaged by fires or earthquakes, or sold off to European antique dealers in the 19th century, some are still visible.

The restoration also exposed several Byzantine cisterns beneath the hammam.

"Sinan the Architect is believed to have built the hammam on top of these cisterns to use them as a foundation and as a source of water," Tanyeli said.

Istanbul's celebrated royal architect Sinan designed the Zeyrek Cinili Hammam and built it over several Byzantine cisterns as a water source. (AFP)

- From cleansing to celebration -

In ancient Rome, bathing culture was very important and it was "traditional for traders to wash before entering the city, especially in baths at the (city) entrance," archaeologist Gurol Tali told AFP.

During the Ottoman empire, bathing culture had its golden age, with the ritual symbolizing both bodily cleanliness and purity of soul.

In Islam, a Muslim must wash before praying, in an act known as ablution.

Hammams were also a place for celebrating births and weddings.

"Baths were used not only for cleansing the body but for socializing, relaxing, healing and even celebrating important life events," with special rites for brides, soldiers and those who had undergone circumcision, Tali said.

Since households at the time did not have running water, hammams were an essential part of life until the 19th century, with census figures from 1638 showing there were 14,536 public and private baths in Istanbul, the museum says.

And that tradition has survived until today.

"You come here to get clean and leave handsome," said Zafer Akgul, who was visiting one of the city's hammams in the city with his son, telling AFP he visited often, particularly during religious feasts or for a wedding.

"We don't want this tradition to die."

Alongside the bathhouse, the Zeyrek Cinili Hammam also houses a museum showcasing pieces like these intricately decorated wooden clogs. (AFP)

- 'Passing on cultural heritage' -

That is where Istanbul's ancient hammams can serve a bigger purpose, Tali said.

"Restoring historical baths in Istanbul and putting them to use may be the most effective way to transfer cultural heritage to future generations," he said.

Another nearby bath house from the same era, the Beyazid II Hammam, underwent years of restoration and reopened as a museum in 2015.

One of the largest hammams in the city at the time, some historians believe it was where a notorious male bathing attendant, or "tellak", called Halil plotted an uprising that in 1730 overthrew Sultan Ahmed III.

For Manolya Gokgoz, who does publicity for Cemberlitas Hammam, another 16th-century bathhouse built by the royal architect Sinan, the connection is more personal: her grandmother worked there as a "natir" -- a woman's bathing attendant.

"When I was two or three years old, I would go to the baths in the morning, wash and play by myself until the evening without getting bored," she told AFP.

The museum at the Zeyrek Cinili Hammam celebrates the ancient bathing ritual. (AFP)

For Gokgoz, the tradition lives on -- although mostly among tourists, which for her is a shame.

"In the past, we used to go to the hammam with our mothers and grandmothers. Now 70 percent of our customers are foreign tourists and 30 percent locals," she said.

These days, the hammam experience -- which lets bathers relax in hot, warm or cool pools alongside extras like massages or peeling -- is quite expensive, with the basic service costing around $100.

Celebrities, both Turkish and international, often visit Cemberlitas, with the last being Spanish actor Pedro Alonso -- the character Berlin in the Netflix hit "Money Heist" -- who visited in September.

"Hammam is not a luxury, but a need," Gokgoz said.

"Yes, it's not like in the past because we have hot water at our fingertips, but we need to keep this tradition alive."



Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

As Iran faces increasing tensions with the West and turmoil at home, a new exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying Western artwork including pieces not seen by the public in at least a decade.
The unveiling of the exhibition “Eye to Eye” has drawn numerous women, their hair uncovered, to the underground galleries of the museum in Tehran's Laleh Park. Their presence, while unacknowledged by authorities, shows the way life has changed inside Iran just in the last few years even as the country's theocracy presses forward with enriching uranium to near-weapons grade levels and launching attacks on Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars, The Associated Press said.
“The first feeling that came to me, and I told my parents, was that I can’t believe I’m seeing these works, which have always been kept far from our eyes,” said Aida Zarrin, a young woman at the museum.
“If such events are held here and we can see artworks like the rest of the world, it’s enough. They are really precious.”
The government of Iran’s Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, the former Empress Farah Pahlavi, built the museum and acquired the vast collection in the late 1970s, when oil boomed and Western economies stagnated. Upon opening, it showed sensational works by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock and other heavyweights, enhancing Iran’s cultural standing on the world stage.
But just two years later, in 1979, Shiite clerics ousted the shah and packed away the art in the museum’s vault. Some paintings — cubist, surrealist, impressionist and even pop art — sat untouched for decades to avoid offending Islamic values and the appearance of catering to Western sensibilities. Nearly everything is believed still to be there, though an Andy Warhol print of the empress was slashed during the revolution.
Today, the collection is likely worth billions of dollars. Even with Iran now cash-strapped under Western sanctions, officials with the museum have been able to advocate for keeping the collection, though there have been occasional trades in the past for items from Persian history. Those sanctions may increase under the next administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
As Iranian politics have thawed, re-frozen and thawed again, the collection resurfaces along with those changes.
Among the over 120 works being shown are ones from Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, along with celebrated Iranian artists. One of the Warhols, “Jacqueline Kennedy II,” is a silkscreen double image of the former US first lady in mourning after the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John Kennedy. Another Warhol portrait of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger also garnered attention from the cellphone photo snappers.
“A lot of these works are important works in the history of art, and that’s why this show distinguishes itself from others,” said Jamal Arabzadeh, the exhibition's curator. ”A lot of people with less exposure to art have discovered the museum for the first time. ... We are seeing a part of the community that are discovering art and the museum and see the potential of this place, and this is something to be proud of.”
The presence of Western art comes as Iran's government has long fought against items like Barbie dolls and depictions of cartoon characters from “The Simpsons.” Such Western influences have been deemed un-Islamic in the past and have been seen as part of a “soft” cultural war against Iran.
With a ticket costing the equivalent of 14 US cents, the exhibition offers a rare government-sanctioned event not involving the country's politics or Shiite religion.
Among the visitors were many women defying the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. Crackdowns over the hijab have slowed down after Iran's presidential election in July that elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, though individual cases of arrest continue to draw anger.
And for many, the cost of tickets to travel abroad given Iran's collapsing rial currency keep foreign museums out of reach.
“This is very attractive for art enthusiasts because not everyone can go and see museums abroad. It’s extremely exciting to see the works here,” said a woman who only gave her last name, Dolatshahi. “I had no idea I could see works by van Gogh and Picasso here.”