Bathhouses (hamams) play a prominent role in Turkish culture, because of their architectural value and social function as places of hygiene, relaxation and interaction. Continuously shaped by social and historical change, the life story of Mimar Sinan's emberlitas Hamami in Istanbul provides an important example: established in 1583/4, it was modernized during the Turkish Republic (since 1923) and is now a tourist attraction. As a social space shared by tourists and Turks, it is a critical site through which to investigate how global tourism affects local traditions and how places provide a nucleus of cultural belonging in a globalized world. This original study, taking a biographical approach to tell the story of a Turkish bathhouse, contributes to the fields of Islamic, Ottoman and modern Turkish cultural, architectural, social and economic history.
About the AuthorNina Macaraig is Visiting Associate Professor at Koc University, Istanbul. She is co-editor of Istanbul and Water (2015) and editor of Bathing Culture of Anatolian Civilizations: Architecture, History and Imagination (2011).
Book InformationISBN 9781474434102
Author Nina MacaraigFormat Hardback
Page Count 488
Imprint Edinburgh University PressPublisher Edinburgh University Press