Publisher's Synopsis
This richly illustrated book examines the Turkish bath and its many rituals from the twin perspectives of its place in Ottoman society and its role in the Western imagination. The history of the Turkish bath is presented, from the time of the first Sultan Osman I (1299-1321) through to Mehmet VI, the last of the Ottoman rulers who was deposed and exiled in 1922. The bath was the place where the Ottoman citizen could celebrate, at once, the sensual, spiritual, symbolic and sovial state of being. Through Aykut's comprehensive and entertaining study of the history of the Turkish bath, the reader is introduced to some of the Ottoman Empire's most glamourous art and most sumptuous artefacts.
