SCRUBBING UP WELL

Renovations of Istanbul's most exquisite hammams are helping a tradition thrive again.

- Sevil Delin

As a child, I was enchanted by my Turkish great-grandmother's hammam clogs that stood on a shelf in my parents’ bathroom. I marvelled at the tiny wooden slippers inlaid with mother-of-pearl and embellished with silver embroidery, and I wondered how she managed to walk, given their 9cm stilts that raised her feet off the wet floor. These were probably her bridal bath slippers, or nalın, worn only once, at her traditional prenuptial bathhouse ablutions. The gelin hammamı, or bridal bath, was an essential part of Ottoman marriage customs, and would feature food as well as singing and dancing.

Ottoman public baths were for every stratum of society. From cradle to grave, people congregated under the hammam’s domed roofs. The belief was that cleanliness was next to godliness, expressed in the phrase “temizlik imandan gelir” or “cleanliness is a part of faith”. It marked milestones in life. New mothers stayed in bed for 40 days and ended their reclusion with a trip to the hammam; men went there following circumcision or military service.