Ottoman coffeehouse

The Ottoman coffeehouse, or Ottoman Café was a distinctive part of the culture of the Ottoman Empire. These coffeehouses, started in the mid-sixteenth century, brought together citizens across society for educational, social, and political activity as well as general information exchange. The popularity of these coffeehouses attracted government interest and were attended by government spies to gather public opinion. Ottoman coffeehouses also had religious and musical ties. Europeans adopted coffeehouses and other Ottoman leisure customs during the early modern period.

The activity of coffee-drinking and coffeehouses originated in Arabia, and it moved to Egypt then to Persia then to the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth century. In the Ottoman Empire, the first coffeehouse was opened in Istanbul in 1555 during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. It was founded by two merchants from Damascus and established in Tahtakale, Istanbul. Eventually, coffeehouses offered more than coffee, providing sweet beverages and candies too. Coffeehouses also became more numerous and functioned as community hubs. Before their introduction, the home, the mosque, and the shop were the primary sites of interpersonal interaction. Eventually, though, there existed one coffeehouse for every six or seven commercial shops. And by the end of the nineteenth century, there were nearly 2,500 coffeehouses in Istanbul alone.

Background

Coffeehouses brought together men from all levels of society. Primarily masculine spaces, the tradition of the Ottoman coffeehouses was exported to the other European empires where coffee became a staple. In Protestant countries, such as in Britain, coffee was thought to have antierotic as well as mentally stimulating properties. The idea that coffee would spur people into work and improve the quality of such work was highly compatible with the Protestant work ethic ideology. Free of sexual distractions and instilling asceticism, people could presumably live free from sin. It was seen as a positive alternative to alcohol, and Protestant visitors to the Ottoman Empire saw it as consistent was the Christian (Protestant) values of temperance and the Protestant work ethic.

According to ''The Reuben Percy Anecdotes'' compiled by journalist Thomas Byerley, an Armenian opened a coffee shop in Europe in 1674, at a time when coffee was first becoming fashionable in the West. Though Percy described these first European coffee houses as "imperfect" establishments where liquor and cigarettes were still consumed, he notes that it was an "error of the Armenian" that led to the establishment of a coffeehouse in Paris called Le Procope which introduced what Percy calls "ices".

Eminegül Karababa and Guliz Ger note that "rather than merely providing a place to drink coffee, the coffeehouse created a pleasant site for patrons to interact in". Coffeehouses drew together distinct groups, including academics, idlers, business men, and government officials. Despite this variety, not all citizens attended the same coffeehouses. Coffeehouses differed in scale, with some serving as neighborhood establishments and others as large community centers. As a result, sometimes different people would visit different shops.

But coffeehouses shared some commonalities in their attendees. For one, coffeehouses were restricted to the male populations; women and children were not allowed in these spaces. Coffeehouses were also principally Muslim gathering spots, though followers of other religions like Christianity were known to attend occasionally. These establishments broke down social barriers and allowed for socialization and information exchange.

Activities

Educational

Ottoman era coffeehouses democratized education across all stratums of society. Because individuals from a variety of backgrounds gathered in these coffeehouses, illiterate or low literacy people could sit alongside educated individuals. This diverse attendance enabled what scholar John Houghton called a "penny university," a statement conveying the virtually free nature of the education men could attend by visiting the coffeehouses. For instance, the bourgeoisie that attended coffeehouses desired to prove their enlightenment to elites through academic discourse. By being proximate to these academic discussions, less educated visitors could listen and learn from these conversations. Second, the more literate society members would hold public readings of the news, allowing the illiterate to stay informed. Even professional readers would sometimes visit coffeehouses to read the main news of the day. These readings were especially helpful for those who could not afford newspaper subscriptions. Ottoman coffeehouses allowed the members of lower society to receive informal education, instruction that was traditionally provided by universities and churches.

Social and entertainment activity

Coffeehouses provided a new venue for socialization to occur. Before them, hospitality events were reserved for the home. Gossip was now exchanged with coffee cups and around coffee tables. This gossip often included discussions of women. Men would debate or question the chastity of known women by the community. In other cases, men would simply converse about daily ongoings or scandals. Sometimes, they would engage in entertainment activities like producing plays on everyday life satires. They would also host improvisational performances. Other times, shadow puppet shows would be produced or narrated stories would be told. The emergence of coffeehouses expanded the private sphere to allow many social conversations and experiences in public settings.

Before the rise of the coffeehouse, men were found at work, the mosque, or at home. The necessities of Ottoman life could be fulfilled by rotating through these three places. Referred to as the “Fourth Place,” the coffeehouse introduced a “neutral meeting ground” with “ social leveling.” This was specifically prevalent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially as urban Ottoman citizens longed for tight-knit, local, and familial society amid urbanization. The unit of organization was being further drowned out by the rise of the centralized state. Furthermore, the home-based host-guest binary was not present at the coffeehouse, creating greater levels of social equality. Similar to the master-slave model, hierarchy, while still important, was replaced with other identities in the space. Poets, politicians, scholars, dervishes, and, later, janissaries could meet in groups with similar interests to express their passions and thoughts. Verbal communication was a crucial commonality for all guests. After all, it was the chief means by which debates, plays, narrations, and even rebellions were organized. Jean de Thévenot, a French traveler in the Middle East, noted that men of all occupations, religions, or statuses could frequent coffeehouses. Thévenot recognized the “heterogeneity of coffeehouse clientele,” citing “socio-professional and confessional distinctions.” The main frequenters were artisans, shopkeepers, yet merchants from foreign countries like England, Russia, France, and Venice constituted the second largest group. Due to increased communication and interaction between distinct people, “mimetic processes” were developed in politics, art, and, most importantly, insurrection. Bureaucrats distributed information to military officers, just as writers exchanged works with poets; a truly dialectical process was shaping rich Ottoman culture. Over time, the coffeehouse, as a lucrative industry, gave agency to the market over religious or state authority.

Political activity

News updates were circulated and acts of government resistance were planned in coffeehouses. Without modern forms of communication and the limited accessibility of print news, coffeehouses enabled citizens to verbally update one another on news. News was often broken in these shops and political rumors started. Speculative conversations discussed cabinet changes, corruption scandals, and possibly initiations of war. In addition to information exchange, mutinies, coups, and other acts of political resistance were planned in coffeehouses. In particular, impassioned janissaries made coffeehouses their headquarters for meetings and discussions about political acts. Some janissaries even had their own coffeehouses which they marked with their insignia, the orta. Non-janissaries and janissaries would come together in these coffeehouses to plan rebellions to check the power of the Sultan and prevent absolutism. As hubs of discussion on the state, coffeehouses were opposed by the Ottoman government. They believed coffeehouses were locations of vice and disorder. Despite their efforts to burn or ban coffeehouses, these establishments persisted in popularity.

Within the Janissary-operated coffeehouses, the ''orta'', or battalion, became the chief unit of organization. The warriors expressed strong loyalty to their individual orta and the coffeehouse provided the means to become increasingly isolated from the Ottoman authorities as well as connected to undercover networks for assassinations, gossip, and wealth. During the late Ottoman Empire, these units were carefully monitored for their overreaching influence and power in society, specifically by royal and other authorities. While seemingly harmless, the coffeehouses extended that power into civil society

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases