Culture of the Ottoman Empire: Encyclopedia II - Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Lifestyle

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Lifestyle

The Ottoman court life in many aspects assembled ancient traditions of the Persian Shahs, but had many Greek and European influences.

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Traditions

Constituents of Ottoman Culture

The Court (Palace) Saray The culture that evolved around the court was known as the Ottoman Way. To get a high position in the empire, one must be skilled in the Way. It included knowing both Persian, Arabic and Ottoman Turkish and how to behave in court, in front of the sultan, and in formal and religious occasions. The Ottoman Way also used to separate the nobles from the lower classes. Peasants and villagers were called Turks, while nobles were Ottomans.

Food The Ottoman court employed cooks from different backgrounds and they were responsible of producing innovative foods for the Sultan. There was a "Cheshnidjibashi" (taster) who tried the food before the sultan to prevent him from getting poisoned by his enemies. Dolma, Shark Soup, Fish Marmelade, Tavuk Gogsu (chicken breast pudding), were inventions of the Ottoman palace.

Language The Ottoman court spoke a version of Turkish, innundated with words from Arabic and Farsi. The grammar was still Turkish, but a lot more elaborate than the Turkish people spoke in the streets and villages. The language became so differentiated that people had to hire Arzuhaldjis (request-writers) to be able to communicate with the government, as the request had to be translated to Ottoman.

The Sultans had a very mixed ethnic lineage because the Sultans married women from various backgrounds, so they spoke their mother tongue, Ottoman, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Greek and some european languages.

All ethnicities who had their own language continued to speak their own language in their family, in villages where two populations lived together, the two populations would often speak each other's language (Cyprus:Greek/Turkish, the Balkans: Albanian/Greek/Serbian/Bulgarian, Eastern Turkey: Kurdish/Turkish/Armenian, Northeastern Turkey: Laz, Georgian, Greek, Turkish).

In compolitan cities, people often spoke their family languages, some Ottoman if they were educated, and some Arabic if they were Muslim. In the last 2 centuries, French and English emerged as popular elite languages where the elite learned French at school, and used European products as a fashion statement.

Life The Turks were the warriors and the peasants and the Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Latins (Catholics), Bulgarians and Slavs were considered to belong to their own "nation" within the Ottoman Empire and an elected or selected community religious leader was responsible of collecting taxes, running the courts, and managing these nations-within-the-nation. The non-Muslims were exempt of military service, but they had to give up their children as janissaries and pay more in taxes. They were judged by their own courts and were first responsible to their own religious leaders then to the Ottoman government, which allowed them to keep their religious and linguistic identities in tact during 600 years of rule.

The Capital City

Tolerance and Diversity as an Ottoman State Policy

After the conquest of Bursa, in 1326 Orhan Gazi issued a Royal Decree for the building of a synagogue, the "Etz Ha Hayim" synagogue which was in service until 50 years ago. The oppressed Jewish community, thanks to Orhan Gazi could breathe again. When Bursa was declared the capital, Jewish tradesmen were invited to Bursa and thanks to the climate of freedom, Jews came even from Arabia.

Istanbul, was reborn after the conquest in 1453 and it quickly became a melting pot / confluence of all known cultures, religions, cultures, food, languages, music, art and innovation.

In Spain, the Catholic Spanish Kings reconquered Andalusia. They made public an edict during the week of April 29, 1492. The charter declared that no Jews were permitted to remain within the Spanish kingdom, and Jew who wished to convert was welcome to stay. The Jews expelled from Spain with the inquisition in 1492, were brought to Istanbul, to repopulate the city's empty Greek-fled houses. Bayezit II said: "King Ferdinand, I deemed a wise-man, is not so wise, as he does not see the value that Jews bring to his lands. We welcome them to live and prosper with our Empire."

The Greek Orthodox church who was considered to be the ecumenial patriarch for all Orthodox Christian, which also covered the Armenians. This created great displeasure with the Armenians. Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror thus founded the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul by beautifying his friend, Archbishop Hovagim of Bursa with patriarchal dignity and authority in 1461.

The Bulgarians were under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople patriarchate as members of the Orthodox Rum millet, and the decades-long struggle for emancipation from the hegemony of the Greek clergy ended in 1870 with the recognition by the Ottoman Porte of an autonomous church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Exarchate, and of a separate Bulgarian millet.

The Provincial Capitals

Apart from the Ottoman court, there were also large metropolitan centers were the Ottoman influence expressed itself with a diversity similar to metropolises of today : New York, London, Paris. Sarajevo, Skopje, Thessaloniki, Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut, Jerusalem, Mecca were other cities that tasted the Ottoman diversity with their own small versions of Provincial Administration replicating the culture of the Ottoman court locally.

In general, Turks take their shoes off in the house. There are slippers that are designated to home use. This custom was carried through centuries as the Turkish babies have been free to move and adults can rest on the floor. This custom aimed in keeping the carpet and kilim clean. Women and girls take up carpet and kilim weaving as a means of earning money.

There is a religious holiday that families present candies to guests.

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Household life at palace

The Harem was a small world in itself. Often the mother of the current sultan (Valide Sultan) was a politically influential person. She also selected the concubines for her son. The concubines could live in or around the palace for their entire life, and it supported them with whatever they needed. Women not found suitable for the sultan were married off to eligible bachelors from the Ottoman nobility or sent back home. Female servants did all the chores such as serving food and making the beds. Male (sometimes eunuch) white and black servants did the hard work such as shopping, guarding the palaces and maintaining the gardens and palaces.

You can not see the face of the bride. Religious and political leaders are at the front.

Every prince has his own place. It is a tradition to take the bride from her house and take it to where she will be building her new familiy.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Lifestyle", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki