The Bektaşis had a leader (çelebi) who lived in the monastery (tekke) of Pir Evi (the Tomb of the Founder) at Haci Bektaş in central Anatolia. The head of each Bektaşi tekke was called bābā, and a fully initiated member was known as a dervish (initiate of the mystical path). A member who had taken only the first vow of the order was called muhibb, and an uninitiated follower was known as āşik (āshik). The Bektaşis wore a white cap, elaborated with either 4 or 12 folds. The 12 folds signified the number of Shia imams, and the four folds stood for the four gates of knowledge: religious law (şeriat), the mystical or spiritual path (tarikat), Gnostic wisdom or true knowledge (maarifet), and mystic truth and reality (hakikat).
A “LOVE INTOXICATED” BEKTAŞI (BEKTASHI) DERVISH
In his Book of Travels, the Ottoman traveler and author Evliya Çelebi vividly described a “love intoxicated” Bektaşi dervish. Evliya Çelebi’s observations reveal the close doctrinal, spiritual, and ritual ties between the Bektaşi order and Shia Islam as practiced among the Iranian Shia of the 17th century. Although the man was ragged and barefooted, Evliya Çelebi found him to be eloquent and quick witted. His shirtless chest bore marks of flagellation received during the Ashura ceremonies that commemorated the martyrdom of “el-Huseyn,” a reference to Hussein, the third Shia imam and the grandson of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. On his head he proudly displayed a brand of submission, which indicated that he was an adept in both the holy law and the mystic path of his faith. The dervish was, for Evliya Çelebi, mad and wise, wild and pure, disheveled and radiant.
Much of the Bektaşi order’s power and influence derived from its affiliation with the janissary corps. Beginning in the 15th century, the mystical order had acquired an exclusive spiritual authority over these elite foot soldiers of the Ottoman Empire. As new converts from Christianity to Islam, members of the janissaries understandably were attracted to Sufi orders that had absorbed and incorporated elements of Christianity and treated non-Muslims with respect and tolerance. The Bektaşi affiliation with the janissaries would prove a detriment, however, in 1826, when Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) abolished the janissary corps, even attacking the corps’ barracks in Istanbul and other major urban centers of the empire. In the process numerous Bektaşi monasteries were destroyed, and many leaders of the order were arrested and imprisoned. Later in the 19th century, during the Tanzimat era (1839–1871), the Bektaşis made a comeback, which was evident in a revival of literary and poetical works by the members of the order—initially during the second half of the 19th century and once again after the Young Turk revolution of 1908. In the autumn of 1925 the newly established Republic of Turkey dissolved the Bektaşi order, together with all other Sufi groups.
See also: Empire and Administration: Janissaries; Tanzimat; Historians: Evliya Çelebi; Sultans: Mahmud II
Further Reading
Evliya Çelebi. The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha, 1588–1662. Translated by Robert Dankoff. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
Evliya Çelebi. Seyahatnameh, Book of Travels. Vol. V, Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions (Kosovo, Montenegro, Ohrid). Edited by Robert Dankoff and Robert Elise. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.
Evliya Çelebi. Seyahatnameh, Book of Travels. Vol. II, Evliya Çelebi in Bitlis. Edited by Robert Dankoff and Robert Elise. Leiden: Brill, 1990.
Rycaut, Paul. The Present State of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Arno Press, 1971.
Tschudi, R. “Bektashiyya.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, edited by B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, and J. Schacht, 1:1162. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963.
Food and Dining
The Ottoman Empire’s urban and rural communities alike assigned the utmost importance to the preparing, serving, and eating of food. Numerous rituals of socialization, leisure, and politics revolved around these most basic activities of life. Preparing and consuming food was closely associated with the family and home; even in urban areas, a culture of restaurants and dining out was rare. When Ottomans did eat outside their own homes, they were usually visiting in the home of a friend or family member.
Ottoman cuisine synthesized a wealth of cooking traditions that reflected the broad diversity of the empire’s population. Turkic tribes who migrated from the Altay mountains in Central Asia toward Anatolia encountered various culinary traditions along the way and assimilated many aspects of these into their own cuisine. As they continued on to conquer and settle in Asia Minor and the Balkans, the Turks left a noticeable impact on the cuisine of the peoples and societies whom they incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. Their own daily diet, in turn, was influenced by the culinary traditions of the Serbian, Bosnian, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Armenian, Arab, and Kurdish communities they came to rule. Indeed, the extraordinary variety of dishes found in Ottoman cuisine can be traced back to the equally extraordinary variety of nationalities and ethnicities that constituted the population of the Ottoman Empire.
Strong elements of Persian cuisine had influenced Turkish culinary practices during the reign of the Seljuk state (Güvenç: 16). Dishes “based on wheat and mutton” were introduced after the Turks settled in Anatolia, “and seafood dishes as they reached the Aegean and Mediterranean littoral” (Güvenç: 16). Anatolia’s own ancient culinary heritage “had been built up by scores of civilizations over a period of thousands of years, ranging from the Hittites to the Roman and Byzantine empires. The region was also “blessed with an exceptionally rich fauna and flora, of which many spices found their way into the kitchen” (Güvenç: 16). Given this rich diversity of culinary influences, it is not surprising that many words used in Ottoman cooking and cuisine were borrowed from cultures with whom the Turks had come into contact. Thus, meze, çorba (chorba), hoşaf (hoshaf), reçel (rechel), and pilaf came “from Persian,” while barbunya pilakisi came from Italian, “fasulye from Greek,” “manti from Chinese or Korean and muhallebi from Arabic” (Güvenç: 17). Starting in the 19th century, as Ottoman society sought revitalization in Western culture, European culinary practices and traditions, particularly French cuisine, found their way into Turkish kitchens. Such borrowings, however, do not detract from the culinary creativity of the Ottomans themselves, who introduced rice, sesame seeds, and maize to the Middle East and the Balkans in the 15th and 16th centuries. Plants from the New World, such as tomatoes and peppers, likewise were introduced to southeastern Europe and the Middle East through the Ottomans.
The diverse climate zones of the Ottoman Empire revealed regional cuisines and specialties. The damp climate on the eastern Black Sea coast, for example, did not allow the cultivation of wheat, but did allow maize to emerge as the principal grain crop. Cattle breeding was a specialty in southern Anatolia, where the meat was cooked and served as kebabs. And even today on the coast of the Aegean Sea, Mediterranean cooking, dominated by vegetables, fish, and olive oil, provides the primary diet.
Just as they did with their political and administrative practices, the Ottomans assimilated the best of the culinary traditions they encountered and merged them with their own cooking customs and practices to bring about an enrichment of their own cuisine. Specialties such as Albanian liver, Circassian chicken, and Arab meatballs became part of Ottoman Turkish cuisine. In turn, kebabs, pilafs, böreks, dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), yogurt meals, and syrupy desserts were introduced by the Turks to the peoples they conquered. The rich culinary legacy of the Ottomans is still evident in Mediterranean cuisine from the Balkans to the Arab world. Even today, numerous dishes produced in the various nations that once composed the Ottoman Empire share a similar name, usually with a Turkish origin. For example, pastries known as baklava are made in Serbia with apples, in Greece with honey and walnuts, and in Syria with sugar-water syrup and pistachios. Such similarities support the idea of a “court cuisine,” which emanated from the sultan’s palace in Istanbul and reached the empire’s provincial centers through the Ottoman officials assigned to represent the imperial style in their own districts (Maste
rs: 165).
A depiction of distinguished Ottoman women at a banquet, attended by female slaves. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Beginning with the reign of Murad II (1421–1444, 1446–1451), Ottoman sultans increasingly emphasized culinary creativity. By the second half of the 15th century the intricacy of the finest Ottoman cuisine was revealed in the dishes served at the great banquets that the grand vizier organized in honor of foreign ambassadors and other dignitaries visiting the imperial palace.
The size of the palace kitchen at Topkapi Palace indicated the central importance of food to Ottoman rulers and officials. A large building with no fewer than 10 domes, it provided space for preparing the meals of palace staff and occupants, which numbered some 12,000 members of the harem, the court, palace eunuchs, servants, government officials, military officers, the imperial council, and others who worked at the palace. Meals for the sultan and his mother, however, were cooked in a separate kitchen.
Cooking the food of the sultan was one of the most important daily responsibilities of the palace and the imperial kitchen. Starting with the reign of Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, the sultan issued rules for food preparation, and the royal kitchen was divided into four main sections: the sultan’s kitchen; the sovereign’s kitchen, which was responsible for the food of the sultan’s mother, the princes, and privileged members of the harem; the harem kitchen; and a kitchen for the palace household. Later, an army of bakers, pastry makers, yogurt makers, and pickle makers joined the staff of the imperial kitchen to bake high-quality breads and specialized desserts. By the beginning of the 17th century the palace employed more than 1,300 cooks and kitchen hands, with each having his own specialty, perhaps inspired by recipes from his home region. The palace chefs exceeded all expectations on important celebrations and festivals. In the mid-16th century a chronicler recorded the list of ingredients for a 13-day feast to celebrate the circumcision of a prince: “1,100 chickens, 900 lambs, 2,600 sheep, almost 8,000 kg of honey, and 18,000 eggs” (Böcking, Salm-Reifferscheidt, and Stipsicz: 191).
Pantry items for the imperial kitchen originated from the four corners of the empire. As late as the 18th century the Black Sea region provided Istanbul with such necessities as grain, barley, millet, salt, cattle, lambs, chickens, eggs, fresh fruits, and butter, along with caviar, fish, and even honey, which the Turks used as a form of sugar (Braudel: 3:477). Egypt provided dates, prunes, rice, lentils, spices, sugar, and pickled meats. More honey, sherbets, and meat stews arrived from Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania, while Greece provided olive oil (Braudel: 3:477).
Palace chefs began their work at daybreak with help from 200 undercooks and scullions, as well as an army of servers and caterers (Bon: 93). Ottaviano Bon (1552–1623) served as the Venetian ambassador to the Ottoman capital from 1603 to 1609 and provided a detailed account of the imperial kitchen and the eating habits of Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617), who dined three or four times a day, starting with a morning meal at ten o’clock and ending with a dinner at six o’clock.
Any food that was placed in front of the sultan was to be tasted first by a taster. Meals were served on celadon dishes, which were believed to change color on contact with poison (Bon: 93). The dishes were placed on the sofra, a flat leather tablecloth that sat upon the floor. Sitting with his legs crossed, the sultan ate with a beautiful towel draped across his knees to keep his garments clean and another hanging from his left arm, which he used to wipe his mouth and hands (Bon: 94). Because he used neither a knife nor a fork, two spoons were placed in front of the sultan. One by one, the sultan tasted the dishes brought to him. As he finished with one, another would be brought in.
Ordinarily, roasted pigeons, geese, lamb, hens, chickens, mutton, and occasionally wild fowl provided the basis of the sultan’s diet. He ate fish only at the seaside, where he could observe it being caught. The sultan avoided using any salt. Broths of all sorts, as well as preserves and syrup, were available in porcelain dishes on the sofra for the sultan’s use. Sweetmeats provided the sultan’s customary dessert. Throughout the meal, he drank a variety of sherbets or fresh fruit juice.
Because he was a practicing Muslim, the sultan was prohibited from eating pork and drinking wine or any other alcoholic beverage. Nonetheless, throughout the long history of the Ottoman Empire, some sultans drank heavily. At least one sultan, Selim II (1566–1574), was so fond of wine that his subjects bestowed the title Drunkard (Sarhoş) upon him. The Quran’s prohibition against wine was taken also to exclude other substances with intoxicating properties, including all other alcoholic beverages, opium, and tobacco.
Ottaviano Bon recounts that while the sultan ate, court jesters and mimes could silently entertain him by playing tricks and making fun of one another through sign language (Bon: 95, 151). In exceptional cases, the monarch honored one of the court officials in attendance by handing him a loaf of bread. After the sultan had finished eating, leftovers of the meal were sent to high officials as an expression of the sultan’s kindness and generosity. To show his gratitude for the talents of the silent entertainers, he tossed them money from his pockets, which were always filled with coins.
A different palace kitchen cooked for and served the harem, and yet another provided food for the grand vizier and other high officials, who served as members of the imperial council. Still another kitchen provided food for those who worked at the palace daily, such as clerks, scribes, and military officials, although their food was of poorer quality than the sultan’s and lacked the variety of dishes served to him. The significance of bread in Ottoman cuisine is reflected in the fact that there was a palace hierarchy in place when it came to the quality of bread that each individual ate with his meal. Bread for the sultan was baked with the finest flour; high government officials ate bread of lower quality, and palace servants consumed a coarse black loaf. Although they were served by a different kitchen, the female members of the royal household, such as the mother of the sultan and his concubines, ate the same quality and variety of food as their monarch.
Lady Mary Montagu visited the harems of several Ottoman officials, at one point meeting with a widow of Mustafa II. On that occasion Lady Mary’s Ottoman host served her guest 50 dishes of meat, which were placed on the table one at a time, in the Ottoman fashion. In her letters back to England, Lady Mary described knives of gold with their hafts set with diamonds, as well as tablecloths and napkins embroidered with floral designs in silk and gold. After dinner, water was brought in gold basins, along with similarly embroidered towels. Dinner concluded with coffee served in china cups with gold saucers, carried in by young girls who kneeled in front of their royal mistress, the sultan’s widow.
Because culinary practices at the palace provided a model for the entire empire, the ways of the sultan and his household had a profound impact on the cooking practices and habits of the empire’s elite. Their ways, in turn, were imitated by ordinary subjects of the sultan in both Istanbul and the provinces. In this manner, meals prepared for the imperial council in Istanbul eventually helped introduce Ottoman culinary traditions to the world outside the palace.
The grand vizier and his cabinet sat down to lunch only after they had attended to affairs of state. Their meal was comprised of six distinct dishes. The starter was always a rice dish, known as dane (Persian for “grain”) in the palace and as pilaf elsewhere. Dane could include a number of rice dishes, such as plain rice; Persian rice; rice with minced meat, vegetables, raisins, or currants; and even rice with plain pepper. The second course was usually chicken soup, which most likely also included onions, peppers, chickpeas, lemon juice, and parsley. The traditional third course, börek, was a baked or fried pastry filled with chicken, cheese, minced meat, potatoes, and a variety of vegetables, such as parsley, spinach, leek, or eggplant. Çömlek aşi (Chömlek ashi), made up of clarified butter, onions, sesame, sumac, chickpeas, and meat, was another popular third or fourth choice. Börek and çömlek aşi at times were replaced by a variety of soups or bull
ion (şurba-i sade or tarbana soup), or even by vegetable dishes such as burani, which consisted of spinach or another vegetable with rice and yogurt. In addition to burani and dolma, main courses also could include the old-fashioned Turkish pasta dish titmaç (titmach), along with yogurt and a kind of wheat gruel with meat. The fourth of the six courses was usually a sweet dish, such as baklava or another type of traditional dessert. At times dessert was preceded by a more substantial course, such as sheep’s trotters with vinegar, cow’s tripe, sausage made of gut or meat ragout, or poached eggs with yogurt. The sixth and final course was always a meat dish, most likely some variety of kebab consisting of lamb, chicken, pigeon, or meatballs, either grilled or fried as köfte.
A variety of breads and sherbets always accompanied the imperial cabinet’s meal. Along with these, a mix of stewed, sugared, fresh, and dried fruits, most often grapes, raisins, currants, apricots, and figs, was served. Dried fruits also were heavily used in various main dishes. Böreks could be flavored with dried apricots, currants, dates, chestnuts, and apples, along with the expected minced meat and onions. Raisins, currants, chestnuts, and almonds also were used in pilafs and other rice dishes.
Meals for the palace secretaries, scribes, and servants of the imperial council contrasted sharply with the dishes prepared for the grand vizier and his cabinet. The food served was not only of lower quality, but it was limited to two dishes, consisting mostly of rice or wheat soup, plain rice, or a wheat dish that contained eggs. These also could include a yogurt soup called mastabe, which combined clarified butter, yogurt, meat, chickpeas, onions, and parsley. The absence of any sweet dishes reflected the simplicity of the menu intended for the lower-ranking members of the imperial divān.
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