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A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners,
is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the Islamic culture and was inherited from the model of the Roman thermae. Muslim bathhouses or hammams were historically found across the Middle East, North Africa, al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia, i.e. Spain and Portugal), Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and in Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Empire.In Islamic cultures the significance of the hammam was both religious and civic: it provided for the needs of ritual ablutions but also provided for general hygiene in an era before private plumbing and served other social functions such as offering a gendered meeting place for men and for women. Archaeology remains attest to the existence of bathhouses in the Islamic world as early as the Umayyad period (7th–8th centuries) and their importance has persisted up to modern times. Their architecture evolved from the layout of Roman and Greek baths bathhouses and featured a regular sequence of rooms: an Apodyterium, a Frigidarium, a Tepidarium, and a Caldarium. Heat was produced by furnaces which provided hot water and steam, while smoke and hot air was channeled through Hypocaust.
In a modern hammam visitors undress themselves, while retaining some sort of modesty garment or loincloth, and proceed into progressively hotter rooms, inducing perspiration. They are then usually washed by male or female staff (matching the gender of the visitor) with the use of soap and vigorous rubbing, before ending by washing themselves in warm water. Unlike in Roman or Greek baths, bathers usually wash themselves with running water instead of immersing themselves in standing water since this is a requirement of Islam, though immersion in a pool used to be customary in the hammams of some regions such as Iran. While hammams everywhere generally operate in fairly similar ways, there are some regional differences both in usage and architecture.
In English, the inaccurate term "Turkish bath" is also used to refer to hammams. This stems from the tendency of historical Western writers to conflate ethnic and religious terms by referring to Muslims as "Turk" and because they presented hammams largely as an Ottoman cultural feature.
The first recorded use of the term 'Turkish bath' in English was in 1644.
Muslims retained many of the main elements of the classical bathhouses while leaving out functions which were less relevant to their practices. For example, the progression from Frigidarium to Caldarium was maintained, but it was no longer common practice to take a plunge in cold water after leaving the hot room, nor was exercise incorporated into bathing culture as it was in classical gymnasiums. Likewise, Muslim bathers usually washed themselves in running water rather than immersing themselves in standing water. Although in early Islamic history women did not normally patronise hammams, by around the 10th century many places started to provide separate hours (or separate facilities) for men and women. The hammam then took on an important role in women's social life as one of the few public spaces where they could gather and socialise apart from men. Some hammams were privately owned or formed parts of palaces and mansions, but in many cases they were civic or charitable institutions which formed part of larger religious/civic complexes. Such complexes were governed by waqf agreements, and hammams often acted as a source of revenue for the upkeep of other institutions such as mosques.
Later the Ottoman Empire became prolific patrons of hammams. Since they were social centres as well as baths, they were built in almost every city across their European, Asian, and African territories. The Ottomans were thus responsible for introducing hammams to much of eastern and central Europe, where many still exist today in various states of restoration or disrepair. Such Turkish baths are found as far as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, and Hungary. Many early Ottoman hammams survive in Bursa and Edirne, as well as in Eastern Europe and Anatolia, but hammams became even more numerous and architecturally ambitious in Istanbul, thanks to its royal patronage, its large population and its access to plentiful water. The city's Byzantine Greeks inhabitants had retained a strong Eastern Roman bath culture, with the Baths of Zeuxippus constituting one early example. Hamams in Islamic tradition (cyberbohemia.com) Ottoman architects expanded on the experience of Byzantine architects to create particularly well-balanced designs with greater symmetry and regularity in the arrangement of space than could be seen in hammams in other parts of the Muslim world. Some of the city's oldest monumental hammams are the Tahtakale Hamam (probably built right after 1454), the Mahmut Pasha Hamam (built in 1466), and the Bayezid II Hamam (built some time between 1500 and 1507). The monumental hammams designed by the 16th-century Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan (1489–1588), such as the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, the Süleymaniye Hamam (in the complex of the Süleymaniye Mosque), and the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam, are major examples of hammams that were built later in the era of classical Ottoman architecture. When Sultan Mustafa III issued a decree halting the construction of new public baths in the city in 1768, it seems to have resulted in an increase in the number of private hammams among the wealthy and the elites, especially in the Bosporus suburbs where they built luxurious summer homes. In Iran, many examples of hammams survive from the Safavid Iran period (16th–18th centuries) onward, with the historic city of Isfahan in particular containing many examples. The spread of Muslim rule in the Indian subcontinent also introduced hammams to this region, with many examples surviving in Mughal Empire architecture (16th–19th centuries).
In Turkey many historic hammams continue to operate either for locals or for tourists; in some cases this has led to neglected historic hammams such as the Kılıç Ali Pasa Hamamı and the Hürrem Sultan Hamamı being renovated and returned to their original function, while others were abandoned or repurposed. In Morocco, many hammams continue to serve locals in historic cities such as Fes and Marrakesh, where they are especially useful to the urban poor residing in the old cities ( Medina quarters). In many other regions, however, hammams have become obsolete and have either been abandoned or converted to other uses. In Iran, some baths continue to operate in the historic districts of cities like Isfahan where they continue to serve religious functions, but there is an overall decline in their numbers. Many surviving Iranian examples have been converted to other uses, most notably as restaurants and . In Damascus, Syria, only thirteen hammams were still operating in 2004, mostly in the old city; many others had been either demolished or repurposed. Cairo in Egypt contained an estimated 77 operational hammams at the beginning of the 19th century but only eight were still in business by the start of the 21st century, with many others abandoned or neglected.
Hammams, particularly in Morocco, evolved from their Roman origins to meet the needs of ritual purification according to Islam. For example, in most Roman-style hammams, there was a cold pool for submersion of the body, a style of bathing that finds less favour with Islam which regards bathing under running water without being fully submerged more appropriate.
Al-Ghazali, a prominent Muslim theologian of the 11th century, wrote Revival of the Religious Sciences, a multi-volume work discussing the appropriate forms of conduct for many aspects of Muslim life and death. One of the volumes, entitled The Mysteries of Purity, details the proper technique for performing ablutions before prayer and the major ablution ( ghusil) after anything which renders it necessary, such as the emission of semen. For al-Ghazali, the hammam is a primarily male institution, and he cautions that women should only enter a hammam after childbirth or illness. However, even al-Ghazali thought it admissible for men to prohibit their wives or sisters from using the hammam. For al-Ghazali the main point of contention surrounding hammams was nakedness, and he warned that overt nakedness was to be avoided ("… he should shield it from the sight of others and second, guard against the touch of others.") His writing focused especially on the need to avoid touching the penis during bathing and after urination, and wrote that nakedness was decent only when the area between a man's knees and lower stomach was hidden. For women he suggested that only exposure of the face and palms was appropriate. According to al-Ghazali, nakedness in the hammam could incite indecent thoughts and behaviours, hence its controversial nature.
In Islam ritual ablution is also required before or after sexual intercourse. Knowing that, May Telmissany, a professor at the University of Ottawa, argues that the image of a hyper-sexualised woman leaving the hammam is an Oriental studies way of looking at things that sees leaving or attending the hammam as an indicator of sexual behaviour.
Traditionally hammams, especially those for women, doubled as places of entertainment with dancing and food being shared. It was common to visit hammams before weddings or religious holidays, to celebrate births, to swap beauty tips, etc. Women also used visits to the hammam to size up potential wives for their sons.
Some accessories from Roman times survive in modern hammams, such as the peshtamal (a special cloth of silk and/or cotton to cover the body, like a pareo) and the kese (a rough mitten used for scrubbing). However, other accoutrements of the hammam experience such as jewel boxes, gilded soap boxes, mirrors, metal henna bowls, perfume bottles and nalın (wooden or mother-of-pearl clogs that prevented slipping on the wet floor) can now only be seen in museums.
Traditionally, the bathhouse masseurs (Turkish language: tellak) were young men who soaped and scrubbed their clients. However, the tellaks were replaced by adult attendants during the 20th century.
discusses occasional licentious activity
Women's hammams play a special role in society. Valerie Staats finds that the women's hammams of Morocco serve as a social space where traditional and modern women from urban and rural areas of the country come together, regardless of their religiosity, to bathe and socialise. The bathing regulations laid down by al-Ghazali and other Islamic intellectuals are not usually upheld in the everyday interactions of Moroccans in the hammam. Staats argues that hammams are places where women can feel more at ease than in many other public interactions. In addition, in his work Sexuality in Islam, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba cites the hammam as a place where homosexual encounters in general can take place.
He notes that some historians found evidence of hammams as spaces for sexual expression among women, which they believed was a result of the universality of nudity in these spaces. Hammams have also been associated with male homosexuality over the centuries and up to the present day.
Although there were variations across different regions and periods, the general plan and architectural principles of hammams were very similar. They consisted of a sequence of rooms which bathers visited in the same order: the changing room or undressing room (corresponding to the Roman apodyterium), the cold room (like the Roman frigidarium), the warm room (like the tepidarium), and the hot room (like the caldarium). The nomenclature for these different rooms varied from region to region. The changing room was known generally as al-mashlaḥ or al-maslakh in Arabic, or by local vernacular terms like goulsa in Fez (Morocco) and maḥras in Tunisia, whereas it was known as the camekân in Turkish language and the sarbineh in Persian language. The cold room was known as the bayt al-barid in al-Andalus, el-barrani in Fez, bayt awwal in Cairo, and soğukluk in Turkish. The warm room or intermediate room was known as bayt al-wastani in al-Andalus and many other regions, as el-wasti in Fez, as bīt əs-skhūn in Tunis, and as ılıklık in Turkish. The hot room was called the bayt al-sakhun in al-Andalus, ad-dakhli in Fez, harara in Cairo, garmkhaneh in Persian, and hararet or sıcaklık in Turkish.
The main chambers of the hammam were usually covered with vaulted or domed ceilings, giving them a distinctive profile. The domes and vaults of the steam rooms (especially the hot room) were usually pierced with small holes or which provided natural light during the day while allowing excess steam to escape. The ceiling and walls were clad with steam-proof materials such as varnished plaster or (for the lower walls and floors) marble. The vestibule, or changing room, was often one of the most highly decorated chambers, featuring a central fountain surrounded by benches. In Ottoman baths, the main changing room often offered multi-level wooden galleries giving access to smaller changing rooms. Toilets or were often included in the complex. Most historic hammams made use of some version or derivation of the Roman hypocaust underfloor system for heating. A furnace or set of furnaces were located in a service room behind the walls of the hot room and set at a lower level than the steam rooms. The furnaces were used to heat water (usually in a large cauldron above them) which was then delivered to the steam rooms. At the same time, hot air and smoke from the furnaces was channeled through pipes or conduits under the floor of the steam rooms, thus heating the rooms, before rising through the walls and out the chimneys. As hot water was constantly needed, they were kept burning throughout the hours of operation. Although wood was continuously needed for fuel, some hammams, such as those in Morocco, Turkey and Damascus, also made use of recycled organic materials from other industries such as wood shavings from Carpentry' workshops and olive pits from the olive presses.
Some hammams were "double" hammams, having separate facilities for women and men. Several of Istanbul's larger hammams were like this, including the Bayezid II Hamam and the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam. Unusually for Morocco, the Hammam Saffarin in Fes is another example.
The hot room ( hararet or sıcaklık) was usually the focus of the richest architectural embellishments. Its layout typically consisted of a central domed space flanked by up to four iwans to form a four-iwan layout. The corners between these iwans are often occupied by smaller domed chambers, or halvets, which were used for private bathing. The center was usually occupied by a large heated marble table ( göbektaşı or navel stone) for customers to lie on.
An early example (partially destroyed now) were the 10th-century Caliphal Baths which were attached to the Umayyad royal palace of Cordoba (later turned into the Christian Alcazar) and later expanded by the Almohads (12th to early 13th centuries). Other notable examples of preserved Andalusian baths include the Bañuelo of Granada, the Arab Baths of Ronda, the Arab Baths of Jaén, and the baths in the Alcazar of Jerez de la Frontera. The Alhambra of Granada also contains two preserved bathhouses: a small one near its main mosque, and a much more lavish one attached to the Comares Palace.
It's sometimes difficult to identify hammams from the outside but the roof has a series of characteristic domes that indicate the different chambers. They often occupy irregularly shaped plots to fit into the dense urban fabric. They are significant sites of culture and socialisation as they are integrated into city life in proximity to mosques, (schools) and (markets). Magda Sibley, an expert on Islamic public baths, wrote that many specialists in Islamic architecture and urbanism found the hammams to be second in importance only to the mosques as the most significant buildings in Islamic Medina quarter (historic cities).
Several medieval hammams also survive in and around Tlemcen today, including the Hammam al-Sabbaghin (late 11th or 12th century), the Hammam al-Bali in nearby Nedroma (12th century), and the Hammam Sidi Bu Madyan which, along with the baths of the ruined Dar al-Sultan nearby, belonged to the 14th century complex of Sidi Bu Madyan. The first two examples have a floor plan arranged around two Orthogonality axes and a large central warm room occupying the center, while those of the Sidi Bu Madyan complex are of the linear type planned around one main axis.
In Algiers, a large number of hammams were built during the Ottoman regency period (16th to early 19th centuries). A study by Nabila Chérif, published in 2009, identified nine hammam buildings that are still preserved or partly preserved in the city. The best-preserved ones are Hammam Sidi Ramdan (pre-Ottoman, possibly from the 10th or 11th centuries), Hammam Basha Sidna (circa 1550), Hammam Sirkadji (mid-17th century), Hammam al-Fitwa (mid-17th century), and Hammam Sidi 'Abd Allah (late 18th century). Apart from the older Hammam Sidi Ramdan, most of these are organized into two main sections: the cold section, which included the changing room and provided a place to rest after bathing, and the warm section, which included the heated warm and hot rooms. The hot room is generally much larger than the warm room and is centrally-planned, consisting of a square room covered by a dome, with a platform for massages in the center and various private alcoves around the edges.
According to many historians, Aleppo was home to 177 medieval hammams before the Mongol invasion when many of the city's vital structures were destroyed. Until 1970, around forty hammams were still operating. In 2010, before the start of the Syrian War, roughly eighteen hammams still operated in the ancient part of the city. Alepo hammams Notable examples included:
Today, the cultural practice of visiting hammams has significantly receded in Egypt. Cairo contained an estimated 77 operational hammams at the beginning of the 19th century, but only 33 were operating in 1969 and only eight were still operating at the start of the 21st century, with many others abandoned or neglected. Of the few still functioning hammams, many are also in precarious condition and scholars have indicated that they are likely to disappear or stop functioning in the near future. A few hammams, mainly in the neighbourhoods of Islamic Cairo, have been restored or earmarked for restoration as historic monuments, including the Sultan Inal Hammam, the monumental but ruined hammam of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad (behind the al-Mu'ayyad Mosque), the Hammam al-Gamaliyya (in the Gamaliya neighbourhood), the Hammam al-Sinaniya (in Boulaq), and the Hammam al-Sukariya (in Al-Darb al-Ahmar).
After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Istanbul became a centre of Ottoman architectural patronage. The city's oldest hammams include the Tahtakale Hamam (built soon after 1453), the Mahmut Pasha Hamam (built in 1466 and part of the Mahmut Pasha Mosque complex), the Gedik Ahmet Pasha Hamam (built in 1475), the Bayezid II Hamam (built some time between 1500 and 1507), and the Küçük Mustafa Pasha Hamam (built before 1512 near the Gül Mosque).
Several major hammams in the city were designed by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in the 16th century. These include the Çinili Hamam (built in 1545 in the Zeyrek), the Süleymaniye Hammam (part of the Süleymaniye Mosque complex built in 1550–1557), the Mihrimah Sultan Hamam (part of the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque complex built in 1562–1565), the Kılıç Ali Pasha Hamam (part of the Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex completed in 1580), as well as a lesser-known but architecturally interesting hammam in Ortaköy.
The Çemberlitaş Hamam (on Divanyolu Street in the Çemberlitaş neighbourhood), completed in 1584 or earlier, is also attributed to Mimar Sinan. The largest hammam designed by Sinan is the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam which was commissioned by Süleyman I's consort, Hurrem Sultan, and completed in 1556 on the site of the historical Baths of Zeuxippus for the religious community of the nearby Hagia Sophia. Outside Istanbul, Sinan also designed the Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Hamam in Edirne around 1568–1569. Among the hammams built after the 16th century one of the most famous is the Cağaloğlu Hamam, finished in 1741 and one of the last major hammams to be built in Istanbul.Turkey also has a number of which have been developed as public baths for centuries. The Eski Kaplıca ("Old Spa") of Bursa, built by Sultan Murad I (ruled 1360–1389), and the nearby Yeni ("New") Kaplıca built by Rüstem Pasha in 1552, are two of the most notable examples and are still used today. Several older hot-spring baths were also built by the Seljuks in the 13th century and the Aq Qoyunlu in the late 14th century, some of which are still operating today. Although far fewer in number than in the past, many Turkish hammams still operate today. With the growth in tourism, some have been restored or modernised recently with differing degrees of historical authenticity. Other hammam buildings have ceased functioning as public baths but have been repurposed as markets or cultural venues, as for example the Tahtakale Hamam in Istanbul which contains shops and cafes, the Hoca Paşa Hamam in Istanbul which is used for performances by whirling dervishes, the Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı in Istanbul which is used for art exhibitions, and the Orhan Bey Hamam in Bursa which is part of the Covered Bazaar. In some cases hamam buildings have been turned into storage depots or factories, though this has usually led to neglect and damage to their historic fabric.
the Old City, the building of baths continued over the years. The Yeraltı Hammam is said to have been built in the 17th century and, like others, is located underground, helping to maintain steady temperatures inside. The 18th century Agha Mikayil Bath near the fortress gates, is the oldest hammam still open in Baku and is one of the few with women's days. Its four central pillars allow large square bathrooms with pointed arches, covered with a variety of cupolas and domes. Another 19th century bath, the Agha Zeynal Hammam, is atypical in that it is housed in a residential building, although the interior maintains the more traditional layout." Relax at Baku’s traditional hammams". Meeting Azerbaijan. Retrieved 1 May 2024. In the centre of Baku, the Tazabay Hammam was built in 1886 in Islamic style, though with separate rooms. It was fully 'restored' in 2003 and currently has many additional modern facilities, such as manicure and three saunas, which help to make it popular with tourists while still attracting local residents.
other important 19th century hammams are to be found in northwestern Azerbaijan in Sheki, where the centre of the city was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019. The first is Dara Bathhouse which has been unusable since the 1980s, but is protected and included in the list of architectural monuments. The bath is 6 metres underground, has pools with hot and cold water, and is lit from above by small holes in the domes which cover it. The second is the Yeraltı Hammam, also known as the Underground Bath or Abdulsalam Bath. In fact, it is located within the Juma Mosque, and only part of it is 4 metres below ground. The building is no longer used as a hammam.
Delhi, Hyderabad and Bhopal in India still have multiple working Turkish baths, which date back to the Mughal period in the early 16th century.Syed Zillur Rahman, Hammam – Past and Present, Newsletter of Ibn Sina Academy 2012, Volume 12 No 1: 10–16 Two prominent examples are the Hammam-e-Qadimi and Hammam-e-Lal Qila.
In Pakistan, Shahi Hammam or the Royal Bathhouse of Lahore, located in the historic Walled City, is one of the best preserved examples of a Mughal-era hammam. It was built in 1634 by the Mughal governor of Lahore, Hakim Ilmuddin Ansari, during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan.
Elsewhere in Greece, the Abid Efendi Hamam, built between 1430 and 1669 near the Roman Forum in Athens, restored in the 1990s and converted to the Center of Documentation in Body Embellishment. In Rhodes, a double bath called the Yeni Hamam dates from the 16th century and was restored in 1992–1995. It is now one of only two Turkish baths still operating as a bathhouse in Greece.
On the Turkish side of the Cypriot border in Lefkoşa, the Büyük Hamamı dates from the same period and is still in operation for men and women.
1850, David Urquhart's travel book, The Pillars of Hercules, was published.Urquhart, David. (1850). The Pillars of Hercules, or, a narrative of travels in Spain & Morocco in 1848. (London: Bentley) This recounted his travels in Morocco and Spain in 1848. Two chapters described the hammams of Morocco and Turkey in considerable detail, and Urquhart became an advocate of what were then known in the English-speaking world as "Turkish baths" because those most often described in travel books were located in Turkey and the Ottoman Empire.
book had no direct impact on the construction of a hammam until it was read in 1856 by Dr Richard Barter, an Irish physician and Hydrotherapy. Barter, to the consternation of orthodox hydropathists, was already using the vapour bath cabinet therapeutically at St Ann's, his hydropathic establishment near Cork. He immediately realised that the bath described by Urquhart was a major improvement on his vapour cabinets. He contacted Urquhart and offered him men, money, and materials, "besides a number of patients upon whom experiments might be made", if he would visit St Ann's, and build one for their use.'Testimonial to R Barter, Esq’. Cork Constitution (7 June 1856)
This first experimental beehive-shaped bath was unsuccessful, mainly because it had not been possible to heat the air to the required high temperature. Recollections of the late Dr Barter…. (1875). (Dublin: William McGee) p.16 This is the only documented 19th century attempt to build a hammam in Western Europe, after which the attempt was abandoned.
Instead, Dr Barter sent his architect, also named Richard Barter but unrelated to him,Crosbie, Thomas (1896). 'Necrology: Richard Barter, Sculptor'. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archæological Society pp.85–88. to Rome to study how the ancient thermae were constructed there. On his return he designed and supervised the building of what has become known as the first Victorian Turkish bath—a hot-air bath using hot dry air instead of the moist air of the hammam.Metcalfe, Richard (1912) The rise and progress of hydropathy in England and Scotland (London: Simpkin, Marshall) p.130
Back in England the following year (1857), Urquhart helped build the first such bath in Manchester.Potter, William ‘The Turkish bath’ Sheffield Free Press (18 July 1857) p.3 As a Turcophile, he argued strongly for calling the new bath a Turkish bath, though others unsuccessfully maintained that it should be called an Anglo-Roman bath,Drake, Francis. (1862). The Anglo-Roman or ‘Turkish bath’: its history, proper construction, present status and various uses. (London: Ward & Lock) or as in Germany and elsewhere, the Irish,Dunlop, Durham. (1880). The philosophy of the bath. 4th ed. London: W Kent) p.176 or Irish-Roman bath.'The Irish-Roman Bath' Irish-Farmers' Gazette (1 September 1866) p.322
But all future 19th century hot-air baths in the British Isles were either based on the Irish-Roman model or later, and then only occasionally towards the end of the century, on the Russian steam bath. After Barter's initial attempt, the hammam is not recorded as appearing again in Western Europe until after World War I.
The building commemorates the many thousand Muslims who died fighting for France during World War I.Ministère de la culture (France). Mosquée de Paris et Institut musulman It was built by architects Robert Fournez, Maurice Mantout, and Charles Heubès, following the plans of Maurice Tranchant de Lunel, General Inspector of Fine Arts in Morocco. Constructed in reinforced concrete, the decorative green tiles, earthenware, mosaics, and wrought iron work come from Maghreb countries, and were fitted by craft workers from there. In 1983, the building was inscribed in the Base Mérimée, the database of French monumental and architectural heritage, created and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture.Ministère de la Culture (France). (1983) 'Mosquée de Paris et Institut musulman' POP: la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine. Retrieved 13 May 2024
The hammam was originally open at separate times for men and women.Reeves, Tom. (2010). Paris insights: an anthology (Paris: Discover Paris!) pp.35-36 It can be seen as it was in the mid-1960s, because it appears in a scene in Gérard Oury's French-British comedy film La Grande Vadrouille. La Grande Vadrouille: a film by Gérard Oury. 50th anniversary edition 2016. (London: Studio Canal). 119 mins. French with English subtitles. DVD OPTD3062 Bathers are shown being served drinks while reclining on long continuous cushioned platforms which are divided into cubicles by bead curtains. The cool wading pool in one of the hot rooms also appears.
Some time after a major refurbishment in the 2010s, the hammam's admission policy changed. It appears that the mosque authorities now lease it to a private company which runs it, for women only, as a wellness centre with beauty treatments.
It was not long before baths based on the internal appearance of the hammam, with its central area and göbek tasi (belly-stone), started appearing in European hotels, health spas, and even as standalone hammam establishments. In Spain, for example, after nearly five centuries' absence, hammams are reappearing in cities such as Cordoba, Granada, Seville, and Madrid.Peteet, Julie (2024). The hammam through time and space. Gender, culture, and politics in the Middle East. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. pp.172—173. ISBN 978-0-8156-3832-2 Drawing on centuries of mixed traditions, their signs in Spanish and English, they are promoting a new view of the hammam to a younger generation of bathers, thereby attracting both tourists and locals, a trend currently developing around the continent.
In Western world art, especially in the context of 19th-century Orientalism, the hammam is often portrayed as a place of sexual looseness, disinhibition and mystery. These Orientalist ideas paint the Arab or Turkish "other" as mystical and sensuous, lacking morality in comparison to their Western counterparts. A famous painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Le Bain Turc ("The Turkish Bath"), depicts these spaces as magical and sexual. There are several women touching themselves or one another sensually, while some dance to music played by the woman in the centre of the painting. More recently, Sylvia Sleigh, has painted a gender-reversal take on Ingres's painting. Her version also counters Ingres's orientalist fantasy brothel figures by using her husband and some of her friends as real life models in more realistic surroundings.
In Zélie Elkihel's 5 minute animation, Hammam, a French-Moroccan woman shares a memory of her first enlightening visit to a hammam when she was 12.
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