Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire (22 page)

Fasting

The fourth pillar of Islam is fasting during the month of
Ramazan
(Arabic:
Ramadan)
, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, and
requires that Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoke, snuff, and sexual
activities every day from sunrise to sunset. Fasting is not obligatory for
children before the onset of puberty, people with an illness or medical
condition, nursing and pregnant women, travelers, and those fighting on the
battlefield. Despite these rules, children, pregnant women, travelers, and
soldiers in the Ottoman era fasted during the entire month.

Though the duties of the holy month are arduous, members of
all social classes in the Ottoman era observed them with exceeding devotion and
zeal, and they condemned any open and public infraction with uncommon severity.
The Venetian ambassador to Istanbul, Ottaviano Bon, reported that on one
occasion the grand vizier, Nasuh Paşa (1611–1614), who was riding on the
street, detected a drunken man who was immediately detained, and subsequently
tortured and killed when the
paşa’s
men poured boiling lead down
his throat.

Most shops remained either shut or bereft of shopkeepers.
Merchants did not buy and students did not study as the faithful chose to sleep
during the daylight hours. The mosques were brilliantly illuminated, and they
were crowded with worshippers. Cords were “slung from minaret to minaret,” to
which lamps were attached and “the rising or lowering of these cords,” produced
magical transitions. As a European visitor to the Ottoman capital observed,
these unique lamps rendered “the illuminations of Istanbul unlike those of any
European capital.”
Ramazan
is a month of self-cleansing and meditation,
and the faithful are expected to refrain from waging warfare, becoming angry,
lusting for money and sex, and making offensive or sarcastic gestures and
utterances. Purifying one’s thoughts and actions means treating fellow Muslims
with added kindness, compassion, and generosity.

As the hour of sunset approaches, people prepare themselves
for the sound of the cannon and the cry of the muezzin, calling the faithful to
prayer. The second cannon discharge signals
iftar,
or breaking of the
fast, with an evening meal that includes family and friends. The poor often ate
a large meal at once, while the rich broke the fast with a light meal — a
morsel of bread with yogurt, dates, fresh or dried fruit, especially
watermelon, sweetmeats, and
muhallabi, “
a thin jelly of milk, starch,
and rice flour,” washed down with water or lemonade. The evening prayer is
performed after breaking the fast. At times, the faithful smoked a pipe, drank
a cup of coffee or a glass of sherbet before performing the evening prayer.
Then he sat down with family and friends to the main meal.

After the meal, streets became crowded with throngs of
people. Some spent their time in a coffeehouse smoking water-pipes filled with
tobacco and listening to storytellers and singers, while others walked through
gardens, sitting in the moonlight and enjoying cakes, toasted grains, coffee,
and sugared drinks as they watched the performance of the Karagöz shadow puppet
theater. Many walked to a mosque and listened to prayers and recitations from
the local imam, while others spent part of the evening with local
dervişes
at a Sufi lodge (
tekke)
although during the holy month,
zikrs
(literally
remembrance of God), or ecstatic worship through devotional singing, were
rarely performed. The rich spent the entire night in festivities, while the
poor tried to get as much food, drink, and rest as possible because they were
obliged to work at daybreak.

Shortly before midnight came the call to prayer, at which
time the late wanderers returned home to prepare for a morning meal. In the
large urban centers such as Istanbul and Cairo, shortly after the arrival of
midnight, the cannon sounded a warning to the faithful that it was time to eat
their morning meal. In small towns and villages, drummers walked through narrow
streets and alleys warning the faithful to eat their early morning meal before
the sunrise. The morning meal was usually eaten an hour before the morning
prayer. In homes of the rich and powerful, the servants brought water for
ablution, spread the leather cloth (
sofra,
Arabic:
sufrah
) — well
tanned and generally of a yellow color bordered with black — and placed a meal
on it which at times included remnants of the evening’s meal. Then sounded the
salam,
or blessing on the prophet, an introduction to the call of morning prayer. Many
took the last puff on their pipes. A second gun was fired as a sign of
imsak,
or the order to abstain from eating and drinking. Then the faithful waited
for the call to prayer, which was followed by a ceremony called “purpose” or “intention”
(
niyet
/
niyat
). For instance, the worshipper could say to himself,
silently or audibly, that he intended to pray two bows of prayer to God. He
then proceeded with his prayers and went to sleep immediately. Different
schools of Islamic jurisprudence required different forms of
niyet.

When the month of fasting fell in winter, the wealthy
families of the Ottoman capital, particularly the women, spent much of their
time in chatting and embroidery work until “about six o’clock in the evening
when the cry of the muezzin from the minarets proclaimed that one of the out
watchers had caught a glimpse of the moon.” Instantly, the entire household
went into motion; the “preliminary arrangements” had been so “carefully made” that
not a second was lost and as a servant “announced dinner,” the entire harem
followed the matriarch of the family “to a smaller apartment,” which served as
the dining room. In the center of the square-shaped and unfurnished dining room
was “a carpet, on which stood a wooden frame, about two feet in height,
supporting an immense round plated tray, with the edge slightly raised.” In the
center of the tray “was placed a capacious white basin, filled with a kind of
cold bread soup and around it were ranged a circle of small porcelain saucers,
filled with sliced cheese, anchovies, caviars, and sweetmeats of every
description; among these were scattered spoons of box-wood, and goblets of pink
and white sherbet, whose rose-scented contents perfumed the apartment.” The
outer section of the tray “was covered with fragments of unleavened bread, torn
asunder, and portions of the Ramazan cake,” a dry paste “glazed with the whites
of eggs, and stewed over with aniseeds.”

After spreading richly fringed napkins on their laps and
munching on this starter tray, the household sat quietly as servants served
them with “fish embedded in rice,” dishes of meat and poultry, which were eaten
with fingers with each individual “fishing up, or breaking away” a piece of the
meat and handing one to the guest as a courtesy. One European observer, who was
invited to one of these sumptuous meals, counted “nineteen dishes of fish,
flesh, fowl, pastry, and creams, succeeding each other in the most
heterogeneous manner,” all culminating with “a pyramid of pilaf.” Once the meal
had been finished, water, sherbet, and coffee were served. As the family and
guests rose from the table, “a slave presented herself, holding a basin and
strainer of wrought metal, while a second poured tepid water” over everyone’s
hands “from an elegantly-formed vase of the same materials “; and a third
handed “embroidered napkins of great beauty.” Returning from the dining room to
“the principal apartment,” the family gathered to listen to a storyteller who
was invited to relieve the tedium of the long evening with her narrations.

Some among high government officials celebrated the arrival
of the holy month by opening the doors of their homes and showering their dependents
and servants with kindness and generosity. In his
Book of Travels,
Evliya
Çelebi wrote that at the beginning of
Ramazan,
his patron, Melek Ahmed
Paşa, distributed various precious goods from his treasury such as
expensive garments, vessels, weapons, armor, jeweled muskets, swords, sable
furs, and coral prayer beads to his servants and
ağas,
in return
for a complete Quran recital and their prayers and invocations. Every Monday
and Friday evening during the month, the doors of his home were opened to the
public, who were served fruit syrups and musky sweetmeats of pistachios and
almonds, while they listened to recitations of prayers from the Quran.

The sultan and his officials used
Ramazan
as an
occasion to sacrifice a variety of animals either at a mosque or at a public
place such as an open street or the main gates of the city. The meat was
distributed among ordinary people, particularly the poor and the needy.
Numerous religious ceremonies and observances also took place throughout the
holy month. On the fifteenth of
Ramazan,
the sultan and high government
officials went to pay homage to the relics of the prophet Muhammad, which they
held in great veneration. These included the prophet’s mantle, “a black woolen
jacket, measuring 124 centimeters, with wide sleeves and cream-colored wool
lining,” his flag and battle standard, the hair from his beard, a piece of his
tooth, and his footprint set in a piece of stone. The ceremonial uncovering,
display, and veneration of these relics followed the noon prayer. Though
conducted privately, the ceremony was nonetheless an occasion of great
religious significance.

Ramazan Bayrami

The end of
Ramazan
was marked with a three-day
Islamic holiday called
Ramazan Bayrami
(Ramazan Festival) or
Şeker
Bayrami
(Sugar Festival) also known in Arabic as
Eid ul-Fitr
or
Eid
us-Sagheer,
Minor Festival. The month of fasting ended and the festivities
began with the first appearance of the new moon heralding the month of
Shawwal.
At times, the
bayram
was delayed if the weather was cloudy and the new
moon did not appear in the sky. If the sky remained cloudy and the moon was
obscured, it was simply presumed that the new moon was present and the month of
fasting had ended. In Istanbul, the end of
Ramazan
was officially proclaimed
with discharging of cannons at the imperial palace. The lights and lamps on the
minarets were extinguished, and drums and trumpets were played in public places
and the homes of high government officials and court dignitaries.

Even before the arrival of the
bayram,
the sultan —
as well as the rich and powerful who surrounded him — demonstrated their
devotion, charity, and piety by distributing alms to the poor. Some families
prepared a variety of dishes and sent them to their neighbors, as well as to the
poor and the needy. In the courtyards of the main mosques, markets were set up
to sell meat, fruits, vegetables, sweets, clothing, fabrics, candles, toys, and
a host of other popular goods. On the first day of
Shawwal,
the tenth
month in the Islamic calendar, came the
Ramazan
celebration.

At the palace, the entrance leading to the apartments of
the chief eunuch, who commanded the royal pages, was adorned with rich carpets,
cushions, and furniture. A few hours before daybreak, the grand vizier and
other high officials and court dignitaries assembled at the palace, where
shortly after sunrise the sultan mounted his horse and rode passed his
officials to attend prayers at Aya Sofya. After performing his prayers, the
sultan returned to the palace and entered the royal chamber, where he sat on the
throne with the grand vizier standing on his right and the chief eunuch
standing on his left. The sons of the Han of Crimea, who lived as hostages at
the Ottoman court, were the first to wish the sultan a happy
bayram
as
they kissed the hem of his sleeve. To show his respect for them, the sultan
walked three paces to meet them. Once the Tatar princes had retired, the grand
vizier followed by kneeling in front of the sultan, kissing the hem of the
sleeve of his royal master, and wishing him, on behalf of the entire
government, happy and healthy festivities. After the grand vizier, the
şeyhülislam
led a delegation of religious dignitaries such as the
kadiaskers
(the
highest religious judges under
şeyhülislam
), and the prominent
Muslim scholars and preachers. The
şeyhülislam
approached the
sultan, bowed his head to the ground, and, holding his hand on his girdle,
kissed the sultan on the left shoulder. To express his respect for the
religious establishment, the sultan walked one step forward to meet the
şeyhülislam.

Once these high dignitaries had expressed their wishes for
a happy
bayram,
the sultan returned to his throne. Other high officials
and dignitaries then followed as the grand vizier called out their names. The
last to appear was always the commander of the janissary corps. With the end of
this ceremony, the sultan retired to his harem, where the four principal pages
responsible for the royal chambers (privy, treasury, larder, and campaign),
followed by the chief eunuch and other pages, wished their royal master a happy
bayram.
Meanwhile, a sumptuous dinner was served in the divan for the
grand vizier, his ministers, and other state dignitaries. The ceremony
concluded after dinner, when the sultan presented a sable vest as a gift to
each high government official. When the dignitaries had retired, the royal
harem, including the mother and wives of the sultan, visited him to offer their
homage and best wishes.