Imaret

Imaret, sometimes also known as a darüzziyafe,^[2] is one of a few names used to identify the public soup kitchens built throughout the Ottoman Empire from the 14th to the 19th centuries.^[3] These public kitchens were often part of a larger complex known as a külliye, which could include hospices, mosques, caravanserais and colleges. The imarets gave out food that was free of charge to specific types of people and unfortunate individuals.^[3] Imarets were not invented by the Ottomans but developed under them as highly structured groups of buildings.^[4]

Etymology

The Turkish word imaret comes from Arabic 'imāra, which signified "habitation and cultivation" or "the act of building, making habitable".^[5] The shift of the word's meaning to denote a religious complex or a public kitchen appears to be unique to the Ottoman context.^[6]

History

According to historian Amy Singer, the imaret is an institution that is "perhaps unique to the Ottomans in its proliferation and purpose."^[5] It was found throughout the Ottoman Empire and did not exist in the same manner elsewhere.^[7] The distribution of food to the public masses in times of emergency was known in the Middle East before the Ottomans, but the regular distribution of food on a large scale was not. Some exceptions to this existed in certain holy cities, namely Mecca, Medina, and Hebron. In Hebron, the simat al-Khalil ("table of Abraham") was a guesthouse that provided daily food to all visitors to the city, a practice going back centuries and described by 11th-century writer Nasir Khusraw.^[8] Mecca and Medina also had measures in place for the regular distribution of grain since at least the Mamluk period (13th to early 16th centuries).^[8] These examples may have inspired later Ottoman rulers.^[9]

Doğan Kuban notes that in early Ottoman architecture the term imaret was employed more flexibly to denote an entire religious complex (like a külliye), typically with a zaviye at its center – a religious building that catered to Sufi brotherhoods. This term appears in the original waqf documents of these complexes.^[10] The Nilüfer Hatun complex in Iznik, for example, is called an "imaret" but consists of a large zaviye used for Sufi religious activities.^[10] In later periods, the term imaret came to denote more strictly a public kitchen. Late Ottoman sources referred to earlier imaret-zaviye buildings as mosques, regardless of what their waqf documents said (also reflecting the fact that many zaviyes had been converted to formal mosques by then).^[10]

The first few imarets were built in Iznik and Bursa in the 1330s.^[9] After the first couple of centuries, the number of imarets grew in the cities as the religious complexes founded by the sultans expanded in size. By the 1530s, there were 83 imarets in the Ottoman Empire.^[9] Amy Singer estimates there were around 100 imarets by the end of the beginning of the 17th century.^[11]

Imarets and other religious complexes served as community centres of their neighbourhoods. Many such complexes were built throughout the Ottoman Empire, but especially in the central areas of Ottoman rule such as the Balkans (known as Rumelia) and Anatolia, including the capitals cities of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul.^[12] It is estimated that by the end of the 18th century, the imarets in Istanbul were feeding up to 30,000 people a day.^[13]

Today, the only Ottoman imaret still serving its original charitable function is the Mihrişah Sultan Complex in the Eyüp neighbourhood of Istanbul, which dates from 1796 and was founded by Mihrişah Sultan, the mother of Sultan Selim III.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Function

Charity

Imarets served many different types of people and came to be seen as "charitable and beneficent work".^[17] They were philanthropic institutions because they were established as part of voluntary beneficence, which was considered charity in Muslim law. In addition, distribution of food was seen as charitable work in and of itself. Imarets belong to a particular category of voluntary charity, known as sadaqa.^[17] Sadaqa as voluntary charity could take many forms, including a prayer or a blessing for the sick and disabled, or a selfless act, all contributed towards good deeds in Ottoman society.^[18]

Imarets established by sultans and members of the imperial household were icons of charitable donations as well as imperial power.^[19] Each institution was named after the founder; these places could not maintain the connection between those who provided charity and those who received it, as established in private homes. The imarets and the imperial household created connections to the Ottoman dynasty as a whole and the legitimacy of the empire.^[19] The public kitchen illustrated how the Ottoman Empire was able to provide benefits for different sectors of people within the empire.

Endowment

A waqf (vakıf in Turkish) is an "Islamic trust" that was instrumental in establishing imarets and other religious or charitable establishments within the Muslim world.^[20] The waqf was a legal mechanism that earmarked sources of revenue to endow mosques, soup kitchens, and hospitals.^[21]^[22] This enabled the sultan and other wealthy benefactors to fund essential services to citizens.

Distribution

The importance of food in the imaret has strong implications of generosity because it demonstrates the distribution of food by wealthy people to meet the needs of neighbours, fellow families, and servants. The different types of people fed in the imarets were divided along the lines of class and profession, but there were those who came to imarets as regular recipients and travellers on the move.^[23] Nonetheless, imarets were strictly-run establishments that carefully evaluated and observed the movement of people and the benefits they received from eating there. Although food was distributed to different types of people, strict regulations defined who ate, what they ate, how many portions they ate, and in what order.^[24]

At the Haseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, for example, employees would receive one ladle of soup and two loaves of bread, guests of the establishment would receive one ladle of soup and one loaf of bread, and the poor and the sufis would received one half ladle of soup and one loaf of bread per meal.^[25] People also entered and ate in shifts: employees first, guests second, and the poor last. Sufis enjoyed the privilege of being allowed to send someone to collect the food on their behalf and bring it back to them. Everyone else had to eat within the imaret.^[25]

The Süleymaniye complex in Istanbul has strict regulations on removing food from the imaret, but these regulations were not the same at every imaret in other places.^[26] At times there were strangers who came to imarets with buckets to collect food to take home, but these people were not on the approved list or recipients, which meant they could not take food away.^[26] Poor people who were scholars or disabled were an exception to this rule and received food that was taken to them.^[26] People who belonged to a low economic status ate with people of the same social class as them. In addition, because there was such a wide distribution of food to various citizens of the Ottoman Empire, sometimes there would be an inadequate amount of food remaining after the notable people were fed. In this case, at times, poor women and children would go unfed.^[27]

Foods

A special menu was concocted for holidays and other special days on the Ottoman calendar. These special meals were based on ceremonial staples that were enjoyed across the empire. On occasional events everyone was entitled to dishes such as "dane (mutton and rice) and zerde (rice coloured and flavoured with saffron and sweetened with honey or sugar)."^[28] On regular days, the food served in imarets changed seasonally. The morning meal consisted of rice soup that contained butter, chickpeas, onions, and salt. The evening meal consisted of a crushed wheat soup that was made with butter.^[28]

Notable examples

The first institution of this kind is said to have been founded in 1336, by Sultan Orhan I, in Iznik, Anatolia. Ever since, such imarets became an inseparable part of the urban landscape in most of the Muslim cities of the Ottoman Empire.^[29]

Hurrem Sultan, a wife of Suleiman I, established the Haseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem in the mid 16th century. It distributed around 1,000 loaves of bread daily. The recipients of bread and soup included employees, people living in the caravansarai of the imaret, the followers of a local sufi shaykh, and 400 people characterized as "poor and wretched, weak and needy."^[30] This imaret ended up becoming one of the largest and best known throughout the empire, serving a wide variety of people, including the ulama, the poor, pilgrims and the wealthy and prominent members of Jerusalem.^[31]

Another institution was the Fatih Mosque complex that was constructed in Istanbul between 1463 and 1471 by Mehmed II the Conqueror. The imaret located within this complex served a diverse group of people including dignitaries, travelers, scholars, and students from the Fatih colleges.^[24] The hospital staff members and the workers of the mosques and tombs were also fed in this complex. Once these people were fed, the food left over was given to the poor. Similar to other imarets, the Fatih imaret served rice soup in the morning and wheat soup in the evening.^[24] Travellers who stayed overnight at the hotel within the complex received honey and bread to help revitalise them after a long journey.^[32] The Fatih complex provided meals for over 160 high-ranking guests. They received meals such as dane and sometimes zerde as well.^[32] These dishes were given to the other members of the imaret only once a week. Those who were noble in rank were treated to dishes that included pumpkin jam, cinnamon and cloves. They also ate considerable portions of meat and rice.^[32]

References

Citations

^ Rüstem 2019, pp. 70–73.
^ Singer 2005, p. 481; Kuban 2010, pp. 681 and elsewhere.
^ a b Singer 2005, p. 481.
^ Singer 2005, p. 306.
^ a b Singer, Amy (2013). "Evilya Çelebi on 'imarets". In Wasserstein, David J.; Ayalon, Ami (eds.). Mamluks and Ottomans: Studies in Honour of Michael Winter. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-57917-2.
^ Singer, Amy (2012). Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem. State University of New York Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-7914-8876-8.
^ Singer 2005, pp. 492–493.
^ a b Singer 2005, p. 493.
^ a b c Singer 2005, p. 494.
^ a b c Kuban 2010, p. 88.
^ Singer 2005, pp. 494–495.
^ Kuran 1996, p. 114.
^ Kuran 2001, p. 850.
^ Rüstem 2019, p. 254.
^ Goodwin 1971, p. 410-411.
^ AA, Daily Sabah with (2016-02-01). "Istanbul's historic public kitchen makes life easier for refugees and the homeless". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
^ a b Singer 2006, p. 313.
^ Singer 2006, p. 316.
^ a b Singer 2006, p. 322.
^ Kuran 2001, p. 842.
^ Ghazaleh, Pascale (2011). Held in Trust: Waqf in the Islamic World. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–2 (and after). ISBN 978-977-416-393-7.
^ Singer, Amy (2012-02-01). "Charity's Legacies: Reconsideration of Ottoman Imperial Endowment-Making". In Bonner, Michael; Ener, Mine; Singer, Amy (eds.). Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts. State University of New York Press. pp. 304 (and others). ISBN 978-0-7914-8676-4.
^ Singer 2006, p. 312.
^ a b c Singer 2005, p. 487.
^ a b Singer 2005, pp. 486–487.
^ a b c Singer 2006, p. 310.
^ Singer 2005, p. 498.
^ a b Singer 2005, p. 486.
^ Peri 1992, p. 2.
^ Singer 2006, p. 311.
^ Peri 1992, p. 173.
^ a b c Singer 2005, p. 488.

Bibliography

Goodwin, Godfrey (1971). A History of Ottoman Architecture. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27429-0.
Kuban, Doğan (2010). Ottoman Architecture. Translated by Mill, Adair. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 9781851496044.
Kuran, Aptullah (1996). "A Spatial Study of Three Ottoman Capitals: Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul". Muqarnas. 13.
Kuran, Timur (2001). "The Provision of Public Goods under Islamic Law: Origins, Impact, and Limitations of the Waqf System". Law and Society Review. 35 (4): 841–898.
Peri, Oded (1992). "Waqf and Ottoman Welfare Policy. "The Poor Kitchen of Hasseki Sultan in Eighteenth- Century Jerusalem."". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 35 (2): 167–186.
Rüstem, Ünver (2019). Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691181875.
Singer, Amy (2006). "Soup and 'Sadaqa:' Charity in Islamic Societies". Historical Research. 79 (205): 306–324.
Singer, Amy (2005). "Serving up Charity: The Ottoman Public Kitchen". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 35 (3): 481–500. JSTOR 3657036.