Turkish bath
For Qatari businessman and football functionary see Mohamed bin Hammam.
A hamam ( حمام, DMG Hammam ) - German and Turkish hammam letters - is a steam bath, which can especially in the Arab world, will take place in Iranian culture and in Turkey and that is an important part of the Islamic bath and body culture. It is also known under the name " Turkish Bath" or " Oriental Bad".
The hamam is a Turkish bath, which is usually made of marble with a circular lawn area in the center of the room, the navel stone, there is. Public hammams be used separately by gender: There are either separate premises available or the amount of time the women and men are different. In plants, the hotel hamam can usually be attended together. The visitor puts a special towel ( Pestemal ) as a loincloth. Are located on the walls sink with hot and cold water, with which you either own poured over regularly, or you can be a " Tellak " ( lifeguard and masseur ) wash. To this end, a cotton bag is soaped, filled by swinging with air, closed manually and striped foam from the fabric on the body. Often, massages and scrubs are offered at an additional cost. When peeling the skin is rubbed off by rubbing with the so-called " Kese ", a rough glove Wild silk or goat hair, under strong pressure.
In addition to cleaning and sweating is also done in the hammams much for beauty care. The men take advantage of the relaxed atmosphere, to shave, women epilate to the entire body ( in Islam is the removal of axillary and pubic hair duty ) or dye their hair.
After visiting the hot steam room, a phase of rest and relaxation follows in a cooler room.
The hamam is a further development of the Greco- Roman baths that have used the Byzantines. Later it took over the Arabs. The first hammams in the Islamic world were built in the Middle Ages in Jordan.
Medical effects
The visit of a Turkish steam bath can increase subjective well-being, can counteract muscle tension and stimulates the circulation of the skin. The aging is retarded.
People with inflammation, with acute infectious diseases, with cardiovascular diseases, with vein thrombosis or varicose veins is discouraged from visiting a hamam, a sauna, a steam bath or Banja.
Europeans in the hamam
Very vividly Helmuth von Moltke in Under the Crescent describes his first visit to a hamam:
" They suggested me to go to the hammam or Turkish bath ( ... ) We entered a wide tall building in the middle of a fountain splashed (...) I did not feel the slightest temptation to store only the smallest piece of my toilet; Moreover, I saw no bathtub (...) The lifeguard on duty, who was reading in our faces questionable, led us into a second vault in which was already a pretty decent heat. Here you meant us by signs, that we want to undress; one winds up half silk blue scarf around her waist and gets a towel as a turban around the head, which is believed that he is not shaved by accident. After this garment was pushed us into a third vaulted hall, the marble floor was so strongly heated that one could enter it only on wooden clogs ( Galendschi ). Under the center of the dome (...), a two-foot high plateau rises with marble, jasper, porphyry and richly designed Agat, on which one stretches as comfortable. The Telektschi or lifeguard on duty now falls to a very peculiar procedure. The whole body is rubbed and all the muscles stretched and pressed. The man kneels on a chest or running at the knuckle of the thumb on the spine; all limbs, fingers and even the neck he brings by a slight manipulation to crack. (...) It now goes to the small, still more heated cells surrounding the great hall. Here gushing clear water in marble basins, namely will, from two taps, hot and cold. The patient is then subjected to the same procedure as the Turkish horse while grooming, namely by the warden pulls a small bag made of goat hair on the right hand and thus the whole body passes over persistent. However, this is a thorough cleaning, and one might say that one has never been washed before has not taken a Turkish bath. The Telektschi now appears anew with a large bowl of fragrant lather. Using a large Quastes from the fibers of palm bark, he lathers his man from head to foot, hair, face, everything, and with true pleasure poured then the cold water over the head, chest and abdomen. (...) We are now stretched out in the hall so comfortable way, as we saw it from the Turks. "
The Swabian preachers Schweigger Salomon (1551-1622), in his travel diary from 1608 pointed his experiences in an Istanbul hamam:
" In the middle of vast bathhouses a low oven, a Schuch is high, marble stone, prescribed for sweating, then there the Hitz is the greatest. Once a hineinkompt, he sets out on this stove. There cometh a Badknecht, the umbfahet him, he dislocates his body back and forth, as if he wanted him in one another up the body, likewise it dehnet him the limbs, Arm, Hands and legs, as if he wanted to wrestle with him. (...) The men have special baths and the women also special. They cover themselves in Baden finely modest and ehrbarlich and not as shameful as the Germans. (...) But you knüfpen a blue linen cloth mod the hip that goes twice herumb and goes down to the bottom down; So that we Christians in this case should learn discipline and respectability of these Barbaris. "
A hamam played a central role in the 1997 Italian film produced Hamam - The Turkish Bath.
In Japan, the brothel type " soapland " was formerly known as " Turkish Bath".
Bride hamam
The Turkish Bath also plays an important role in social life, for example, in the tradition of the Turkish wedding. Especially for the women's bathroom was a place for socializing and fun. Here the girls were regarded by the female relatives of a potential groom and selected brides and also spent a day during the wedding reception. Terms such as " damat Hamamı " ( Bräutigamsbad ), " gelin Hamamı " ( Brautbad ), " loğusa Hamamı " ( Wöchnerinnenbad ) and " kırk Hamamı " ( the bathroom 40 days after birth) refer to traditions and ceremonies around the bathroom.
Hamam in Germany
Meanwhile, the hamam has also established itself in Germany. However, one must distinguish between two forms: On the one hand offer the original hamam and on the other features saunas, steam baths and other various swimming pools and spa baths and gyms, which ( among other things ) and a hamam. The hammams are to be found in some German cities.