History of Eating and Drinking in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey

Abstract

This chapter offers a broad survey of the history of food and drinking culture in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey covering a time period of more than 700 years. This study aims to present changes and continuities that occurred in the Ottoman culinary culture in more than 600 years. Considering the vast territories of the Ottoman Empire encompassing modern Turkey, most of Southeastern Europe including present day Balkan region, Greece, parts of Ukraine, Middle east, North Africa as far as Algeria, and large part of Arabian Peninsula, it is not easy to make a comprehensive portrait of the food culture in all of the Ottoman territories. Istanbul, the capital city of the Empire as well as the Ottoman palace that represents a model for the rest of the empire, constitutes the subject matter of the chapter. Ottoman palace culinary culture, courtly banquets versus daily food and drinking habits of the common people, food culture in religious communities, and traditional and new table manners are the thematic topics in the chapter. Eating and drinking habits in modern Turkey reflecting a direct continuation from the Ottoman past constitutes another subject.