Istanbul wine-taverns as public places in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Abstract

This thesis is on the roles of wine-taverns as public places in Istanbul during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It examines the place of wine-taverns in the larger context of public places and their functions in everyday life. Literature on public places in early modern Ottoman cities mostly revolves around coffeehouses and tends to represent wine-taverns as marginal places. However, this study questions this perception and attempts to show that in terms of their locations, the services they offered and the diversity of their clients, wine-taverns had a great deal in common with coffeehouses and bozahanes. In addition, by comparing state policies on wine-taverns with those on coffeehouses and bozahanes, the thesis argues that the state produced a common reaction to these places in order to prevent public disorder and transgressions such as drinking wine and prostitution.