The Illuminated Table, the Prosperous House Food and Shelter in Ottoman Material Culture

The Illuminated Table, the Prosperous House brings together fourteen articles by researchers from Turkey and a number of European countries such as France, Germany and Poland. These articles deal with two of the major aspects of material culture, namely food and drink on the one hand, and housing on the other. In no society is it indifferent how people eat and drink, dress and dwell; to the contrary these matters are always highly charged on the symbolic level. Ottoman society had achieved a high degree of coherence in many of its aspects, including material culture. Viewed from the opposite angle, this common material culture may count as one of the indicators that made the empire''s remarkably uniform social structure apparent even to the casual viewer. From Sarajevo to Damascus, coffee was drunk from the same kinds of cups, while everywhere, people received their friends seated on raised platforms decked out with rugs and cushions. Moreover the slow and therefore less obvious changes in material culture often had a more profound impact on people''s lives than short-term and more ''noisy'' political conflicts. The transition of the Ottomans from the world of early modern statehood toward modernity was backed up by multiple transformations in the everyday lives of many men and women. Overall, the urban populations of the empire from the sixteenth century onwards developed an increasing degree of sophistication and differentiation in their ways of living. People found new ways of enjoying their food, putting together their domestic environments or presenting themselves in public. During the last few decades the various remnants of Ottoman material life have attracted growing public attention. Ottoman cuisine and vernacular architecture are cherished not only by experts, but also by Turkish urban dwellers increasingly proud of their cultural heritage, to say nothing of tourists. But even so, serious research in these matters has been slow to develop. It is the aim of the present volume to show what avenues research has taken to date, point out the numerous unexploited or under-exploited primary sources and thus to advance our understanding of this important aspect of Ottoman history. The Illuminated Table, the Prosperous House brings together fourteen articles by researchers from Turkey and a number of European countries such as France, Germany and Poland. These articles deal with two of the major aspects of material culture, namely food and drink on the one hand, and housing on the other. In no society is it indifferent how people eat and drink, dress and dwell; to the contrary these matters are always highly charged on the symbolic level. Ottoman society had achieved a high degree of coherence in many of its aspects, including material culture. Viewed from the opposite angle, this common material culture may count as one of the indicators that made the empire''s remarkably uniform social structure apparent even to the casual viewer. From Sarajevo to Damascus, coffee was drunk from the same kinds of cups, while everywhere, people received their friends seated on raised platforms decked out with rugs and cushions. Moreover the slow and therefore less obvious changes in material culture often had a more profound impact on people''s lives than short-term and more ''noisy'' political conflicts. The transition of the Ottomans from the world of early modern statehood toward modernity was backed up by multiple transformations in the everyday lives of many men and women. Overall, the urban populations of the empire from the sixteenth century onwards developed an increasing degree of sophistication and differentiation in their ways of living. People found new ways of enjoying their food, putting together their domestic environments or presenting themselves in public. During the last few decades the various remnants of Ottoman material life have attracted growing public attention. Ottoman cuisine and vernacular architecture are cherished not only by experts, but also by Turkish urban dwellers increasingly proud of their cultural heritage, to say nothing of tourists. But even so, serious research in these matters has been slow to develop. It is the aim of the present volume to show what avenues research has taken to date, point out the numerous unexploited or under-exploited primary sources and thus to advance our understanding of this important aspect of Ottoman history.