Pissing Off/On Istanbul: The Bachelors of Bab-ı Ali

Chris Gratien, Georgetown University

A cafe in late Ottoman Istanbul

These days if you venture between Ayasofya and the Sublime Porte in Istanbul to the Lala Hayrettin Mosque, you're likely to encounter hordes of tourists. You may even encounter some historians and graduate students making their way to the former site of the Ottoman archives just behind the gates of Bab-ı Ali. Whatever you encounter, smell will probably not rank high on your list of complaints. But this was precisely the case in this depiction we have from the 1890s, which gives a vivid olfactory description of the area.

By the late nineteenth century, Istanbul was the capital of a centralizing empire and growing rapidly. In addition to bringing many foreigners to the emerging center of the city around Pera and Galata, this growth attracted droves of single men. There were numerous aspects of the big city that drew men to the capital. Aside from economic opportunities in manufacturing and unskilled labor, the rising education, military, and government sectors all brought in guys from every corner of the empire. If a newcomer was without family or relatives in Istanbul, which was likely more common than it is today, he would typically take up residence in "bachelor rooms (bekâr odaları)." These institutions performed a function analogous to that of today's hostels and dormitories. Most of us have some understanding of a what a male dormitory bathroom is like today, so what would it have been like in the late nineteenth century? 

According to this document, the men staying in the bachelor rooms around Lala Hayrettin had made the world their bathroom, urinating in the empty lots and yards of the coffeehouses in the vicinity. The filth (taaffünat) was so foul that it was deemed a hazard to public health. Erecting a crude fence (tahta perde) around the lots was of no use, and the imam of Lala Hayrettin and the muhtar of the neighborhood had received requests from the inhabitants that something had to be done. The principal of the nearby Soğukçeşme Military High School had also filed an arzuhal regarding the nuisance. Necessary action was taken, and, in keeping with the frustratingly cryptic nature of this cliched conclusion to so many Ottoman documents, the writer did not specify what this action was. All we know is that burning Armenian paper was out of the question.

Source: BOA, DH-MKT 135/42 (7 Rebiülevvel 1311 [18 September 1893])

good smells

bad boys