Article | The Coffeehouses in Istanbul

Mavi Boncuk | The Cofeehouse That Looks for Its Past 

 Popular literature about the coffee houses in Istanbul are mostly in Turkish and it is part of the nostalgia trend in recent years. There are many books about the nostalgia for the private daily life of Istanbul. These include the memoirs of authors from the late 1800s and early 1900s like Ali Rıza Bey, Abdülaziz Bey and Mehmet Tevik. In this mythical historytelling style have a central role in the nostalgic Istanbul’s sociologically interlayered structure. Burçak Evren’s Cofee houses of Old Istanbul, Taha Toros’s Story of Cofee, Levent Kavas’s Cofee and Narghile are books that either created the trend or came to be as the byproducts of this trend. Of course, before this recent increase in popularity, there were pioneering studies about coffeehouses concerning their many features, but they were repetitive and, without methodology non-systematic. For example, the article “Cofee and Cofeehouses in Turkey” written in 1962 by A. Süheyl Ünver and published in Turkish Etnography Magazine[1], is a collection of documents about cofeehouses.2 Salah Birsel’s Cofee Book, Reşat Ekrem Koçu’s “Cofeehouses of Istanbul”, Osman Cemal Kaygılı’s "The Semai" Coffeehouses and Public Concerts of Istanbul, Tahir Alangu’s "The Bully" Literature and Essays on Musical Cofee houses are also publications as such. Almost every one or two paged article that appear on magazines, newspapers and brochures, are written in reference to these publications. On the other hand, academic literature about coffee houses appears as a byproduct of cultural history and social history. 3 The “public place” debates that follow the translation of Habermas’s Structural Transformation of Public Places to English in 1989, has an important role in making the coffee houses a popular subject to study. Thus, coffeehouse studies are considered to be a part of social science oriented historical and cultural studies, rather than ‘traditional’ historical studies. Actual concepts of sociology, politics and anthropology such as public places, sociability, social control, legends, public opinion, government’s mentality and surveillance, frequently appear in theses and relevant works about coffee houses. Studies about Ottoman cofeehouses are quite new. In both academic and popular literature core subjects about cofee are, arguments about cofee in general, the coffee ban and closing down of coffee houses, government control over coffee houses, lit erature fans that spend their time in coffee houses as well as the social buildup inand around coffee houses. These topics donot involve more than the self evident and direct information about the coffee houses. Especially in master theses, studies involving coffee houses are deepened, so as to reveal the past of coffee house based on both archive information and recent arguments about social sciences.

Source: The Coffeehouses in Istanbul (İstanbul Kahvehaneleri) Ahmet Yaşar

2012, From the Coffeehouses in Istanbul. İstanbul: Kültür AŞ,

[1] A. Süheyl Ünver, “Türkiye’de Kahve ve Kahvehaneler”,Türk Etnografa Dergisi, 1963, c. V, 39-84.

All Endnotes

1 Osmanlı kahvehaneleriyle ilgili daha geniş bir literatür değerlendirmesi için bkz. Ahmet Yaşar, “Osmanlı Şehir Mekânları: Kahvehane Literatürü”, TALID-Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi, Vol. 3 Güz , No. 6, 2005, 237–256.

2 A. Süheyl Ünver, “Türkiye’de Kahve ve Kahvehaneler”, Türk Etnografa Dergisi, 1963, c. V, 39-84.

3 Osmanlı Kahvehaneleri ile ilgili mevcut akademik birikimi bir araya getiren derleme bir çalışma için bkz. Ahmet Yaşar (ed.),

Osmanlı Kahvehaneleri: Mekân, Sosyalleşme, İktidar, İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2009.

4 Öne çıkan tez çalışmaları için bkz. Cengiz Kırlı, “The Struggle Over Space: Cofeehouses of Ottoman Istanbul, 1780-1845”,

Doktora Tezi, The State University of New York at Binghamton, 2000; Uğur Kömeçoğlu, “Historical and Sociological Approach

to Public Space: The Case of Islamic Cofeehouses in Turkey”, Doktora Tezi, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, 2001; Ahmet Yaşar, “The Coffeehouses in Early Modern Istanbul: Public Space, Sociability and Surveillance”, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, 2003.

Serdar Öztürk, Cumhuriyet Türkiyesinde Kahvehane ve İktidar (1930-1945), İstanbul: Kırmızı Yayınları, 2006.

5 Ralph S. Hattox, Cofee and Cofeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East, Seattle ve Londra: University of Washington Press, 1985.

6 Tarihçi İbrahim Peçevi; bu bilgileri, ilk kahvehanelerin İstanbul’da açılmasından yaklaşık bir yüzyıl sonra kaydetmektedir.

Devrinin bakışıyla dile getirdiği bu anlatıyı, tarihî gerçek olarak kabul edebilmek zor gözükmektedir. Nitekim Hafız Hüseyin

Ayvansarayî’nin ilk kahvehanelere ilişkin tarih düşürdüğü mısraa (“Kahvehâne mahall-i eğlence”) göre; ilk kahvehaneler, 1551

tarihînde açılmıştır: Hafız Hüseyin Ayvansarayî, Mecmuâ-yı Tevârih, F. Ç. Derin ve V. Çabuk (haz.), İstanbul: Türk Tarih Kurumu,

1985, s. 429. Tarihçi Mustafa Ali’ye göre ise, ilk kahvehaneler 1553 tarihlidir: Mustafa Ali bin Ahmet, Gelibolulu Mustafa Ali ve

Mevaidün-nefais fi kavaidil-mecalis, Mehmet Şeker (haz.), Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1997, s. 363. İlk kahvehanenin tam olarak

ne zaman ve nerede açıldığı müphem olmasına rağmen, ilk kahvehanelerin 1550’lerin başlarında İstanbul’un şehir yaşamına

dâhil olduğu muhakkaktır.

7 Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Tableau General de l’empire Ottoman, c. IV, Paris, 1788, 76.

8 Kırlı, “The Struggle Over Space: Cofeehouses of Ottoman Istanbul, 1780-1845”, 282.

9 Mühimme Defterleri 7 155, 23 Rebî’u’l-âhir 975/ 26 Ekim 1567.

10 Mühimme Defterleri 7 1453, 26 Zilkade 975/ 23 Mayıs 1568.

11 Ariel Salzmann, “The Age of Tulips: Conluence and Conlict in Early Modern Consumer Culture (1550-1730)”, in Consumption

Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire: An Introduction (ed.) Donald Quataert Albany: SUNY Press, 2000, 89.

12 Peçevi, s. 363.

13 Mehmet Genç, “Contrôle et taxation du commerce du café dans I’Empire ottoman fin XVIIe

 – premiére moitié du XVIIIe siécle,”

in le commerce du café: avant l’ére des plantations coloniales espaces, réseaux, sociétés (XVe

 - XIXe

 siécle) ed. by Michel Tuncscherer, Cahier des annales islamologiques 20 – 2001, 161-179.

14 Kahve ticaretinin 18. Yüzyıl Kahire’sindeki etkileri için bkz. Andree Raymond, Yeniçerilerin Kahiresi: Abdurrahman Kethüda

Zamanında Bir Osmanlı Kentinin Yükselişi, çev. Alp Tümertekin, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1999.

15 Yeniçeri kahvehaneleri için Ali Çaksu, “18. Yüzyıl Sonu İstanbul Yeniçeri Kahvehaneleri” içinde Ahmet Yaşar, (ed.), Osmanlı

Kahvehaneleri: Mekan, Sosyalleşme, İktidar, İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2009, 85-98. Ayrıca Cemal Kafadar, “Janissaries and other

rifraf of Ottoman Istanbul: rebels without a cause?”, Identity and identity formation in the Ottoman world : a volume of essays in

honor of Norman Itzkowitz, (editörler) Baki Tezcan ve Karl K. Barbir, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007.

16 BOA, CZ 698, 20 Zilhicce 1218 / 1 Nisan 1804.

17 BOA, CZ 774, 1207 / 1794. Bu örnekleri çoğaltmak mümkün. Örneğin IV. Mustafa’nın kahvehanelere ilişkin tutumunda da

benzerlik vardır. “Kaimmakam paşa; Bazı kahvelerde devlet lakırdısı ederlermiş. Birkaç tane öyle kahvelerden kapatasın.” BOA,

HH, 53975, 1223 / 1808.

18 İbrahim Peçevi, Tarih-i Peçevi, I, İstanbul, 1281-83 / 1864-67, 363.

19 Uğur Kömeçoğlu, “Homo Ludens ve Homo Sapiens Arasında Kamusallık ve Toplumsallık: Osmanlı Kahvehaneleri”, içinde

Ahmet Yaşar (ed.), Osmanlı Kahvehaneleri: Mekân, Sosyalleşme, İktidar, İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2009, 45-81

20 Kıraathanelerle ilgili olarak bkz. Kemalettin Kuzucu, “Kahvehaneden Kıraathaneye Geçiş ve İlk Kıraathaneler”, içinde Emine

Gürsoy Naskali (ed.), Türk Kahvesi Kitabı, İstanbul: Kitapevi, 161-208.

21 A. Süheyl Ünver, “Yayın Hayatımızda Önemli Yeri Olan Sarafim Kıraathanesi,” Belleten, XLIII/ 170, Nisan 1979, 481-490.

22 Ali Budak, “Cemiyyet-i İlmiyye-i Osmaniye: Bir Sivil Eğitim Kurumu,” Sivil Toplum, sy. 6-7, 2004, 103-122.

23 François Georgeon, “Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Son Döneminde İstanbul Kahvehaneleri,” Doğu’da Kahve ve Kahvehaneler,

Héléne Desmet-Grégoire ve François Georgeon (haz.), çev. Meltem Atik, Esra Özdoğan, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1999, 43-86

FOR THE CURIOUS | GEORGE SALA

George Augustus Henry Fairfield Sala (November 1828 – 8 December 1895) was an author and journalist who wrote extensively for the Illustrated London News as G. A. S. and was most famous for his articles and leaders for The Daily Telegraph. He founded his own periodical, Sala's Journal, and the Sydney Savage Club.[1] The former was unsuccessful, but the latter continues.

from 

Life and Adventures George Augustus Sala

" By the way, Alexis Soyer, who, during his stay in the East, did yeoman's service in the hospital kitchens at Balaclava and Scutari, told me a story about Miss Nightingale, which I have not seen in print. A soldier who had been severely and shockingly wounded was in such dire agony that, after the manner of his kind, he burst into a frenzy of cursing and swearing, for which he was sternly rebuked by the surgeon, who was bandaging his wounds. " How dare he," asked the medico, " use such language in the presence of a lady." Miss Nightingale was standing close by, and she said quietly to the surgeon : " Please to mind your own busi- ness. Can't you see that the poor man is in fearful pain, and does not know what he is saying ? "