The Sea in Istanbul

Some time ago my wife Anna wrote an article about sea bathing with the title 'From the plajes to the beaches'. This made me think about the way we went from 'sea hamams to beaches'. For in the Ottoman period, bathing in the sea was not something known to the public. And all the more so in a country like the Ottoman Empire, where the great majority of the population was Muslim: bathing in the sea could not be accepted in any way. It was after the middle of the 19th century that they allowed whole enclosed houses to be built in the sea so that men and women could enter the sea separately. The writer Ragıp Akyavaş, in his book Asitane, says: 'The beauties of Bene Israel came from Yeldeğirmeni and even from Balat to the hamam of Haydarpaşa, and to the hamam of Moda went the kokonas of the Frankish minority.' The known baths were those of Haydarpaşa, Moda, Caddebostan and Fenerbahçe. Later they made baths also at Beyaz Park next to Büyükdere, at Salacak, at Küçüksu...

According to the Muslim religion there was no restriction on entering the sea. But some doctors wrote advice for those who wanted to bathe there. In an article on the sea hamam written in 1889 by a doctor of the Ottoman navy, it says: 'Without the doctor's approval one must never enter the sea. Even the hour at which one is to enter the sea is for the doctor to decide. Those who live in a village far from the sea and come to bathe must wait at least three days before entering the sea. Do not enter before the watermelon rind falls into the sea. The best time to bathe is the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The belief that says "entering the sea between 20 June and 11 August is not healthy" is a superstition and not true. Adults must not bathe just at dawn, nor after the sun has set. The best time should be between two hours before noon and five hours after. Do not enter the sea before finishing digestion. Adults must enter either on an empty stomach or three and a half hours after eating. Small children can enter two hours after eating. Do not put children in the sea before they have completed six years.' According to Doctor Ahmed Şükrü of Adana, even old people past forty-five must not enter the sea. If they dare to enter, they may suffer from haemorrhoids. Doctor Salahaddin Ali of Beşiktaş said that the waters of Hasköy and Balat are not clean for bathing. On the Bosphorus only the waters of Arnavutköy are clean. The waters of Makriköy (Bakırköy), Fenerbahçe and the Islands are also clean. To enter the sea, men and women had to cover themselves down to the knee.

The fashion for beaches began with the Russian émigrés. The White Russians, losing the struggle against those who made the revolution of 1917, fled across the Black Sea to Istanbul and settled in the camps near Florya. In the famous Rejans restaurant the Russian women who worked there presented themselves as if they were countesses. At Florya they began to lie on the sand and sunbathe, and to enter the sea men and women together. This pleased the minorities first of all, and with time members of the more secular Turkish Muslim community too took pleasure in doing the same. This fashion, after Florya, was also seen at Moda and Büyükada. One thing that greatly helped the spread of this fashion was the vision of our first President of the Turkish Republic, the immortal Atatürk, who at Florya entered the sea in a short swimsuit. The house built there even served to receive leaders of other countries, such as the King of England, Edward VIII, in 1936, and in 1937 the King of Jordan, Abdullah.

The beach fashion brought another fashion, the gazinos behind the beach. People spent the day on the beach, and in the evening went to the gazino to eat and dance the tango, the foxtrot, the charleston, or to hear famous singers such as Zeki Müren, Müzeyyen Senar... especially on Saturdays and Sundays. The gazinos of Caddebostan, Beyaz Park, Bebek, Salacak and Moda were the most famous. Now that we are closing the season for entering the sea, it is good to know — saver es bueno — to remember what it was like before. Source: Zafer Toprak, exhibition of the Pera Museum 'From the Sea Hamam to the Beach'