my dear ultra progressive friends were surprised to hear that alcoholic drinks were served in ottoman taverns.
i was telling them the story of the name tequila; tek-i-ala (the good single shot), from the mouth of a tavern keeper of a 17th century konstantiniyye (istanbul) from ihsan oktay anar's book, kitab-ül hiyel.
then they interrupt and ask me, "wasn't drinking alcohol forbidden?" and i responded "yes but do you obey every law?"
the point of my rhetorical question is not that apparent but i think it closely resembles the fact that we are still continuing to download and copy illegally, violating copyright laws. the state either gave up on trying or simply turning the blind eye. and i think the situation was similar in most of the ottoman history.
i did some fact checking and it seems non-muslims had the right to sell and trade alcohol in ottoman empire. and there were specific taxes for selling alcohol and owning a tavern which serves alcohol.
i admit that it is a valid question to ask, but still prohobitionism is such a hard state philosophy to maintain that it is almost absurd for me to think that there were time in the history in old turkey without the culture of drinking while eating.
did you read reşad ekrem koçu's work "eski istanbulda meyhaneler ve meyhane köçekleri"? wonderful book that is.
ReplyDeletesome descriptions are used by ihsan oktay anar in amat word by word.
the online references i found are from there, i will buy it when i come to ankara.
ReplyDelete(ulan insanın kendi blogunda türkçe konuşamaması ne acayip şeymiş.)