Research Information System
12th International Conference on Standardization, Protypes and Quality - A Means of Balkan Countries Collaboration, Izmit, Turkey, 22 - 24 October 2015, pp.343-352
In the Ottoman era, social life had always been ready to intervene with the private life and privacy was always ready to fight back within. In this context, drawing a border line between private spaces and public spaces has never been as easy as it was for Western civilizations. Until the 18th century, addressing this border line did not exist, nor was it found, in any case, necessary. However, during the 16th century, with the emergence of coffeehouses one by one, Istanbul started to host, for the first time, a public space which is also a closed space. With these commercial spaces, Ottoman society experienced a new way of socializing outside of the private spaces. During the 16th century, coffeehouses started shaping the traditional cultural texture of daily life in Istanbul. They established a foundation for other social institutions that shape the relationship people had with their surroundings. Following coffeehouses, other establishments of similar typology such as boza houses and finally taverns were introduced to the public life in the Ottoman Empire.