A Bridal Hammam in Istanbul, 1718: Through Lady Mary's Eyes

November 6, 2026 · 7 dk okuma

Narrator's note: The narrator of this article is fictional; the historical information is given with its sources.

The bundle at the bottom of the chest

At the bottom of my mother's dowry chest, wrapped in a white sheet that smelled of mothballs, lay a bundle with gold-thread embroidery along its edges; once a year, when the chest was opened to be aired, the whole room filled with that smell, and every time I would ask what the bundle was for and every time get the same short answer: "For the bridal hammam." What a crowd, what a ceremony stood behind those few words I learned only much later, and not from my mother but from the letter of an English lady who had passed through this city three hundred years ago.

Istanbul, 1718. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is spending her last days in the city. Her husband's embassy has come to an end, and preparations for the return to England have begun. In a letter to her sister, she describes a scene she witnessed three days earlier in one of the most beautiful baths in the city: a bridal bath.

The bride at the door

There are about two hundred women in the bath. The married ladies sit on the marble sofas around the rooms. Adorned in rich clothes and jewels, the bride arrives with her mother and an elderly relative and is welcomed at the door by two ladies.

Two women lead the procession, carrying perfumes in silver-gilt vessels. Behind them, some thirty young girls, their hair braided with pearls and ribbons, walk in pairs. Those at the front sing a wedding song, and the others answer in chorus. The bride, her eyes lowered, walks between the last two girls. The procession makes its way through the three largest rooms of the bath.

Then the bride is led before each lady in turn. Each one pays her a compliment and gives her a gift: jewels, fabric, a handkerchief or a small ornament. The bride thanks each giver by kissing her hand.

What moves me most in this scene is not the splendour of the procession but the patience of the line: the bride passes before two hundred women one by one, receives a word and a gift from each, and kisses each one's hand. So many women see a person off into her new life, unhurried, one at a time.

Lady Mary compares the scene to the wedding poem the ancient Greek poet Theocritus wrote for Helen. To her, it is a ceremony as beautiful as something out of a poem. (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter written on leaving Istanbul, 1718. Summarized by Modalco.)

A bride's adornment

Thanks to Lady Mary's letters, we can picture how a bride of the time was adorned:

• Hair: Grown to its full length and divided into countless tresses with pearls or ribbons. Lady Mary counts 110 tresses in one lady's hair.
• Jewels: A bouquet of jewels in the shape of flowers is worn on one side of the head: pearl buds, ruby roses, diamond jasmines, topaz jonquils.
• Scent: At the very front of the procession, perfumes are carried in silver-gilt vessels. Scent is the ceremony itself.
• Eyes and nails: Black kohl (sürme) is drawn around the eyes, and the nails are dyed a rose color.

The palace baths

Inside the palace, too, the hammam was at the heart of daily life. During a 2017 restoration at Topkapı, a bath dating to the 1460s and used by five padishahs was discovered. In the 1580s, Mimar Sinan built the Hünkâr Bath, the padishah's own bath, in the Harem. Today, visitors to the Harem of Topkapı Palace can still see the marble basins and domes of the Hünkâr and Valide Sultan baths.

Lady Mary also came to know the women of the palace. In a letter written from Pera on 10 March 1718, she describes her visit to Hafise Kadın, the favorite of Mustafa II, whom she calls "Sultana Hafiten". She writes that Hafise's robe was fastened with two jeweled roses, each with a large ruby at its center. The rose appears even in the jewels of the palace.

What was inside the bundle?

I understand better now why the bundle in my mother's chest was kept with such care.

Women went to the hammam carrying an embroidered bundle, the bohça. Inside were a peshtemal (bath wrap), a loofah, a kese (exfoliating mitt), towels, soap, henna, a hammam bowl, a comb, a mirror and clean clothes. The bridal bath, the bath taken forty days after childbirth and the bath before a religious holiday were special occasions that brought women together. The bridal bath tradition is still kept alive before weddings in many families today.

Practical note: Giving gifts at the bridal bath was a tradition: jewels, fabric, handkerchiefs. Today, adding a care set to a bride's trousseau or to a friend's wedding preparations can be an elegant way to carry on this tradition. You can find Modalco's ready-made sets on the Routine Sets page.

My mother's bundle stayed in the chest, never used; when I married there was no bridal hammam, and instead I had dinner one evening with my friends. But since reading Lady Mary's letter I look at that bundle differently: the idea of preparing a woman for a great day by the hands of other women, and without haste, still seems very beautiful to me.

Today's equivalent: a 10-day pre-wedding care calendar

The bridal bath was a single day. Today, you can spread the same preparation over several days and step into the big day more calmly. The calendar below is Modalco's suggestion, not a historical practice. The products accompany your care; they do not promise exaggerated results.

A lesson from Lady Mary: Wedding week is not the time to try a new product. After applying the balm of Mecca, Lady Mary was left with a swollen face for three days; you can read her story in our main article. Try new products on a small area at least two weeks ahead. To choose the ones that suit you, the 2-minute Modalco Skin Test is all you need.

In this series: Previous article → Through an English Lady's Eyes: The Sofia Bathhouse, 1717. Start of the series → Skincare from the Palace to Today.

Sources

1. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Turkish Embassy Letters (1763). Undated letter to her sister written on leaving Istanbul (1718), Letter XXIX (Edirne, 1 April 1717) and Letter XXXIX (Pera, 10 March 1718).
2. "Sultans' bath discovered in Topkapı Palace", Hürriyet Daily News, 15 December 2017.
3. Topkapı Sarayı, Hünkâr ve Valide Sultan Hamamları, SALT Research archive.
4. Semih Büyükkol, Zuhal Arda, "Türk Kültüründe Hamam Geleneği ve Resim Sanatına Yansımaları", İdil 5/27 (2016), pp. 2047–2062.

The images were created with AI and do not depict a real person. The products support your care routine; they are not medical products.