From Birth to Breadwinner

Abstract

This chapter describes the hamam’s original appearance and how it began to take up work, having been readied for business with a supply of water and wood for fuel. The hamam’s employees (hamam managers, bathhouse attendants, servants, furnace stokers, and many others) and their organization in guilds make up one group of people connected to the monument, which can be identified based on archival and visual sources with relative certainty. More difficult to identify are the bathers; however, an analysis of the hamam’s neighbourhood’s make-up allows some answers. This chapter also provides a more detailed view of the hamam’s economic relation to the endowment, by looking at its income from entrance fees and at how much exactly it contributed to the endowment’s total income.