The Balkans in World History by Wachtel Andrew Baruch;

Author:Wachtel, Andrew Baruch;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2008-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Far more difficult to root out, however, were the legacies of Ottoman presence in everyday life. A commodity as mundane as coffee, and the rituals for its consumption, reveal the region’s Ottoman heritage. The first coffee house in the world opened in Istanbul in the mid–sixteenth century. Later in that century, there were some six hundred cafes in the capital, and the beverage, along with its method of preparation and the places in which it was consumed, had been exported throughout the empire. The poem “Lord, Don’t Leave Me without Coffee” by an eighteenth-century Albanian, which is in the form of a prayer, illustrates the importance of coffee.

By the wonders of the prophets,

By the saints that we acknowledge,

Let me break no fast a-thirsting,

Lord, don’t leave me without coffee.

By the honour of Fatima,

And Meyreme, don’t reject me

With a plate of salty yoghurt,

Lord, don’t leave me without coffee . . .

Lord, don’t let me break my fast with

Nought to eat but syrup, honey,

Oh God, you are my salvation,

Lord, don’t leave me without coffee.

In the Holy Month we’re marking,

Please forgive our sins, we’re old folk,

By the angels up in heaven,

Lord, don’t leave me without coffee.

By the one whose name means mercy,

By Mohammed, fame be to him,

Don’t desert me with hulled barley,

Lord, don’t leave me without coffee.

To the Lord prays Muçi Zade,

For he wallows in much woe with

Neither rice nor tapioca,

Lord, don’t leave me without coffee. 5

Turkish coffee is prepared in a long-handled pot called a dzhezva (the Turkish word is used in almost all Balkan languages) and served, with a healthy dose of sugar, in a small cup accompanied by a glass of water. Until recently, the only coffee available in the region was prepared and served in this manner, although now the ubiquitous espresso machine, imported from Italy, has supplanted the more labor-intensive dzhezva. The cafe itself, as the focus of (male) social life, is also originally an Ottoman institution, and the sight of Balkan dwellers hunched over a tiny cup of coffee, smoking a cigarette (another Ottoman innovation), and conversing endlessly is a scene to be savored in any Balkan city or town. Ottoman influence extends to food as well, with such ubiquitous items as baklava, dolmas, and meat kabobs all having been imported to the peninsula by the Ottomans. In many Balkan languages, Turkish words are still used for these and other objects of everyday life.

Finally and most difficult to quantify, Ottoman rule brought with it a set of cultural elements that define what it means to be a “Balkan” type. It is something of a parlor industry in the region to declare that the Balkans begin somewhere immediately to the south or east of one’s own home. The point, however, is not where they begin, but that inhabitants of the region, including those who wish themselves out of it, sense that they share some psychological and behavioral characteristics defined as “typically Balkan,” including generous hospitality to strangers, tolerance of difference, and a principled refusal to allow the need to make a living interfere with the free and easy patterns of social intercourse.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.