The Ottoman Legacy in Hungary? Baths and Food (Mostly)

The 1526 Battle of Mohács is often viewed as the most tragic in Hungary's history. The once-powerful Hungarian Kingdom lost its independence for centuries to come after the 60,000-strong Ottoman army, headed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, decimated the disorganized Hungarian troops on August 29th. Soon afterward, the Ottoman Empire annexed the central parts of the country. For the next century and a half, Hungary became the westernmost territory of an empire at the height of its power, stretching across North Africa, Egypt, the Middle East, and Iraq. Nearly half a millennium later, one might wonder: What’s the legacy of this Ottoman period?

After Mohács, Hungary descended into chaos and morphed into a militarized zone, becoming a buffer between two major powers, the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, neither of which could wrest control of the whole country (despite several attempts, the Ottomans never captured Vienna, the nearby Habsburg capital).

Areas in Hungary that were not directly controlled by the Ottomans splintered into two, each with a ruler that claimed to be the rightful King of Hungary: Habsburg Ferdinand in the west, John Szapolyai in the northeastern lands of Transylvania. Over time, Transylvania became a more or less independent Turkish vassal state.

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The political and religious elites fled to Habsburg-controlled Hungary, but life for Hungarian peasants, who were tied to the land, was miserable, especially those in the border territories. Soldiers from all sides – Ottomans and Hungarians – regularly looted, overtaxed, and robbed the villages with impunity. By the end of the 17th century, whole swaths of central Hungary were deserted.

Being a faraway place and a military frontier meant that the Ottomans didn’t fully integrate Hungary into the Empire's public administration. They meddled little in the internal affairs of smaller towns and villages, leaving them largely to self-govern. This wasn’t so much the case with territories closer to the Ottoman capital in Istanbul; for example, in the Balkan countries, where the Ottomans ruled for nearly 500 years, many converted to Islam, which is why people in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina are mainly Muslim.

In a handful of bigger cities the Ottomans did settle in for the long term, establishing administrative and religious institutions. The city of Buda – the hilly side of today’s Budapest – was the center of the Ottoman provinces. Some Hungarian residents remained, but the majority comprised Turkish soldiers and a motley collection of artisans, shopkeepers, religious leaders, merchants, and servants. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Turkish, Slavic, Hungarian, and Yiddish chatter filled the winding streets of this 8,000-resident city.

Mosques, türbes, hammams

Mosques, mausoleums (türbe), and Turkish baths (hammam) are the most visible Ottoman remains in Hungary today although wars, religious hatred, and a need for building materials reduced much of these to rubble over the centuries. Of the hundreds of mosques that once stood in Hungary, fewer than ten exist today in some form. The most monumental is the 16th-century Mosque of Pasha Qasim in the southwestern city of Pécs, one of my favorite cities in Hungary. Sometimes, the Ottomans simply converted Christian churches into mosques by removing the altarpieces, hiding wall paintings behind whitewash, and using the bell tower as a minaret, as with the Gothic-style Matthias Church of Buda-Pest.

Public baths were essential to community life across the Ottoman Empire. Aside from personal hygiene, people went to the baths to socialize and treat ailments. The Ottomans took advantage of Hungary’s rich supply of thermal water – as once did the Romans – and built hammams in many cities. The governor of Buda, Sokollu Mustafa Pasha, for example, had 16 hammams erected. Layouts differed, but generally there was a main bathing hall topped with a cupola punctured by small hexagonal windows. Three of these low-lit, labyrinthine baths – Rudas, Király, Veli Bej – are still functional today and central to Budapest’s contemporary bathing culture (Király is currently under renovation).

Architecturally, comparable buildings closer to the Ottoman capital in Istanbul or in less battle-scarred regions were usually grander in style and size. Historical documents do refer to a mosque in Hungary designed by Mimar Sinan, the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire, but the building was destroyed.

The Ottoman metalsmith traditions in Hungary were especially rich, fusing Persian, Arab, Turkish and Renaissance-Baroque stylistic forms. The permanent collection of the Hungarian National Museum showcases stunning copper, bronze, silver, and gold bowls, pitchers, rings, and jewelry.

The Ottoman cultural influence was greatest in Transylvania given the close political and commercial ties. For example, the Transylvanian nobility used Ottoman-decorated military supplies, horse grooming tools, and saddles. They purchased Ottoman fabrics and embroidery which were decorated with Ottoman patterns, often by Turkish weavers who were taken as captives. The representatives of the Transylvanian Prince regularly attended the markets of Istanbul.

In an effort to revive the Ottoman legacy, the Turkish government has recently been funding restoration works of historical monuments across the former Empire, including Hungary. For example, Turkey contributed money to renovate the 16th-century tomb of Gül Baba, an Ottoman dervish, whose octagonal mausoleum hides on the picturesque Rózsadomb hill in Budapest's District 2, near the city center. Turkey has also financed excavation works in Szigetvár, in southwestern Hungary; it was during the city's siege that Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent died in 1566.

Stuffed cabbage, strudel, and a coffee please

The Ottoman influence on food has proved more enduring than its physical structures. Stuffed cabbage (töltött káposzta), for example, is a favorite winter dish across Hungary. Cabbage and meat had long been a staple food, but wrapping minced meat and rice inside cabbage leaves is a 17th century novelty. Stuffed cabbage, and also stuffed peppers, likely originated from the dolma, a dish popular in the Middle East where they use grape leaves to contain the filling. Strudels also have Ottoman ancestry: they evolved from the baklava before spreading across Austria-Hungary.

The Ottomans were early adopters of coffee – which is native to Ethiopia and was first brewed in Yemen in the 14th century – and thus it came to Hungary already in the 16th century, much sooner than to Western Europe. But coffee didn’t become popular until the Ottomans were actually out of the country, because it was regarded as the drink of the enemy (lesson for future generations: it can pay off to drink with the enemy).

Kadarka is often regarded as a native Hungarian red grape but it was the Serbian and other south-Slavic settlers from the Ottoman Empire who brought kadarka grapevines to the country in the 15th century. Hungary had been a white-wine country, but kadarka soon appeared in all wine regions and remained a popular grape until the 1950s – it was a favorite of Franz Liszt – appreciated for its spicy flavors. Unfortunately, other varieties have since largely replaced it (the Szekszárd wine region still makes some).

Many New World crops from the Americas seeped into Hungary via the Ottomans. For example, chili peppers, locally known as paprika, arrived in the late 17th century from the Balkans and went on to become the major spice in Hungarian cooking (think chicken paprikash). The farmers initially called paprika “Turkish pepper” and used it in place of the more expensive and imported black peppers.

Corn was a similar case. It quickly spread across war-ravaged and impoverished Hungary because it was easier to harvest than wheat and barley without draft animals. Hungarians in Transylvania still refer to corn as “Turkish wheat.” Lecsó, a vegetable stew made from onions, peppers, tomatoes, and eggs, comes from menemen, a nearly identical Turkish breakfast dish.

While Hungary's collective consciousness doesn't harbor positive memories of the Ottoman era which divided the country and stifled its commercial and cultural development, the examples above show that this period did have a lasting impact, especially in terms of food.