Imaret, sometimes also known as a darüzziyafe, is one of a few names used to identify the public soup kitchens built throughout the Ottoman Empire from the 14th to the 19th centuries. These public kitchens were often part of a larger complex known as a külliye, which could include hospices, mosques, caravanserais and colleges. The imarets gave out food that was free of charge to specific types of people and unfortunate individuals. Imarets were not invented by the Ottomans but developed under them as highly structured groups of buildings. Nonetheless, imarets indicate an appreciation of Muslim religious teachings about charity found in the Qur'an.
History
A Waqf is an "Islamic trust" that had important associations to the imaret within the Ottoman Empire. The Waqf helped the Sultan to provide essential services to citizens. It dealt with the operation and finances of institutions such as the soup kitchens and hospitals. Doğan Kuban notes that in early Ottoman architecture the term "imaret" was employed more flexibly to denote an entire complex (like a külliye), typically with a zaviye at its center – a religious building that catered to Sufi brotherhoods. This term appears in the original waqf documents of these complexes. The Nilüfer Hatun complex in Iznik, for example, is called an "imaret" but consists of a large zaviye used for Sufi religious activities. In later periods, the term imaret came to denote more strictly a public kitchen. Late Ottoman sources referred to earlier imaret-zaviye buildings as mosques, regardless of what their waqf documents said (also reflecting the fact that many zaviyes had been converted to formal mosques by then).
Historian Amy Singer mentions that the first few imarets were built in Iznik and Bursa in the 1330s. After the first couple of centuries, the number of imarets grew in the cities because the Waqf complex expanded in size. By the 1530s, there were 83 imarets in the Ottoman Empire. Imarets and other religious complexes served as community centres of their neighbourhoods. Many such complexes were built through out the Ottoman Empire, but especially in the central areas of Ottoman rule such as the Balkans (known as Rumelia) and Anatolia, including the capitals cities of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul. It is estimated that by the end of the 18th century, the imarets in Istanbul were feeding up to 30,000 people a day.
Today, the only Ottoman imaret still serving its original charitable function is the Mihrişah Sultan Complex in the Eyüp neighbourhood of Istanbul, which dates from 1796 and was founded by Mihrişah Sultan, the mother of Sultan Selim III.
As charity
Imarets served many different types of people and came to be seen as “charitable and beneficent work”. They were philanthropic institutions because they were established as part of voluntary beneficence, which was considered charity in Muslim law. In addition, distribution of food was seen as charitable work in and of itself. Imarets belong to a particular category of voluntary charity, known as sadaqa. Sadaqa as voluntary charity could take many forms, including a prayer or a blessing for the sick and disabled, or a selfless act, all contributed towards good deeds in Ottoman society.
Social hierarchy and beneficiaries
The importance of food in the imaret has strong implications of generosity because it demonstrates the distribution of food by wealthy people to meet the needs of neighbours, fellow families, and servants. The different types of people fed in the imarets were divided along the lines of class and profession, but there were those who came to imarets as regular recipients and travellers on the move. Nonetheless, imarets were strictly run establishments that carefully evaluated and observed the movement of people and the benefits they received from eating there. Although food was distributed to different types of people, strict regulations defined who ate, what they ate, how many portions they ate, and in what order; this was the case in an imaret located in Jerusalem. For example, employees of the imaret would receive one ladle of soup and two loaves of bread. Guests would receive one ladle of soup and one loaf of bread. The poor would receive the smallest amount of food, with only one half ladle of soup and one loaf of bread per meal. The more distinguished and prominent members would receive larger portions of food and a variety of different meals to choose from. They could also take their food home and eat it at their own tables.