Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)

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Ḥammām
(352 words)

(lit. “heater”, Ar. ḥamma “to heat”, Hebr. ḥāmam “to be warm”), a hot steam-bath. These are isolated buildings communicating with the street or market place by more or less imposing door; they consist of a number of large rooms surrounded by little chambers and crowned by domes pierced with holes to admit the light, which filters through little glass bells like bottle-bottoms. The first room to be entered is the maslak̲h̲ (apodyterium, spoliatorium), where the clothes are taken off and put up into a bundle which is entrusted to the owner of the bath; in the centre is a basin with a jet of water (fi…

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Huart, Cl., “Ḥammām”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936), Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2214-871X_ei1_SIM_2672>
First published online: 2012
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004082656, 1913-1936



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