Entertainment and social gathering at the Ottoman court in the Sixteenth Century

Abstract

Each society has a different life style and so an understanding of entertainment as well as they have different habits and traditions. This understanding is strictly connected with how a nation or a society perceives life. The perception of life determines the precedences and preferences of people or societies. In this article, how the understanding of entertainment is in Ottoman court which is a model for Ottoman society is deliberated.
Meetings were arranged in the court by Sultan’s order. Only the musahips whom Sultan invites, sazandes, hanendes, meddahs and kıssahans as storytellers, poets and people whose friendships are enjoyable could join the minor meetings named “meclis” and Sultan-centered arranged. Music, poem and stories were discussed in those social gatherings after listening to them. The participants of these meetings and the discussed subjects express the perception of the life of Ottoman sultan and so courtiers, and Ottoman intellectuals who takes court as a model.