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The köçek phenomenon is considered to be one of the most significant symbols of Ottoman Empire culture. The köçek was typically a very handsome young male rakkas, "dancer," usually dressed in feminine attire, employed as an entertainer and sex worker. The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Imperial motto El Muzaffer Daima The Ever Victorious (as written in tugra) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul (Constantinople/Asitane/Konstantiniyye ) Sovereigns Sultans of the Osmanli Dynasty Population ca 40 million Area 6. ...
This article is about the profession. ...
A sex worker is anyone who earns their living by providing sexual services. ...
Roots
The word is derived from the Farsi kuchak, "little," "small," or "young." Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Shah Abbas I (شاه عباس اول) (January 27, 1571?-January 19, 1629?) was the most eminent ruler of the Safavid Dynasty. ...
Chehel Sotoun is a pleasure pavilion in Isfahan, Iran, built by Shah Abbas I to be used for the shahs entertainment and receptions. ...
Isfahan or Esfahan can refer to either a city or a province in Iran: Isfahan (city) Isfahan (province) Isfahan (rugs) Ispahan a kind of rose and an older pronounciation of the citys name. ...
This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
The culture of the köçek, which flourished form the 17th to the 19th century, had its origin in the customs followed at the Ottoman palaces, and in particular in the harems. Its genres enriched both the music and the dance of the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Imperial motto El Muzaffer Daima The Ever Victorious (as written in tugra) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople/Asitane/Konstantiniyye ) Sovereigns Sultans of the Osmanli Dynasty Population ca 40 million Area 12+ million km² Establishment 1299 Dissolution October 29, 1923...
The support of the Sultans was a key factor in its development, as in the early stages the art form was confined to palace circles. From there the practice dispersed throughout Anatolia and the Balkans by means of independent troupes. In the big cities, where it was enjoyed by people of all classes, the köçek were the attraction of the Ottoman nights.
Culture Köçeks at a fair Köçek troupe at Sultan Ahmed's 1720 celebration of his sons' circumcision. Miniature from the Surname-i Vehbi, Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.
Kocek with tambourine Entertainers and sex workers, köçeks were in high demand in the Ottoman empire. They were sought by high and low, up to the Sultan, who as Caliph was ruler over all Islam. Photograph, late 19th c. A köçek would begin training around the age of seven or eight, and would be considered accomplished after about six years of study and practice. A dancer's career would last as long as he was beardless and retained his youthful appearance. Dancers would get married when they were around 25 or 30, and then could become organizers of a new köçek troop. Köçeks were organized into companies known as kol. Twelve such companies were counted in the mid-1600's, each company averaging about 250 dancers. Topkapı Palace (Topkapı Sarayı in Turkish, literally the Cannongate Palace), located in Istanbul (Constantinople), was the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1465 to 1853. ...
This article is about the city. ...
Download high resolution version (395x848, 162 KB)Dancing Köçek with a tambourine. ...
Download high resolution version (395x848, 162 KB)Dancing Köçek with a tambourine. ...
Spanish antique tambourine The tambourine is musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a single drumhead mounted on a ring with small metal jingles. ...
The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Imperial motto El Muzaffer Daima The Ever Victorious (as written in tugra) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul (Constantinople/Asitane/Konstantiniyye ) Sovereigns Sultans of the Osmanli Dynasty Population ca 40 million Area 6. ...
Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. ...
Their erotic dances, collectively known as köçek oyunu, blended Arabic, Greek, Assyrian and Kurdish elements. They were performed to a particular genre of music known as köçekce, which was performed in the form of suites in a given melody. It too was a mix of Sufi, Balkan and classical Anatolian influences, some of which survives in popular Turkish music today. The accompaniment included various percussion instruments, such as the davul-köçek, a large drum of Armenian origin, one side covered with goat skin and the other in sheep skin, producing different tones. The skill of a köçek would be judged not only on his dancing abilities but also on his proficiency with the percussion instruments, especially a type of castagnette known as the çarpare. In later times these were replaced by metal cymbals called zils. Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ...
Assyrian is a collective term used to identify indigenous peoples of northern Iraq and neighboring areas of Syria and Turkey, some of whom also identify themselves as Aramaeans and Chaldeans. ...
Kurdish may refer to: The Kurdish people The Kurdish language This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
The dancers would be accompanied by an orchestra, featuring four to five each kaba kemence and lauto as principal instruments, used exclusively for köçek suites. There would also be two singers. A köçek dance in the Ottoman harem would involve one or two dozen köçeks, and a large number of musicians. The occasions of their performances were wedding celebrations, circumcision celebrations, feasts, festivals, as well as the pleasure of the sultans and the aristocracy.
The youths, often wearing heavy makeup, would curl their hair and wear it in long tresses under a small black or red velvet hat decorated with coins, jewels and gold. Their usual garb consisted of a tiny red embroidered velvet jacket with a gold-embroidered silk shirt, shalvars (baggy trousers), a long skirt, and a gilt belt, knotted at the back. They were said to be "sensuous, attractive, effeminate," and their dancing "sexually provocative," impersonating female dancers. Dancers minced and gyrated their hips in slow vertical and horizontal figure-8's, rhythmically snapping their fingers and making suggestive gestures. Often, acrobatics were also part of the act. The köçeks were available sexually, often to the highest bidder, in the passive role. It is presumed that many of them were transgender. Transgender is generally used as a catch-all umbrella term for a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups centered around the full or partial reversal of gender roles; however, compare other definitions below. ...
The names and backgrounds of köçeks in Istanbul in the 18th century are well documented. They were usually non-Muslim. Their ranks were filled from the ethnic groups colonized by the Turks, such as the Albanians, Balkan Slavs, Christian Armenians, Jews, and Greeks. Among the more celebrated köçeks from the end of the 18th century are the Gypsy Benli Ali of Dimetoka (today's Greece); Buyuk (big, older) Afet (born Yorgaki) of Croatian origin, Kucuk (little) Afet (born Kaspar) of Armenian origin, and Pandeli from the Greek Island of Chiros. There were at least fifty köçeks of star stature at the time. The famous ones, like the Gypsy köçek Ismail, would have to be booked weeks or months in advance, at a very high cost.
Western visitors were variously taken with the - for them - unusual sight of pederasty unleashed. One impression is preserved in Don Leon, a poem anonymously written in the voice of Lord Byron: Pederasty, as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. ...
Lord Byron, English poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824) was the most widely read English language poet of his day. ...
- Here much I saw – and much I mused to see
- The loosened garb of Eastern luxury.
- I sought the brothel, where, in maiden guise,
- The black-eyed boy his trade unblushing plies;
- Where in lewd dance he acts the scenic show –
- His supple haunches wriggling to and fro:
- With looks voluptuous the thought excites,
- Whilst gazing sit the hoary sybarites:
- Whilst gentle lute and drowsy tambourine
- Add to the languor of the monstrous scene.
- Yes, call it monstrous! but not monstrous, where
- Close latticed harems hide the timid fair:
- With mien gallant where pæderasty smirks,
- And whoredom, felon like, in covert lurks.
- All this I saw – but saw it not alone –
- A friend was with me, and I dared not own
- How much the sight had touched some inward sense,
- Too much for e’en the closest confidence. (441-8).
In his travels to the Levant, Byron had indeed been present at such a dance as described above. His traveling companion, John Cam Hobhouse, relates in his diary that on Saturday, May 19th, 1810: - This day, went with Byron and a party to the wine houses of Galata. Took pipes, and saw two old and ugly boys, who wrung the sweat off their brows, dance as before, waving their long hair. Also they spread a mat and, putting on a kind of shawl, performed an Alexandrian woman’s dance – much the same, except that they knelt, and, covering each other’s heads, seemed as if kissing. One of Mr Adair’s Janissaries, who talks English and has been in England, was with us. I asked him if these boys would not be hanged in England. “Oh yes, directly. De Turk take and byger dem d’ye see?”
- For this beastly sight we paid fifty-five piastres, five to the boys each, and five to all fiddlers and singers and performers &c., nor is this dear, I understand. Turk boys are not allowed to dance. Excerpt from Hobhouse's diary (http://www.hobby-o.com/constantinople.php#ref42)
The youths were held in high esteem. Famous poets, such as Fazyl bin Tahir Enderuni, wrote poems, and classical composers, such as the court musician Hammamizade Ismail Dede Efendi (1778-1846), composed köçekces for celebrated koceks. Many Istanbul meyhanes (night-time taverns serving meze, raki or wine) hired köçeks. Before starting their performance, the köçek danced among the spectators, to make them more excited. In the audience, competition for their attention often caused commotions and altercations. Men would go wild, breaking their glasses, shouting themselves voiceless, or fighting and sometimes killing each other vying for the boys' sexual favors. This resulted in suppression of the practice under sultan Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid I. Köçek dances were officially banned in 1856, and many of the boys left the country to practice their profession in Egypt and elsewhere. With the suppression of harem culture under Sultan Abdulaziz (1861-1876) and Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1908), köçek dance and music lost the support of its royal patrons, and gradually disappeared. Sultan Abdul Mejid I Abd-ul-Mejid (April 23, 1823 – June 25, 1861) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on July 2, 1839. ...
The other type of rakkas, or male dancer (from raks, "dance") was the tavşan oğlan, "rabbit boy," a young dancer dressed in provocative male clothing: tight pants and a jaunty hat. The non-Muslim tavşan oğlan are thought to have come mainly from the Greek islands in the Aegean and the Sea of Marmara. They performed mainly during Ramadan, working as sakis (wine boys) in the meyhanes otherwise, when not dancing at special occasions. Greece and the Aegean Sea The Aegean sea in Greece as seen from the island of Greek: Αιγαίον Πέλαγος, Aigaion Pelagos; Turkish: Ege denizi) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, located between the Greek peninsula and Anatolia (Asia Minor, now part of Turkey). ...
The Sea of Marmara (Turkish: Marmara denizi, Modern Greek: Μαρμαρα̃ Θάλασσα or Προποντίδα) (also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea) is an inland sea that separates the Black Sea from the Aegean Sea (thus the Asian part of Turkey from its European part) by Bosporus and...
Ramadan or Ramadhan (Arabic: رمضان ) is the ninth month of the Islamic year. ...
Köçeks were much more sought after than the çengi, their feminine counterparts. Some youths were known to have been killed by the çengi, who where extremly jealous of men' attention towards the boys.
Modern offshoots Male dancer in female garb 20th c. Anatolia, Turkey At the present time, the same-sex love and sexuality aspect of köçek culture is considered to have been "a privilege of the powerful economic classes or the world of the arts." Though no new compositions or performances have taken place in the last hundred years, male dancers dressed as women still perform in some areas of Turkey, though their art is no longer primarily of a sensual nature and is seen primarily as folkloric.
The style however continues to inspire modern musicians. Ulvi Cemal Erkin,(1906-1972), is a Turkish classical composer whose most popular masterpiece is Köçekçe a dance rhapsody composed in 1943, and perhaps the best known single piece of Turkish music abroad. It was first introduced to the public in 1943 with E. Praetorius conducting the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. Turkish composer. ...
Another modern interpretation is the movie Kocek (1975) by director Nejat Saydam. It is probably the first Turkish movie to deal with the topic of homosexuality and change of gender role. Homosexuality may refer to: A sexual orientation characterized by aesthetic attraction, romantic love, and sexual desire exclusively or nearly exclusively for members of the same sex or with the same gender identity (e. ...
A bagpiper in Scottish military uniform. ...
At the same time, young male dancers dressed in sparkling costumes are again finding favor, despite the objections of conservative commentators. Known as rakkas they have become a common feature of dance halls and night clubs. They perform seductive belly dances, and are reputed to be "as sexual and popular as any of the best Turkish female belly dancers."
References - AYVERDI, Sâmiha; Istanbul Geceleri (The nights of Istanbul), ed. Baha, Istanbul, 1977.
- ENDERUNLU Fazıl bey; Çenginame' (1759)
- ERDOGAN, Sema Nilgün: Sexual life in Ottoman Empire, ed. Dönence, Istanbul, 1996. Pp 88-92
- KOCU, Resad Ekrem, Eski Istanbul'da Meyhaneler ve Meyhane Kocekleri, Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Notlari No
- OZTUNA, Yilmaz: Turk Musikisi Ansiklopedisi, Milli Egitim Basimevi, Istanbul, 1976. p.23
See also Islam presumes that a man will be drawn to beautiful youths, and admonishes the believer not to yield to temptation. ...
Pederasty, as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. ...
External links - Male Belly Dance in Turkey (http://www.jasminjahal.com/articles/02_02_male_belly_d.html)
- Habibullah's Encyclopaedia of the Ottoman Empire (http://www2.egenet.com.tr/mastersj/encyclopedia-k.html)
- Turkish News.com (http://www.turkishnews.com/itumuk/info/petek/c1s4/petek9603.txt)
- Classical Turkish homoerotic art (http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/Turkey/turkish.htm)
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