It’s been almost two years since we launched WAYANA with its current format focusing on wine culture. When we started serving in 2022, the alcohol advertising ban in Turkey already had a seven-year history. Our Instagram account was blocked and closed because we included wine in our posts. For this reason, we try to be very careful about the postings we make under the name WAYANA Wine Bar. The practice is so tragicomic that publishing houses are worried about publishing books with wine in their titles, and they prefer to stay away, thinking that this could lead to criminal liability. We took a closer look at the wine bans in the Ottoman Empire to understand the history of this restrictive approach in the lands we live in.

The Ottoman Empire, which ruled over a wide geographical area for more than six centuries, had its ups and downs regarding its relationship with wine. Although the dynasty had a Muslim lineage with a predominantly Muslim population, there was also a considerable diversity regarding ethnic identity and religious beliefs in the Ottoman society. As such, the restrictive rules concerning alcoholic beverages showcased significant variation over time. With respect to the diversity in the public, the main intention was that the prohibitions primarily targeted the Muslim population by providing some flexibility to non-Muslim subjects.

The alcohol ban based on Sharia law was always valid for Muslims; yet we also see in the historical records that there were periods with a complete ban on alcohol. Surely the length of such bans varied; in this article, we compiled the list of sultans who instituted an alcohol ban in the Ottoman Empire. So, giving some additional thought to their share in the six centuries would illuminate our understanding of the Ottoman era. What is perhaps more interesting though is that while we have knowledge on when such bans were initiated, it is less clear in the historical records when (and how) they were lifted.

The Ottoman sultans who instituted alcohol ban in chronological order and period in which they ruled are as follows:

1. Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566; also, the longest prohibition practice in Ottoman history: 1555-1566)
2. II. Selim (1566-1574)
3. III. Murad (1574-1595)
4. III. Mehmed (1595-1603)
5. I. Ahmed (1603-1617)
6. IV. Murad (1623-1640)
7. IV. Mehmed (1648-1687)
8. III. Selim (1789-1807)
9. II. Mahmoud (1808-1839)

The duration of the ban itself may not be enough to understand the politico-social circumstances of the era which is why we think it is important to look at how these bans were implemented under a few headings:

1. It was a rare instance that solely alcohol was banned. The ban typically applied to include boza (a local, fermented, barley-based drink with a small alcoholic content), coffee, and tobacco, alongside alcohol.
2. More importantly, saying that it was alcohol, coffee, boza, hookah and opium were the prohibited items is misleading. In fact, what the actual ban was targeting was not the items but the spaces where these substances are served and consumed: taverns, boza shops, coffee houses, etc.
3. One can also see that the main reason for banning these establishments is not just about them serving alcohol. Word of mouth communication, which these establishments facilitate between “subjects” for centuries as the only social communication channel was the primary target. The aim, hence, was to cut off the communication channel to prevent—or to at least make difficult—the spread of any information that contradicted or threatened state policy.
4. Though not directly related to the prohibition of intoxicating substances, there was another type of establishment that was affected by such bans: barber shops.

There was no prohibition on alcohol after the first quarter of the 1800s. One cannot reasonably associate this observation with a singular reason; however, the tax revenue gained through sales of alcoholic beverages is a close winning candidate as all the bans implemented after the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent were short-lived and it was after this period when the Ottoman finances started to gradually show signs of weakness. So, the state did not want (or could not afford) to lose the tax revenue generated through the trade of alcohol.

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