Müselles: The Ottoman's Solution for (religiously acceptable) Wine
WAYANA is our wine house in Kadıköy, Istanbul. We serve the widest range of Turkish wines in the WAYANA Wine Menu. In addition, we organize regular wine tasting events to ensure that the wine culture meets wider audiences, and we share all kinds of information related to wine with the blogs on our website. In this article, we will try to introduce musella to you, based on the sources, as a beverage that is included in the Ottoman period records and can be consumed by the Muslim people. We hope that we have prepared a content that you will read without getting bored.
We all remember from the history books that the Ottoman sultans also had the title of caliph, starting from XVI th century. For this reason, the Ottoman State had a form of government in which religious law prevailed. Within this legal order, there are also provisions that “hamr”, that is, drinks that cause intoxication, are prohibited by law and that those who drink are punished. However, the Ottoman Empire created some exceptions to these provisions and made its evaluations according to these exceptions.
To remind briefly, the Ottoman Empire adopted the Hanafi sect of Islam. The reason for the prohibition of wine by the religion of Islam is that 'drink prevents people from remembrance of Allah, causes enmity between people and people feel grudge and hatred towards each other'. Unlike other Islamic sects, the Hanafi sect accepts that drinking wine is a crime, but does not penalize drinking the amount that is not intoxicating. For more detailed explanations on this subject, we recommend that you read the academic study at the end of the article.
Since it is known that drinking the wine itself is a crime even if it is not punished, the Ottomans realized that a wine alternative other than the real wine would eliminate the crime, and muselles emerged to meet this need. For this reason, since the alcohol will evaporate completely after two-thirds of the wine is boiled and evaporated, it is accepted that the remaining one-third of the drink will comply with the religious provisions. This acceptance was also legally supported by a fatwa issued by Ebussuud Efendi, the owner of the highest authority in charge of religious affairs in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, even if not the wine itself, a variation of it managed to become a part of Ottoman social life without fear of punishment.
Let's wrap up the article by stating that there are two types of Müselles. The first of these is "shar'i muselles". Its manufacture consists in obtaining the remaining one-third after two-thirds of the fresh grape must (or the mixture obtained by adding two kilos of water to one kilo of raisins) is boiled and evaporated.
The second kind of muselles is known as "Istanbul Müsellesi". According to the explanation in Evliya Çelebi's travel book, the remaining one-third after boiling and evaporating two-thirds of a one or seven-year-old sharp wine is called Istanbul Müselles. In Çelebi's words, "It is like molasses and it is strong enough to make anyone drunk even if only a small amount is drunk."
Records say that Müselles has its counterparts outside the Ottoman Empire. In another article, we will take a look at the muselles-like wine variations of the pre-Ottoman period.
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