Baths, art and architecture - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Yegül, Fikret K.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
(2,646 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Bathing and public baths (sing. ḥammām ) were accepted and became popular from the early years of Islam, a fact that has often been explained by the importance Islam accords to physical cleanliness and ritual purity. At the advent of Islam, public baths were already an established institution in Roman and Byzantine cities across the Mediterranean, and this was at least as important a factor in accounting for the continued popularity of baths among Muslims in these areas. Many baths in the Islamic world display refined architecture and sometimes unusual art .