The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul

A black and white still featuring a shirtless muscular man appeared in an Ottoman magazine in 1910. The man, who is well chiseled, is demonstrating his own physical excellence that was achieved through a regime of exercise and gymnasiums. However, Selim Sirri is not merely showing off the fruits of his efforts, he is part of a reformist movement that sees physical education, disciplining the human body and exercise as being at the heart of a modernising empire. Newspapers and magazines were using Sirri to underscore the idea that physical education, ‘carried a symbolic meaning-the Ottoman Empire had joined a global community of physical education.’ Elsewhere, a letter dated to 1906, complaining about the referee in Galatasaray’s football match as being ‘vile shamelessness’ and the ‘son of an ass’, offers an early glimpse into the feelings being stirred by the newly created sport. Late 19th century sport and fitness culture was transforming life in Istanbul and Murat C. Yildiz’s The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul is an urban history about how sport and fitness became a core component of late urban identity and the politics of empire. 

The military losses of the 19th century, the globalisation of culture and economics as well as the print press created a strong need for reform in the minds of Ottoman thinkers, politicians and journalists. The human body itself was coming under scrutiny and the need for a non-military physical culture was seen as critical. As Yildiz argues, morality was at the forefront of Istanbul-based educators. While the establishment of gymnasiums was seen as a sign of progress, concerns that it could serve as a space for immoral behaviour meant there was a need to cultivate ethics alongside physical education. ‘Bodily care, according to Ali Irfan Egriboz’s Ottoman-Turkish textbook…(Teaching Children the Virtues of Morality), was a defining characteristic of morality.’ The gymnasium was popping up at modern schools in the city as it was seen as part of crafting a modern man. The idea of bodily care was transforming religious discourse with Muslim scholar Hekimbasizade Muhyiddin exploring the physical benefits of prayer, ‘Referring to devotional prayer as a form of “physical exercise” and “gymnastics”, Muhyiddin argued that it fulfilled both a religious and corporeal “duty” (vazife) because prayer was something both the spirit and the body needed.’ Undercutting this new found love for working out and sports culture were shifts in how Istanbulities thought about time. The day being crafted around work time, school time and leisure time was a social concept taking off across much of the world. Each of these units of time imposed within it ethics about appropriate behaviour and that leisure time should be used for pursuing sport and fitness. 

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Sporting clubs were exploding across Istanbul with each community having their own clubs from Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews and others. While often separated by religion, as sporting culture professionalised, an emphasis on needing the best players led to spaces opening up to members of different communities to play on the same team. But this need to cultivate a new man was not only an Ottoman Muslim effort, each community from Greeks to Jews saw sport as a way of cultivating a new Greek or Jewish man too. Each area having its own sporting teams would eventually give way to modern football clubs that play in the Turkish league today from Galatasaray, Besiktas to Fenerbahce and others. However, social discrimination still featured in Istanbul sport culture. In 1895, 12 German-Jewish men created the Jewish Gymnastics Club of Constantinople based in Beyoglu. The men were originally part of the German Gymnastics Club of Constantinople, but concerns around anti-semitism, forced them to form their own club. The cosmopolitan nature of Istanbul is reflected in its sporting history and the concerns of the empire also find their way into the sporting world. As we approach the First World War, the Ottoman State starts to take a stake in sport, which had previously been outside of its control. 

The Ottoman World of Sports aims to tell the story of the transformation of urban life through sport and the complex, overlapping and multiple beginnings of fitness culture. Working out was not merely about self-improvement it mapped onto emerging ideas about spirituality, morality, education, health and politics. Sporting spaces are a concern for governments around the world today due to fears of large crowds, disorder and political upheaval. The 1908 revolution and the First World War increasingly provoked difficult questions about the role of sport in society. Through studying its history, we can probe social tensions of any period of time and Yildiz masterfully exposes the hopes, fears and tensions of the late Ottoman period. The Ottoman World of Sports is a spirited and fun read that will enable more critical inquiry into sport and fitness. 

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