ABSTRACT
Among those who recorded their observations of the Ottoman Empire, the seventeenth-century traveler Evliya Çelebi holds a unique place. From his forty-odd years of traveling the length and breadth of the empire, Evliya compiled the Seyahatname, ten volumes of first-hand observations and descriptions peppered with anecdote, hearsay, borrowed information, and myth. Traveling frequently in the retinues of high-ranking men of state, and sometimes on his own, he visited a great many towns of the empire in Anatolia, the Balkans, and the Arab provinces, and ventured beyond the boundaries of the empire as well. Among his observations in each place, Evliya recorded the number of public buildings: mosques, medreses (colleges), mektebs (primary schools), baths, markets, hospitals, fountains, and `imarets (public kitchens). It is the last which concern us here. 1
