Perhaps one of the most important axes of social life in Istanbul was the hamam. Far more than merely a place of washing, the hamam provided men and, in particular, women with a social space where many of the important rituals of life took place. It enabled them to be clean in the way they wished, providing services that made it the equivalent of a modern beauty salon and health spa all rolled into one. It was where neighbours and friends could meet and socialise, enabling women, whose social relations were more limited than those of men, to mix with women not from their immediate family circle. There, after careful scrutiny, they could choose the brides for their sons and brothers; brides were washed before their weddings; and babies were taken for ablutions in their first outing, forty days after their birth. A place of chitchat, gossip and political grumbling, it was also a multi-ethnic and multi-religious space, a quintessential element in the lives of the people of the city, without which their everyday existence would have been inconceivable.