Hammam (Islamic steam bath)
Hammam (baño de vapor islámico)
- Date
- c. 720 · confidence medium
- Place
- Qusayr Amra, Zarqa, Jordan
- Credited to
- Umayyad Caliphate
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A steam and hot-water bath inherited from the Roman-Byzantine bath but with humid rooms and no large cold pool, within a ritual of ablutions. The bathhouse of the Umayyad palace of Qusayr Amra, c. 720, is one of the earliest to survive.
It is a transformation of the Roman-Byzantine balneum rather than a ground-up invention; a dated, preserved example is chosen to anchor the milestone.
What it led to
- the public, social bath of Islamic cities from Córdoba to Istanbul
- the Turkish hammam and the Moorish bath
- ritual cleanliness linked to mosques