Traditionally, the masseurs in the baths, tellak in Turkish, were young men who helped wash clients by soaping and scrubbing their bodies. They were recruited from among the ranks of the non-Muslim subject nations of the Turkish empire, such work being seen as beneath the dignity of a Muslim.
After the defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman army in the early 20th century, the role of tellak boys was filled by adult attendants.
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