Sabunun Tarihi Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Abstract

This study examines the modes of production, uses, and meanings of soap within a broad historical framework extending from Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt through Ancient Greece and Rome, the Islamic world, the Ottoman territories, and modern industrial society. This approach reveals how soap has been shaped throughout history in close interaction with social values, belief systems, and everyday practices. It demonstrates that in early periods, soap and soap-like substances were used not only for bodily cleanliness but also for ritual purification and medical purposes, and that cleanliness was understood as a symbolic requirement as much as a physical one. In the Islamic world, the development of chemical knowledge and the standardization of olive oil–based soap production laid the foundations of modern soapmaking; centers such as Aleppo, Nablus, and Damascus established a lasting production tradition that influenced the Mediterranean world as a whole. With the chemical revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, soap was transformed into an industrial and scientific product and became one of the key elements of mass consumption. Although the rise of synthetic detergents in the twentieth century partially weakened the historical position of soap, contemporary environmental concerns and the search for natural products have brought soap—particularly in its traditional and artisanal forms—back to the forefront. Ultimately, this study approaches the history of soap from a perspective that makes visible the interaction between hygiene, culture, and the economy, aiming to contribute to an understanding of human value systems and processes of transformation through the lens of cleaning practices.