CHAPTER FOUR COFFEEHOUSES: PUBLIC OPINION IN THE NINETEENTH - CENTURY OTTOMAN EMPIRE C Kıı Informers and the Making of Public Opinion If it were possible to travel back to Istanbul in the 1840s to find out what was going on in the Ottoman Empire, not even the only newspaper that existed at the time, Takvim-i Vakayi, would satisfy your curiosity. It would reveal only the promotions and demotions in the higher bureaucracy and the accomplishments of the Ottoman state in a bland official narrative. Walking into one of the thousands of coffeehouses, however, would allow you to catch up with the lat- est developments and current events. Going from one coffeehouse to the next, eavesdropping on conversations carried out at different tables, you would feel as if you were turning the pages of a newspaper. If you wanted to find out the intricate politics behind the pro- motions and dismissals in the bureaucracy, the coffeehouses along the Divan Yolu near the Topkapı palace would be your best bet. There, you could hear the internal gossip from the clerks working in these offices. If you were interested in learning about the latest developments in the near and distant provinces of the empire, you would visit the coffeehouses built into the dwellings of the inns in several districts of the capital. If you were curious about the state of trade in the Mediterranean, you would listen intently to the con- versations of ship captains in the coffeehouses of Galata and the nearby small docks. Even information about the European states would not be beyond your reach. The places that would provide you with that kind of information were not the embassies in Beyo[lu, but rather the coffeehouses in Galata, where you could find resi- dents and merchants from various European nations chatting about European politics, economy, and international relations. The coffeehouse was essentially a place where coffee was served, but after its introduction to Istanbul in the mid-sixteenth century, it