English

Noun

imaret ‎(plural imarets)

1. (historical or architecture) An Ottoman soup kitchen built between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, often part of a larger complex or waqf.
   • 1996, Aptulla Kuran, A Spatial Study of Three Ottoman Capitals: Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, Gülru Necipoğlu (editor), Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islam World, Volume XIII, Harvard University, page 118,

     Ytldtnm Bayezid had located his imaret in the opposite direction, some two kilometers to the east of the city. Mehmed I chose a site closer to the center, between the imarets of Orhan Gazi and Ytldtnm Bayezid.

   • 2000, John Freely, The Companion Guide to Istanbul and Around the Marmara, page 383,

     It was originally built as a zaviye, or hostel, for members of the Ahi Brotherhood of Virtue; later it became an imaret, serving free food to the poor of Iznik.

   • 2006, T. Byram Karasu, Of God and Madness, page 217,

     He lived in an elegant stone house, a part of the Imaret of Haseki Sultan.