Since the Qur’an stresses the importance of personal hygiene, public baths (hammams) have traditionally played a key role in the social and religious life of Muslims. Although these structures owe some debt to Roman and Late Antique baths, the emphasis from Umayyad times onwards was more on the hot rooms than on the frigidarium favoured by the Romans. The hammam ordinarily contains a changing room, which is an unheated room, a warm intermediate room, and a steam room.