Amasya is known for the mosques, madrasas and dervish lodges of its official faith, but it is equally a place where deep-rooted folk beliefs live on in the everyday life of its people. Some of these beliefs filtered down from the old world view of the Turkic tribes who came from Central Asia and reached the present day shaped by Islamic sensibility. Some were inherited from the older peoples of Anatolia, and others grew out of the experience of the town and its villages themselves. All of them share a common purpose: to protect people from unseen harm, to find something to hold on to in the face of uncertainty, and to call good fortune into the house, the field and the stable. The blue bead pinned to a cradle, the step taken over a threshold without treading on it, the prayed-over stones laid in the river in times of drought and the heads bent over the well of a saint's tomb are all different expressions of the same search.

The Roots of Folk Belief

A glance at the village names around Amasya and Tokat reveals dozens of settlements bearing the names of Oghuz tribes such as Avşar, Dodurga, Kayı, Bayat, Kızık, Kınık, Kargın, İğdir, Salur and Karaevli; many of these names survive today as surnames. The region was one of the first areas in Anatolia where the Turks settled. Turkish rule, which began with the conquest by the Danishmendids, passed through the Seljuk, Ilkhanid, Eretnid and Kadı Burhaneddin periods, and in 1393 Bayezid I annexed Amasya to the Ottoman realm. Over this long process, the settlement of Khorasanian dervishes such as Pir Dede of Merzifon, and the migration of both Turkmen commoners and members of the state elite to Amasya as a princely sanjak, enriched the religious world of the town and its villages layer upon layer.

According to the folklorist Necdet Kurt, many pre-Islamic beliefs have kept their place in the daily life of the Turkmen tribes who settled in the region. Nearly all of these customs and beliefs took on an Islamic identity over time, yet changed little in form, practice or purpose. The reverence shown in the old Turkic belief system to the spirits of earth and water, to the ancestors and to the hearth, alongside the Sky God, remains visible today in the sacred trees, rocks, springs and hills of the Amasya countryside. The Qur'an's call, in the suras al-Falaq and al-Nas, to seek refuge in God from the evil of the envier, and the saying attributed to the Prophet, "Seek refuge in God from the evil eye, for the eye is real", also helped such an old anxiety as the evil eye to survive within the new faith. Although Islamic scholars disapproved of carrying amulets against the evil eye and of lead pouring, the people usually kept prayer and old practice alive side by side.

The Evil Eye and Amulets

The most widespread concern in folk belief is the evil eye (nazar). It is believed that an envious or admiring look can harm a person, an animal, property and even an inanimate object. The evil eye comes by two routes: one is through the eye, when someone looks at a thing with malice; the other is through speech, when admiration or longing is put into words as "how lovely". For this reason the people of Amasya fear for what they love; they do not look at a beautiful baby, a newly bought possession, a sturdy calf or a fruitful vineyard without saying "maşallah", and whoever looks does not forget to say it. This word, meaning "whatever God wills comes to pass", is regarded as a way of breaking at the outset any harm that might creep into admiration. Formulas such as "may no evil eye touch it", "forty-one times maşallah" and "elemtere fiş, kem gözlere şiş" (a charm wishing a skewer into the evil eye) serve the same purpose.

The object most often used against the evil eye is the blue bead. The early Turks hung precious, talismanic stones they called "monçuk" around the necks of people and horses, and even on top of their banners; in the eleventh century Mahmud of Kashgar's Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk records this word for protective objects such as the precious stone, lion's claw and amulet hung on a horse's neck. According to Abdülkadir İnan, the bead's blue colour relates to the rarity of blue eyes among the Turks and the extraordinary power attributed to such eyes. In Amasya homes, too, amulets against the evil eye are hung on cradles, on babies' shoulders, above doorways and in stables. A pinch of black cumin, a clove of garlic, a little wild rue (üzerlik) or a dried clove is often added beside the bead pinned to children's clothing; amulets containing written prayers are worn in a visible place on babies, while adults wear them out of sight beneath their clothes.

As in the neighbouring regions of Sivas, Tokat and Yozgat, the tortoise shell has been regarded as a talisman in Amasya and has in places also been used as an amulet against the evil eye. In Anatolia objects such as the tortoise shell, thought to draw the evil gaze onto itself because its shape resembles an eye, as well as horseshoes and animal skulls or horns, are hung in vineyards and gardens and on the walls of houses. The idea at work is always the same: the eye must catch on a striking object before it reaches what is precious, and the malevolent gaze must break and scatter there.

Remedies Against the Evil Eye

When someone is suspected of having been struck by the evil eye, for instance when a child falls ill and becomes fretful for no reason, the oldest and most common remedy is lead pouring. This is usually done by women regarded as an "ocak" (a hearth of healing), who have received this power from their mother or an elder by the transfer of the hand. The lead is melted over the fire in a ladle or small pan; the sufferer is made to kneel and a muslin cloth is laid over the head. The molten lead is poured, to the accompaniment of prayers, into a bowl of cold water held above the sufferer's head, and the shape it takes in the water is read to decide whether the evil eye is present and sometimes from whom it came. The procedure is usually repeated three times; the water in the bowl is sprinkled on the sufferer's face, and the rest is poured where no one will step or onto the road. Lead pouring is not as widespread today as it once was, but it cannot be said to have disappeared.

The second great remedy against the evil eye is wild rue incense. Seeds of wild rue are thrown into a pan heated over the fire; when the seeds begin to crack, the pan is taken off and the smoke is directed onto the person believed to have been struck, and then carried through the whole house. If many seeds burst, the evil eye is judged to have been severe. The scent is believed to cleanse the air of the house and drive away evil. Practices seen elsewhere in Anatolia, such as quenching embers or circling salt around the head, rest on the same logic: the effect left by the malevolent gaze is cast out of the body and the house by smoke, by water or by fire.

Good Luck, Plenty and Ill Omen

In the popular imagination nearly everything carries good or ill luck. A guest who arrives early in the morning, a running fountain and falling rain are counted as blessings; a spider entering the house or a swallow nesting under the eaves is believed to bring good luck. By contrast, placing bread upside down or spilling salt is frowned upon. A new task is begun with "Bismillah". Water is poured behind someone setting out on a journey so that the saying "go like water, come back like water" may come true and the traveller may go easily and return safe and sound. These small acts are signs of an effort to surround life with good even in its most ordinary moments.

In Amasya, attention is paid to the "foot" of the first person to enter the house on the day after New Year. If afterwards something is bought for the house, happy news arrives or things go well, the visitor's foot is considered lucky; if there is an accident, an animal dies or something breaks, that person's foot is spoken of as unlucky. When the shoes or slippers left at the door happen to come together tip to tip, a guest is expected and people say "the slippers are talking". If one slipper is turned upside down, it is considered a bad omen and is set right at once. Two rings are not worn on the ring finger; if they are, it is said that the woman will one day have a co-wife.

The practices of those who long to own a house are interesting examples of how a wish is turned into concrete action. In central Amasya such a person calls down the chimney of a brand-new house that has never been lived in: "O God, give me a house too, let me have a home of my own." In another custom, money is collected from forty-one home owners, a teapot is bought with it, the Sura Ya-Sin is recited forty-one times in the home of the person making the wish, and tea brewed in that teapot is served to guests while prayers are said for the wish to come true. Someone with a sore in the mouth or on the tongue says three times to a younger person, "a mole has fallen on my tongue", and the other replies three times, "spit it on the ground"; in this way the sore is believed to heal quickly.

Thresholds, Mirrors and Everyday Signs

In Amasya homes, stepping on the threshold is frowned upon. The threshold is the boundary between the inside and the outside of the house; in old belief it was considered the place where two worlds meet, so it is respected and no one sits or stands on it. People also avoid cutting their nails at night, gazing at a mirror for a long time and whistling after dark. It is striking that most of these prohibitions concern night and darkness; when asked why, elders often answer only "that is what is said", and the rule continues to pass from generation to generation even when its reason has been forgotten.

The small signs of the body are interpreted as well. It is believed that when a person's ear rings someone is talking behind their back, that an itching palm means money is coming, and that a twitching eye points to news on its way. Such readings are often offered half in jest, yet they reflect a wish to read the large and small signs of daily life within some kind of order. Practices such as tapping a constantly crying child lightly on the mouth with the father's shoe at the time of the sela, the call recited before prayer, likewise show that the small troubles of the household were met with old remedies known to the elders of the family.

Beliefs About Days, Seasons and Weather

In a society that lived by farming and herding, foreseeing the weather was a vital matter, and Amasya's weather lore is the product of that need. If the clouds are coming down and passing low, rain is expected and those in the vineyards, gardens and fields head home; if the clouds are moving upwards, the weather is believed to be clearing. Sheep grazing close together in the pasture without straying apart are taken as a sign that snow will soon fall, and hens roosting in the meadow as a sign that winter is at the door. If poplar leaves begin to fall from the bottom, there will be heavy snow; if from the top, little. In years when pine nuts, cones or quinces are plentiful, the winter is said to be harsh. When a day is unusually hot, people say "the cold tar is boiling" and expect rain in the end.

The calendar too is read through its own signs. The cuckoo that arrives and sings in spring is believed to announce that eighty days remain until July, the month of the sickle; it is said to sing forty days in the bushes and forty days among the leaves, and to vanish when harvest time comes. The fifth of April, called "Abrul beşi", and the seventh of May are known among the people as fixed cold spells. Of the fifth of April it is said, "Fear the fifth of April, it parts the ox from its yokemate"; on the seventh of May winter is said to make itself felt with "I am still here, I have not gone." To warn against being deceived by sunny weather, people say, "The yellow of the straw and the dry of the firewood must be kept for these days." Rain falling on the seventh of May is collected in a vessel, and yoghurt set with this water is believed to turn out well.

Separate meanings are also attached to the days of the week. Hens are not set on eggs on Fridays or Tuesdays; if set on a Friday, all the chicks are believed to turn out cockerels, and if on a Tuesday, the eggs go addled and no chicks hatch. On Fridays, Saturdays and Tuesdays, harvesting, sowing and planting are not begun, the house is not swept and laundry is not washed. While hail is falling, a trivet (sac ayağı) is thrown out of the house to make it stop. During solar and lunar eclipses prayers are said, guns are fired into the air and tins are beaten to make noise. In Eraslan, attached to Suluova, when the herds go up to the summer pasture a long line of straw matting is laid along the road and set alight, and all the animals are made to jump over the fire; here the belief in the cleansing power of fire is plain to see.

Beliefs About Birth, Confinement and Children

In Turkish folk belief a woman who has given birth and her newborn baby are considered most vulnerable during the first forty days. In many parts of Anatolia a female being known as "alkarısı" or "albastı", believed to haunt the mother and baby, is thought capable of harming them in this period. The figure bearing this being's characteristics, known by different names from region to region, is called "cazgit" in Amasya. Not leaving mother and baby alone during this period, placing an iron object such as a knife under the cradle or pillow, and using protective items such as amulets and red ribbons are the common Anatolian expressions of this belief.

Every delay in a child's growth is also tied to a place of pilgrimage or a saint. A child slow to ask to be taken to the toilet is brought on three Fridays at the time of the sela to a place known as the "çiş evliyası", the saint of wetting. The vest of a mischievous child is spread on Thursday over the grave of the saint beside the wishing well, then taken back on Friday morning and put on the child. To the Halkalı Dede Tomb in the Şehirüstü quarter are brought children who have not begun to walk although the time has come; especially on Saturdays, with prayers recited, the child's feet are passed three times through the ring in the tomb. When the child walks, a sacrificial animal is brought to the tomb, and the cooked meat is sometimes eaten to the sound of drum and shawm with dancing. The stones of the Sığırcık Molla Tomb at Gümüş, attached to Gümüşhacıköy, are rubbed on the knees of children who cannot walk and on the tongues of those who cannot speak; at the Kabalak Baba shrine in Uygur sick children are turned seven times around the rock, and the blood of the cockerel sacrificed as a vow is smeared on the rock.

The most striking practice of childless families is "selling the child". At the Dedelik shrine at the entrance to the village of Değirmendere, at the rock and oak shrine in the village of Kayrak and in many other places, the child to be born is "sold" to the saint before it comes into the world. Boys believed to have been born as a result of these prayers are named Satılmış or Kaya, and girls Satı. On a summer pasture near the village of Uygur stands a tree known as "Ebe Kayası", rising from a rock with no other tree around it, beneath which a woman who died weeping because she had no child is believed to lie. The ritual performed here at the earliest hour of the morning is led by a woman of the village responsible for the task. One woman sits at the foot of the tree, while the responsible woman holds the childless woman by the waist and turns three times around the tree with her, calling out at each turn, "Ebe Kayası, hu!" The woman at the foot replies, "Hu, where are you going?", and the responsible woman says, "Ayşe's womb bears no fruit, I am going to sell her"; at the end all say together three times, "May it be, God willing, may it stay, God willing." The woman who wants a child ties to the tree a strip of cloth torn from her dress. The same turning practice is also performed for cows that have miscarried their calves.

Beliefs About Marriage and Military Service

On the road to marriage, too, much that is not said in words is expressed through signs. A young man who has reached marriageable age turns one of his father's shoes upside down to let his family know his wish, sometimes nails the shoe to the doorstep or wears his own shoes on the wrong feet in his father's presence; this means "marry me off". When the family goes to see a prospective bride, the girl is asked for water, and the cleanliness of the glass, the carpets and the order of the house are observed. In the village of Bağlarüstü, those going to ask for a girl's hand carry a stone the size of a fist and leave it behind the outer door without the hosts seeing. A girl is not given at the first request, for it is believed that a bride obtained with difficulty is more highly valued. Once the agreement is sealed, sherbet is drunk or Turkish delight eaten so that everything may proceed sweetly.

Visits to tombs are also part of the marriage process. Tombs within the town, such as the Ehli Hatun Tomb, are visited to open the fortune of girls who have not married. In Eraslan, if Hıdırellez falls during the engagement, the bride and her relatives are taken to the Gani Baba Tomb; a rope is stretched inside the tomb and the gifts brought are fastened to it. In the village of Gökçebağ, attached to Merzifon, newly married couples always visit the Hamza Dede Tomb; after the bride is taken from her home, the bridal procession circles the tomb three times and prayers are recited.

Military service, as another rite of passage, is likewise surrounded by beliefs. In the town of Uygur the young man about to leave for the army visits the nearby Cafer Dede Tomb, and prayers are said that his service may go well and that he may return safe and sound. Before he gets into the vehicle he is made to bite a piece of bread so that his lot may draw him back home, and the bread is kept until he returns; the vest he is wearing is taken off before he leaves and kept unwashed until he comes back. The first letter received from the soldier is decorated and hung in the Cafer Dede Tomb, where it stays until he returns. The Hasan Baba Tomb near Ezinepazar and the Çamdibi shrine in the village of Çiğdemlik are also among the places visited with prayers for the health of those going to the army; young men who come back safely sacrifice there the animals they had vowed.

Tombs, Saints' Graves and Places of Pilgrimage

Around Amasya there are so many places of pilgrimage, known as tekke, türbe, yatır, evliya, dede, baba or pir, that researchers working in the field say it would take volumes to record them all. Nearly every one of them has become a place where a cure is sought and wishes are made for the future, and separate practices have arisen for each. Those who have suffered facial paralysis, children who are slow to walk or ill-tempered, mothers with little milk, those longing for children, those stricken with jaundice, unmarried people awaiting their fortune, those wishing to protect their animals from wild beasts, and those hoping for success in exams, a house or a car are the regular visitors of these shrines. In many places there is no particular ritual at all; the visit is completed with a quiet and respectful prayer.

Tombs and Wishing Wells in the Town

The Tezveren Evliyası in the town centre, whose identity is unknown, is frequented by many people, especially women: those wishing to break bad habits, those hoping for a child, unmarried girls and those preparing for exams. The visit begins on Tuesday evening, continues for three days in a row and ends on Friday evening; the Qur'an is recited before the evening call to prayer, the prayer of need is performed after it, wishes are made between the evening and night prayers, and the cenotaph is circled three times. The petitioner brings along an object connected with the wish: someone hoping to pass an exam leaves a pencil and eraser, and someone wanting a house or car leaves a key. At the tomb of Kuba Dede, whose real name is said to have been Şeyh Hüsameddin, undershirts, towels and even brooms are left in the hope of a cure. At the Ehli Hatun Tomb in the Kurşunlu quarter, after two cycles of prayer are performed and a vow is made, the visitor puts his or her head into the well and believes that the wish will be granted if a light is seen in the well.

The Wishing Well in the Hızırpaşa quarter, also known as the Well of Hell, is the subject of a similar belief. The person making a wish bends over the well with the head covered by a thick cloth to keep out the light and looks carefully into the dark water; if a light gleams from the water or a frog appears, the wish is believed to be granted. For great wishes, the Pir İlyas Tomb, the Selamet Hatun Tomb and the shrine of Hamdullah Dede are visited one after another on three Fridays at the time of the sela, and the wish is repeated at each. The "Analı Kızlı" shrine near the village of İkizyaka in Göynücek, named after a mother and daughter believed to have turned to stone through their prayers so as not to fall into enemy hands, is visited for every kind of wish.

Tree, Rock and Water Shrines

At a good many places of pilgrimage there is neither a tomb nor a grave; the sacred object is a tree, a rock or a spring. Karaağaç Dede in the village of Yeşilöz, attached to Amasya, is an elm said to be five hundred years old that puts out fresh shoots in every season. People with warts on their hands come here on the first Thursday of every month, hold the shoots over their warts and bend them until they crack without breaking them off; as the cracked twig withers there, the wart is believed to wither too. The Çatmabaşı Evliyası in the same village consists of a single large rock. Local people passing by always pay a visit to the rock, do not speak loudly, do not litter and do not take firewood; anyone who breaks these rules is believed to be frightened in a dream or struck with the facial paralysis popularly called "çalınma". It is also noteworthy that in Yeşilöz nearly every family line has its own votive place known as a "nazarlama".

At İz Kayası north of Ezinepazar, the footprint-like hollows on a large rock are believed to be the footprints of Hızır, and the rainwater collecting in them is held to be healing. According to the story, an old man came to the village, knocked at a door and asked for bread; the old woman who opened the door gave it to him, and as he left he noticed the sores in her mouth, told her where to find this stone and was never seen again. To this day those with cold sores or sores around the lips, and the relatives of children who cannot walk, take water from here with a spoon and walk away without looking back; if one looks back, it is believed the cure will not come. People with a persistent cough go to the Öksürük Kayası (Cough Rock) near the village of Yavru and drive a nail into the rock. At the Çamdibi shrine in the village of Çiğdemlik, the tree is believed to have stood there since the creation of the world, and the water flowing beside it to heal wounds. Sufferers who bathe in the Uyuz Suyu (Scabies Water), which springs between two red rocks near Ezinepazar, come back if they are cured and sacrifice a cockerel they call the "sacrifice of Gabriel".

Of Emuren Dede, known as the Cender Evliyası after the old name of the village of Kışlabeyi in Göynücek, it is told that to prove his sainthood to those who asked him for a miracle he entered a blazing oven fully clothed and came out unburned holding a tuft of grass; villagers who live by herding find this "davar otu" (flock grass) every year and sacrifice an animal beside it. The presence of Gül Dede, believed to lie beneath a pillar in the bathhouse at the centre of Göynücek, was revealed in a dream, and the water of the bathhouse has therefore been held sacred. At the Sarılık Evliyası (Saint of Jaundice) in the village of Yalnız, attached to Merzifon, lies, it is said, Sarı Kız, who wished to become a bride although she suffered from jaundice and fell dead while the bridal procession was going round; the water springing beside her grave is believed to cure jaundice, and in keeping with her last wish visitors do not leave the shrine without dancing. At the Merami Baba Tomb in the village of Bağlarüstü, a few drops of water from inside a hollow, ear-shaped bone said to have been brought from Crimea are dripped into the ears of those with ear complaints.

Placing Knives for the Saints

One of the most curious practices peculiar to the region, found especially in Turkmen Alevi villages, is "placing knives for the saints". A person suffering from an ache or pain places in the evening a knife in a bowl of water for each of the saints in the vicinity, turning each toward the direction of that saint's shrine. On rising in the morning, he or she believes that the pain was relieved by the saint in the direction of whichever knife shows rust, and leaves buns at that saint's shrine for passers-by to eat, or lights candles there. In Ezinepazar, attached to central Amasya, the same practice is used for wishes: a person with a wish throws three knives into water in the evening, dedicating each to a saint, and in the morning goes to the saint whose knife has rusted. At the Dilek Evliyası (Saint of Wishes) in the village of Çiğdemlik, those hoping for a child leave the knife directly in the spring beside the shrine; if it rusts quickly, they sacrifice an animal. Necdet Kurt sees behind this practice an ancient reverence for iron: among the early Turkic peoples iron was held sacred, and blacksmiths were regarded as people of superior skill. Placing a knife under a newborn baby's pillow or on the belly of the dead is an extension of the same belief. The people's reasoning is simple: if a saint can rust even iron in a single night, he can also ease a person's aches and pains.

Rain Prayers and Communal Rituals

Because drought was among the disasters villages feared most, the rain prayer has lived on in the Amasya countryside as a communal ceremony. Especially in dry springs, money is collected and a sacrificial animal is bought; a hodja or someone who knows the prayers walks in front with the congregation behind, "amen" is said to the prayers, and the palms are held facing downwards as if to show the falling of rain. The person leading the prayer wears his jacket or coat inside out. On reaching the place of sacrifice, the group circles it three times, and the animal is slaughtered and distributed or cooked and eaten on the spot. In the days that follow, the tombs and dervish lodges nearby are also visited. In another practice, thousands of small stones are collected, a prayer is recited over each, and the stones are placed in the river while the people wait for rain.

The rain prayer held at the Hasan Baba Tomb in Ezinepazar is the most fully recorded of these practices. The day before the prayer, women and children put a female frog in a sieve and go round every house in the town collecting food; the men gather seventy thousand small stones and recite suras of the Qur'an over each one in turn. On the day of the prayer the women perform the dawn prayer at the votive place called "Ebe Kayası", after which everyone walks through the town together, men in front and women behind, with the women wearing their clothes inside out. After prayers are said and the sacrifice is made at Hasan Baba, the imam and the village notables go round the village boundaries praying. The seventy thousand prayed-over stones are left in a sack in the well beside the votive place and are taken out only after abundant rain.

In the village of Şeyhli, attached to Taşova, children catch a frog, place it in a sieve, cover it and carry it on their heads from house to house, chanting, "Göden göden, you who make the sky thunder, who bring down rain from the sky, the troughs want dough, the earth wants mud." Asking for oil, flour and bread, at every door they knock on they say, "May whoever gives oil have a son, may whoever gives flour have a daughter"; after giving something, the householder pours a bucket of water over the children. The ingredients collected are cooked and eaten together. In the village of Akören, attached to Merzifon, when the first crocuses bloom, children go from house to house with a rhyme beginning "Çiğdem çiğdem çiçecik" (crocus, crocus, little flower), and the bulgur and butter collected are cooked into a pilaf eaten together. Because drought threatened the whole village alike, the remedy too was sought together; these meals, to which everyone contributed and at which everyone sat, show plainly the unifying place of belief in village life.

Beliefs About Death

Death, too, is thought of as an event sensed in advance through dreams and signs. Seeing a water buffalo in a dream, seeing a mirror break, a house collapse or a tooth pulled out or falling, and seeing a large cauldron are all interpreted as foretelling a death. When a sick person's eyes grow dull, the nose becomes sharp, and the gaze fixes and the colour fades, death is understood to be near. Once this is understood, the Qur'an is recited beside the sick person and water is constantly given to the mouth, because it is believed that Satan appears before someone thirsty and about to die and says, "Give me your faith and I will give you water." If the eyes of the dead remain open, people say "he could not attain his heart's desire" or "there was someone he longed for far away; his eyes stayed behind."

After death the eyes are closed, the jaw is bound and the bed of the deceased is changed; this is called the "bed of rest". So that the soul does not return to the house, the shoes of the dead are burned or given to a poor person; to keep the belly from swelling, an iron object such as a knife or scissors is placed on the navel. During the washing it is considered unlucky for the washer to climb onto the washing board, as another death is believed to follow. Friends and relatives pour a bowl each of the water left over from the washing onto the deceased as a last act of mutual forgiveness. Black cumin is sprinkled and rose water poured into the coffin of the shrouded body. If the dead person looks beautiful on the washing board, it is believed that his or her end in the hereafter will be good; if the body is soft, other deaths will follow; if heavy, the deceased had many sins, and if light, few. If rain falling while a funeral is being carried to burial suddenly stops, people say, "the shroud went in the mouth of the dead."

After the burial the imam gives the talqin, the final instruction, at the graveside; it is thought that the awakening of the dead will be known by the trembling of the earth. The meals neighbours bring to the house of mourning are called "kazma takırtısı" (the clatter of the pickaxe), and halva is made and distributed for the soul of the deceased. For the fasts and prayers the deceased failed to keep in life, a reckoning is made according to age and money is given to the poor; this is called "kefaret sarma" (wrapping the expiation). A butterfly or fly seen in the house after the funeral has left is believed to be the soul of the dead visiting in that guise. A fire is lit for three nights at the place where the body was washed; today this custom survives in the form of leaving the lights of the house on until morning on the first night after the funeral. On the seventh, fortieth and fifty-second days after the death, a mevlit is recited and a meal is given. On the fortieth day the flesh is believed to part from the bone, and on the fifty-second day the nose to fall away, causing the dead great pain. During the period of mourning the television is not turned on and music is not played in the house of the deceased; if there is a wedding nearby, there are no festivities.

The Meaning of These Beliefs

Some of these beliefs are recalled today with a smile, some survive only in the memory of the old, and some still live on at the doors of tombs, at the edges of wells and in the rooms of new mothers. Behind all of them lies the desire to soothe human unease in the face of uncertainty, to call forth good and to guard against evil. Pouring lead, leaving a knife in water or praying over stones for rain allows a person to feel able to do something even at the moment when nothing seems possible. As folklorists have pointed out, such beliefs do not easily disappear, because they answer people's psychological needs regardless of their level of education; they simply change form, and the survival of the evil-eye bead today as jewellery and ornament is the best-known example. Amasya's world of belief is a living example of how old Turkic traditions, the older layers of Anatolia and Islamic sensibility have blended together; it is like a mirror of a people's imagination, fears and hopes.

Recording these beliefs has a particular importance today. Many practices, such as lead pouring, have declined compared with the past, and some survive only in certain villages and certain families. Rain-prayer rhymes, child-selling rituals and the placing of knives for the saints, as collected by folklorists, are pieces of a way of thinking that once encompassed the whole life of the village. These beliefs, living on in Amasya in the shadow of the blue bead, bear the traces of the relationship the people formed with nature, with fate and with the unseen, and make up one of the most colourful pages of oral culture.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Kurt, Necdet. "Amasya ve Tokat Çevrelerinde Türbe ve Yatır İnanç Pratiği Örnekleri ile Velilere (Evliyalara) Bıçak Koyma İnancı". Kültür Evreni, 47, 2022, pp. 103-121.

Academic studies

  • Çıblak, Nilgün. "Halk Kültüründe Nazar, Nazarlık İnancı ve Bunlara Bağlı Uygulamalar". Türklük Bilimi Araştırmaları, 15, 2004, pp. 103-125.
  • Tunç, Zekiye. "Türk Halklarının Doğum ile İlgili İnançlarında 'Alkarısı'". Vakanüvis-Uluslararası Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, 8, Special Issue, 2023, pp. 3192-3209.

Official sources

  • Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Türkiye Culture Portal, Culture Atlas: "Amasya Halk İnançları", "Amasya Ölümle İlgili Gelenek ve İnanışlar", "Amasya Evlilik Gelenekleri", "Amasya Askerlik Gelenekleri".

Books

  • Begiç, Hacer Nurgül. "Anadolu Nazar İnancı ve Nazarlıklar". Hars Akademi, 5, Aydın Uğurlu ve Geleneksel Sanatlar Özel Sayısı, March 2022, pp. 170-187.
  • Aslan Ayar, Pelin. "Memduh Şevket Esendal'ın Gözünden Türk Toplumunda Halk İnançlarının Yeri ve İşlevi". Erdem, 82, 2022. erdem.gov.tr

Online sources