In Amasya, the circumcision of a boy is not treated merely as the fulfilment of a religious duty. For the family it is the first clear sign that the child is growing up, and for relatives and neighbours it is an occasion to come together. The boy is dressed in special clothes, often a decorated crown is placed on his head, he is paraded through the day by car or on foot, and guests are received at home. Within this celebration kirvelik has a place of its own: it is the bond formed between the child's family and the person who takes on the costs of the circumcision and stands beside the boy, a bond that in many places is held to be firmer than blood kinship. Because no detailed Amasya-specific collection exists, the short cultural records of the locality have been read alongside nationwide research on kirvelik, and the text states which information belongs to Amasya and which to the general tradition. The circumcision ceremonies of the Ottoman princes lie outside the subject of this page and are mentioned only briefly, for comparison with the folk custom.

The Religious and Social Place of Circumcision

Circumcision is the removal of the foreskin of a boy. In Islamic culture it is traced back to the practice of Abraham and is counted in the hadith among the acts that accord with human nature (fıtrat). According to the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, jurists disagree about its ruling: the Hanafis and Malikis call it a sunna, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis call it obligatory (wājib). The Hanafis regard it as one of the symbolic rules of Islam, like the call to prayer, and do not allow a community to abandon it altogether. The history of the practice reaches far back before Islam, to ancient Egypt, to Semitic peoples and to the tradition of the Arabs of Ishmaelite descent; in the Torah, circumcision is the sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham.

There is also disagreement about the age. Some jurists, thinking that the ceremony will remain in the child's memory as a recollection adorned with religious motifs and so shape a personality attached to religious values, found the period between the age of discernment (temyiz) and puberty more suitable. The Shafi'is, relying on the report that the Prophet had his grandsons Hasan and Husayn circumcised when they were seven days old, consider the seventh day after birth recommended; in the other three schools this report was not considered strong, and the practice was deemed disliked because it resembles Judaism. Folk practice in Anatolia is closer to the second line. Cultural inventories for the Amasya region usually give the age as between five and eight, in some accounts up to twelve, and the operation is timed for the summer months, when the child is not at school. The same encyclopaedia also records that in the Ottoman Empire princes were circumcised at the age of discernment and only then sent out to a sanjak.

Giving a banquet and holding festivities on the occasion of a circumcision is a very old custom. The Arabs called this banquet 'azîra, and games were played to music. It is reported that when Caliph Umar heard the sound of a tambourine and singing, he would ask whether it was a wedding or a circumcision, and if it was either, he did not interfere. Later jurists and the founders of the four schools did not object to banquets and festivities on such days, provided they were not turned into a means of breaking religious rules, and most considered attending them recommended. Turkish communities have always attached importance to the circumcision ceremony, and a rich tradition has grown up around the circumcision feast.

How a Circumcision Feast Unfolds in Amasya

According to the page on local customs published by the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, circumcision feasts are generally held at weekends. The boy is first taken to the bathhouse and then dressed in his circumcision outfit. A convoy of vehicles is formed with the invited guests, and the boy is driven around the area with his friends; then he is brought home and the circumcision is performed. Guests visit the child and give their presents, food is served, and entertainment with instruments and songs is provided. Some families hold the feast with a mevlit recitation, and others put the mevlit off until a few days after the feast.

This sequence is close to the one the TDV article on kirve describes for Anatolia in general: the child is taken to the bathhouse, paraded on the day of the circumcision on horseback or in a cart, and a few days later the child's side visits the kirve and brings gifts. Cultural inventories also record that in the region preparations begin a week in advance, that the child's bed is decorated with coloured gauze, paper and lights, and that the circumcision outfit is bought at least a week beforehand. Soup, pilaf, doner and seasonal fruit are named as the food. The feast is mostly completed over two days, Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday; at the henna night held the evening before, relatives, close friends and neighbours gather, the child is made to dance and henna is applied to his hand. This henna account also appears in the records on Amasya circumcision customs, but its details vary from locality to locality and from family to family.

The decorations of a circumcision feast also vary with the means of the family. The TDV article on nahil states that the nahil, known from palace weddings as a decorated tree made of beeswax, was also found at popular weddings, that each family had one made according to its financial means, that at circumcision feasts the child's family had it made and carried to the front of the house, and that in some villages the custom can still be seen. We have no record of whether the nahil tradition survives in Amasya; this information concerns Anatolia in general.

Who Is the Kirve

Kirvelik is the fictive kinship established between two families when an elder of another family takes on the costs of a child's circumcision feast. The article by Özdemir Nutku in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam reports that the word probably entered Turkish through Persian and is also used in colloquial speech in the form kivre. Orhan Türkdoğan, in his article published in 1966-1969, says that no certain conclusion about the origin of the word could be reached; he lists several possibilities, including derivation through Kurdish from the Persian word kir, and a resemblance to Armenian and Greek terms and to Christian godfatherhood, without settling on any of them. He adds that the Turkish Dictionary also gives no source for the word.

The kirve's principal duty is to hold the child's arms with his hands and his legs with his own legs during the operation, easing the circumciser's work. Where kirvelik is widespread, this is joined by paying the costs of the circumcision feast and giving presents to all members of the family and to the guests. The kirve buys the child's clothes, sends the family's presents before the circumcision, often takes the child to the bathhouse and parades him on the day of the feast. Sending staples such as butter, rice and sugar to the circumcision house a week before the ceremony is also among his duties. In the records concerning Amasya the same picture recurs: the kirve is chosen from among close relatives or very friendly neighbours; the kirve dresses the child in the circumcision outfit and gives presents to the child's mother and father, to grandparents if there are any, and to other members of the family; if the kirve is financially well off, he bears the costs. In some places the kirve only holds the child and contributes to the costs in part.

Who proposes kirvelik varies by region. Sometimes the child's father makes the request to a friend or relative he trusts, and sometimes the person who will undertake the circumcision offers himself. Once the prospective kirve has been sounded out and agrees, the family that is to become kirve is visited with gifts. Breaking off a kirvelik agreed between two families is regarded as an unpardonable act. This rule shows the legal and social side of the institution.

A Kinship Like Blood

The belief that makes the bond of kirvelik strong is that the blood of the circumcision stains the hem of the kirve's garment. According to the TDV article, for this reason the kirve is regarded as inseparable by ties of blood and is interpreted as a kind of blood brotherhood. In the examples he cites from the Kars region, Türkdoğan gives the blood spilled on the kirve's hem as the reason for the sanctity of this bond; in some places the kirve is held more important than the child's father and closer than a brother. In the same study kirvelik is described as a bond that cannot be formed among blood relatives; the kirve is counted closer than the child's maternal or paternal uncle. Because the kirve is counted as one of the household, it is said that the women of the house do not hide from him, that he eats with them, and that there is no door or chimney between the families. These statements are drawn from research on regions where kirvelik is strongly alive, not from Amasya.

One consequence of the bond is a ban on marriage. According to TDV, in some places marriage is forbidden between members of families that are kirve to one another; the rules determining which members cannot marry vary from region to region. The records on Amasya likewise state that the kirve neither gives nor takes a girl in marriage once the child has grown up. Türkdoğan writes that in Kars one cannot marry the daughter of one's kivra, and that the brother of the child for whom kirvelik was done also cannot ask for the kirve's daughter; he explains this by the fact that the kirve's hand was washed with the child's blood, and sees the prohibition as the product of a closeness equal to blood kinship.

Kirvelik also has a function of social balance. TDV reports that kirvelik is sometimes established between two families or tribes engaged in a blood feud, so that the blood is forgiven and the families are reconciled. The Culture Portal article written for Tunceli says that in that region kirvelik has served a religious function in reconciling estranged families, ending old enmities and stopping conflicts between tribes. The form in Tunceli is bound up with Alevi religious organization, and there is no record showing that it lives in the same way in Amasya, but the use of kirvelik as an instrument of social peace is a function widely seen in Anatolia.

Equality of Standing and Reciprocity

Kirvelik is mostly established between people of the same socioeconomic level. The people express this in the saying "A camel stays with its match, kirvelik is made among equals." A poor father cannot propose kirvelik to a wealthy family, but waits for their invitation. Türkdoğan describes another picture as well: there are examples in which wealthy families, to earn religious merit, take on the circumcision costs of poor children, in which becoming kirve to orphans is regarded as a religious responsibility, and in which this raises the rich man's standing in society. That in the same regions the rich man is also kirve to the poor shows that two different notions of equality complement each other: families of the same level become kirve to one another, and those with means become kirve to the child of the poor.

The duty of return is also part of the rule. According to TDV, after the circumcision the child's father must give the kirve a present worth more than what the kirve spent; otherwise he loses his honour and standing among the people. In some regions the father shares the circumcision costs with the kirve. In Tunceli, on the other hand, what the kirve has spent is afterwards made good by the family, so that the kirve is not put in financial difficulty. These practices show that kirvelik is not a matter of being left to carry a burden but of mutual attachment.

The kirve's responsibility continues after the day of the circumcision. If the child's family cannot afford schooling, the kirve may take on the educational costs, guide him, and watch over and protect him in finding a trade or a profession. Thus the kirve is not released from his duty when the day is over; he is expected to act like a second father throughout the child's growing years. The records state that in Amasya the phrase "second father" is widespread, that the kirve concerns himself with everything about the child, and that the bond between the families is perceived as kinship and is not broken.

Kirvelik in and around Amasya

The institution of kirvelik does not live with the same strength everywhere in Anatolia. The TDV article mentions it among the oldest Turkish customs, in a geography stretching from Dagestan to Adana and from Tabriz to the east of Sivas; in the narrow sense it is established in eastern and southeastern Anatolia. West of the Sivas-Adana line, where Turkmen communities known as Yörük live, its legal and socioeconomic meaning is sometimes rendered by the word sağdıç (best man); in Edirne the sağdıç is called kirve. Among the Avşar and Kaçar Yörüks of the western Aegean the kirve is called the circumcision father, and it is said that this person forms no kinship bond as in kirvelik, but is someone who gives presents and is respected.

Amasya lies in the middle belt of this map. TDV writes that in the provinces of Denizli, Afyon, İzmir, Konya, Samsun, Giresun, Ordu, Kastamonu, Bolu, Antalya, Bursa and Manisa and their surroundings the word kirve is not used, that the child is held during the circumcision by relatives or by the bravest of those present, that religious ceremonies and gifts are part of it, but that kirvelik carries no social or economic function. Amasya is not among the provinces listed. Türkdoğan's research, on the other hand, reports that, because of migrations and various settlements, kirvelik has kept its real importance in Ayancık in Sinop and in Merzifon in Amasya; he adds that the institution also exists in the Oghuz region, particularly in Çorum, Kayseri, Mersin, Adana, Tokat and Yozgat. Judging by these records, kirvelik in Amasya is less a common institution of the whole province than a tradition that lives strongly in places such as Merzifon and lies close to the line running through neighbouring Tokat, Çorum and Yozgat; this assessment is an indirect reading of the sources.

An expression reported from Yozgat shows how far the institution had entered everyday language. According to Türkdoğan, people there say "are you the kivre of my pleasure," a variant of the Anatolian saying "are you the steward of my pleasure," which conveys that the kirve may meddle in everything. We have no record that this expression is used in Amasya.

The circumcision festival held every year in Taşova, one of the districts of Amasya, by the İyilik Hareketi Culture, Education and Solidarity Association shows a present-day face of the tradition. The association takes applications from families; the children are circumcised at home with health personnel in attendance, while their needs such as clothes, shoes and presents are met by donations from benefactors. Describing the work, the association's president invites everyone to become "a child's hope and kirve." That the word kirve is used in Taşova today in the sense of charity can be read as a new form of the custom Türkdoğan describes, in which the rich man becomes kirve to the poor. This is an interpretation; the news report does not describe it as a continuation of the kirvelik tradition.

Kirvelik and the Rites of Other Regions

One of the liveliest forms of kirve at circumcision is found in Tunceli. According to the Culture Portal article, kirvelik there is a pledge (ikrar) that has acquired meaning within Alevi belief and is understood mainly as friendship of the Prophet. On the day before the circumcision feast or on the day itself, an oath is taken around a low table called a honca. A tray is placed on the table, a towel and a handkerchief are spread in it, soap is placed at its edge, and a piece of the sacrificial animal is also brought. The dede turns toward the qibla and begins the prayer, and the kirve's family and the child's family stand in rows behind him. After the prayer money is thrown onto the tray, and the money collected is distributed to the seyyids, the circumciser and those who served at the feast. The rite is completed by customs such as sending an apple or a pine splinter to the family that is to become kirve and giving twelve kuruş in representation of the Twelve Imams. This arrangement differs considerably from what is described for Amasya; it is mentioned to show that kirvelik is not performed with the same rite everywhere and that the same word takes different forms in different belief systems and social structures.

Palace Circumcisions and Folk Circumcisions

In the Ottoman Empire the circumcision feasts held for princes and for the children of statesmen were very magnificent. Works called surname, in verse or prose, describe the births and circumcisions of the sultans' children and the weddings of the sultans' daughters; the earliest examples are those written by Âlî Mustafa Efendi and İntizâmî for the 1582 circumcision of Mehmed III, son of Murad III. That festival lasted fifty-five days and fifty-five nights. Among the common subjects of the surnames are the issuing of the decree, the guest list, the arrangement of the banquet, the guild procession, acrobats, horse races, javelin games, music, fireworks and lantern processions. The circumcision held in 1675 for the princes Mustafa and Ahmed, sons of Mehmed IV, lasted fifteen days. The circumcision ceremonies of the princes during their sanjak governorships in Amasya are a subject to be treated separately; here they are mentioned only for comparison with the folk feast.

The shared features are striking. In the palace and in the village alike, the bathhouse, clothing, procession, banquet, gifts and music are the elements that make up the ceremony. The difference lies in scale: the palace staged festivities lasting days, while the people hold the ceremony as far as their means allow. The outfit prepared by the kirve in Amasya, the convoy that is organized and the table that is laid are the neighbourhood-scale counterpart of the same structure. Kirvelik, in the folk tradition, is a separate part of this common structure through its aspect of binding two families together and lasting beyond the ceremony.

What Is Known and What Is Missing

There is no extensive, fieldwork-based collection specific to the region on circumcision feasts and kirvelik in Amasya. The information available consists of the short records of the Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Culture Portal, the TDV articles, and the single sentence in Türkdoğan that mentions Merzifon. Details such as which duties the kirve takes on in which village, by what form of address the kirve is called, to what degree the marriage ban is applied and how the kirvelik agreement is made are not found in the sources. No separate record has been seen for districts other than Merzifon. This gap could be filled by collections made among the people of the region; until then, what is written is a reading of the broader Anatolian research adapted to Amasya.

Sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Online sources