Mocking / To mock

Alazlama, in Turkish, refers to the condition in which redness or red spots appear on the body. It is also the term used for the act of setting something on fire or burning it.

Example: “Spirit sweet seared his stomach with intense heat.” – Refik Halit Karay

Word derives from the word “alaz,” meaning flame. Alazlama has emerged as a term within Anatolia’s oral culture and belief systems. In Turkish tradition, fire, water, trees and mountains such as became sacred entities due to Shamanist tradition. Various rituals and practices are sustained around these natural entities.

It is believed that specific interpretations and beliefs regarding fire among the Turks extend as far back as 3000 BCE. Turkish-origin individuals who migrated to Small Asia carried these beliefs to their new territories. Alazlama is still employed in Anatolian people medical practices for the treatment of physical and spiritual ailments. In this context, Çankırı and important serve as examples where the tradition of alazlama continues in the treatment of a condition known as “bakır basması.” Word in this context manifests as allergic-type redness and blisters on the skin. The treatment involves moving a heated copper vessel over the affected region on a red cloth. In Anatolia, a trustworthy, and according to some, ascetic successor was chosen to perform these healing procedures.

Lead pouring also appears as part of the tradition of healing through fire or smoke. Indeed, practices known in Turkish culture as parpi, incensing, and buhurlama/pohorlama, which are performed to cleanse oneself from evil forces, are fundamentally rooted in beliefs connected to fire worship. place In this framework, understanding alazlama as a therapeutic method within oral culture and belief systems appears more accurate.

An example of the purifying and cleansing attributes assigned to fire can be found among the Altai Turks. In Altai Turkic beliefs, it is forbidden to cross over the hearth, to defile the fire by throwing garbage, sharp metals, or ashes into it, or to to chew or to mix the ashes. After lead is poured, in some regions, the water is disposed of far from people; similarly, the Altai people leave the ashes in places where neither humans nor animals can on. Furthermore, among the Altai and Yakuts, a ritual known as “alas,” performed by shamans, aims at purification through fire. The alas practice is also observed across the Turkic world, notably among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. The Altai people, who passed fire over the heads of Byzantine envoys, named this ceremony alas and also used the term as a chant during house-smudging to expel evil spirits, invoking it from a horse dedicated to the patient, sacrificial animal. Similarly, during Hıdırellez and Nowruz festivals, people leap over fires they have lit to free themselves from illness and evil spirits. The healing properties of fire continue to persist in Turkish traditions and epics throughout Central Asia and Anatolia.

Afet İnan writes the following regarding the word “al”: “An indication that the word ‘al’ is linked to fire worship is the widespread ritual of ‘alazlama’ among all Turkic peoples. Alazlama is a fire-based cleansing and consecration ritual among Central and Eastern Asian Turks. In Anatolia, alazlama is a healing method. For this purpose, forty-one threads of linen cloth dyed red are wound into a ball while reciting incantations. The ball is then burned in fire, and its ash is placed again on a red cloth, which is then used to perform alazlama. The spirit of Al, in the ancient Turkic pantheon, was likely a powerful deity, perhaps one of the guardian gods. The association of the word ‘al’ with fire worship particularly demonstrates that this spirit was, in the earliest times, a guardian spirit, the goddess of fire and hearth.” (Özkul, 2015;182)

The profound significance of fire and the world surrounding it in Turkish culture, and the sanctification of certain elements, reflects the esteemed position of the Turkish people, who mastered ironworking and achieved great accomplishments. It is therefore no coincidence that mythological and cultural narratives place fire at their center.