Death and Funerals in Turkey, 1911
When a Turk is about to quit the world, it is important, if he is conscious, that forgiveness should be asked and granted for any injury he has done or…
Location: Turkey
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Turkey and the Turks by Z. Duckett Ferriman, 1911.
When a Turk is about to quit the world, it is important, if he is conscious, that forgiveness should be asked and granted for any injury he has done or received. This, if possible, is done on both sides. It is called helal.
Relatives gather round, reciting prayers, and it is the custom for the dying person to make his last bequests. After death comes the wailing and beating of breasts inseparable from all Oriental mourning. But there are no myrologies, as among the Greeks.
The final ablution, ensuring ritual purity, is incumbent on Moslems as on Jews. The body is placed on the rahat latak—couch of repose—covered with a sheet and borne to the courtyard for this purpose, which is carried out by the parish imam and his subordinates, if it is that of a man. If it is that of a woman, the rite is performed in private by women “washers." But it is always attended by great reverence.
The body is very carefully handled and kept covered as much as possible. For it is believed that the soul still has some connection with the body for some time after death, and that it is conscious of pain. It is not loosed from the bonds of the flesh at least until after burial, nor even always then. The ablutions completed, the body is clad in a sleeveless gown, in the folds of which spices are placed, whilst over it is sprinkled rose-water. Then the shroud is wound about it, and it is lifted into the temporary coffin and carried to the house.
The burial takes place on the day of death, or, at latest, the day after. At the hour agreed upon, the imam enters the death-chamber. “O congregation, what has this man's (or woman's) life been?" “Good," is the reply. “Therefore, give helal to him (or her)." The coffin is draped with shawls. It has an upright peg or knob at the end, on which is placed a fez or turban, or, if it is a woman, her coif or kerchief.
It is then borne to the mosque, where the first part of the burial service is read, and from there to the cemetery. The bearers are relieved by others at short intervals, for as many share the burden as possible. It is considered a meritorious act, and spiritual benefit is derived from it. At the graveside the body is removed from the coffin and laid in the grave. Earth to earth burial is the invariable rule. Prayers are recited and passages from the Koran read by the imam, and the mourners and followers depart. But the white turbaned imam remains alone by the grave to pray. For the questioners are now with the dead—the angels Munkir and Nakir. To their questions he will reply, if his life has been good, and they will grant him repose. If the reverse, he will be unable to answer, and will be punished. Such are the simple funeral rites of the Turks.
There is no hearse, there are no wailing chants, no flowers and plumes, no black garb, for the Turks wear no external signs of mourning, and no hirelings. That worst of mockeries they are spared, for all is done by relatives and friends. The chief characteristic of a Turkish funeral is its reverent silence. In this it differs from those of other Moslems. The Arabs, as they carry the dead to the cemetery at a rapid pace, chant the Confession of Faith, and there is the keening of their women. Turkish women do not, as a rule, accompany the funeral procession, but on the other hand they are sedulous in their visits to the graves of their near ones, usually choosing a Friday.
For though they wear no mourning, nor have any period of seclusion after a death, and though their attitude is generally one of calm resignation, the Turks are not forgetful of their dead. The life beyond the grave is very real to them. It is for this reason chiefly that they deprecate excessive grief for lost children, for they hold that these latter are conscious of it, and that it hinders and is hurtful to them in the other life, drawing them down to this.
Prayers and almsgiving are esteemed to be good for the departed. This receives formal expression in the distribution of lookoom (dough-nuts) to the poor three days after a funeral. This is repeated on the seventh and the fortieth day and is accompanied on the last by a dole of loaves. It is also the custom on the death of a rich man or woman to distribute alms and gifts from among their personal effects.
Prayers for the dead are a religious duty. It is an act of filial piety, and therefore obligatory, to pray constantly for deceased parents, and it is customary to conclude a namas with a prayer for the forgiveness of the sins of the worshipper and for those of his “two parents." Allusion has been made in a previous chapter to the Friday collect recited in the mosques, asking for divine mercy on the souls of all believing women, living and dead. In it are especially mentioned the names of Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet, and of Kadija and Ay'esha his wives. We have already seen how the passer-by is asked to say a fatihah for the soul of the dead by the inscription on tombstones. This is the form of prayer usually taken by those who pray by the graves of their relatives.
The tombstones are all upright; some are cylindrical, most are flat, and all taper towards the base. Men's tombs are surmounted by a turban, the more recent ones by a fez, women's by a floral design. They lean at all angles from the perpendicular, but the graves are orientated towards Mecca. The cemeteries are in reality thick woods of cypress trees which make a twilight even at noon. They are too neglected for English taste, the very reverse of our trim gardens of the dead with their parterres, clipped hedges, and shaven lawns.
Magnify the churchyard of Painswick in the Cotswolds and quintuple the height of its ninety-nine yews, and you may get a notion of a Turkish cemetery, though not of its forlorn melancholy. But that, after all, is in keeping with the place. The gloom, broken only when the sun is low, by a shaft of glowing light athwart the spectral boles, the pervading sombreness relieved here and there by the white veil of a woman praying by a grave, have a charm which is inexpressible, and one can understand that Byron said of Turkish cemeteries, they were the loveliest spots on earth.
Ferriman, Z. Duckett. Turkey and the Turks. James Pott & Co., 1911.
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