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Accepted Paper:
Eating Ashure on Ashura: intra-religious food encounters in contemporary Turkey
Stefan Williamson Fa
(Lund University)
In Islam, food is employed in the mediation of relations between humans and the divine, often as a votive to seek blessing. In the pluralistic setting of North Eastern Turkey, amongst shared practices of votive-food offerings the substance of food matters in the negotiation of sectarian relations.
Paper long abstract:
In many religious traditions food is employed in the mediation of relations between humans and the divine. For Muslims, food can serve as a votive, an intercessory medium for seeking blessing and grace from God. The day of Ashura, the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram, is particularly holy for Muslims of different denominations. For Turkey’s Shiʿi and Alevi minorities, Ashura marks the tragic martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, and is considered a day of mourning. However, Sunni communities claim it is a particularly auspicious date as it is connected to several historic events, including the landing of Noah’s Ark. The distinct understandings of this holy day are materialized in each community’s divergent votive food offerings – Shiʿa cook helva, a flour-based sweet associated with funerals, while Sunni cook ashure, a rich festive pudding made of fruits, nuts and grain. Based on fieldwork in Northeastern Turkey, this paper focuses on the practice of distributing these distinct votive foods and their meaning for sectarian relations. In a pluralistic setting like this, sharing votive foods not only serves as a pious act to foster relations with God but is significant in the complex negotiation and navigation of intra-religious relations.