BARAK OVASINDA BİR SU PERİSİ: ELLÜTE
A WATER FAIRY IN THE BARAK PLAIN: ELLÜTE

Summary/Abstract: The Barak Turkmens are among the ancient branches of the Oghuz Turks -a people of state building pedigree whose still undated emergence has left traces from China to the heart of Europe, from Siberia to the African littoral, and across the Middle East. Even today, the lifeways of these tent dwelling Barak Turkmens are molded by migration, and they have long situated örf ve âdet (custom and usage) alongside -at times even ahead of- formal religious precepts. As living bearers of the Turk’s archaic culture and of its oral history, the Baraks have therefore served as primary material for numerous local and international studies. Following the introduction, this article explicates the core notions that underpin the discussion “barak, ocak, and peri” occasionally venturing into their etymological roots. The main section draws on testimony collected in the Barak Plain to document the oral tradition whereby a particular Turkmen family, whose migratory memory runs unbroken from Khorasan to Anatolia, acquires the status of ocaklı (affiliated with a saintly hearth lineage) through the intervention of a peri maiden. The narrative then traces the seven generation arc that leads to the eventual extinguishing of that lineage hearth. In doing so, the study renders visible both the resilience and the fragility of an ocak sustained by a water fairy’s gift.

• Details
• Contents