Свещена топография на село Ябланово, Котленско
The Sacred Topography of the Village of Yablanovo, Kotel Region

Summary/Abstract: The village of Yablanovo is populated by Turks, professing heterodox Islam (Kızilbashis). The village is notable for its numerous population (more than 4000 people), as well as for the unusually great number of türbes (11 known up to now), existing on its territory. The shrines in the village belong to two types: a) a grave in a rectangular tomb (the türbes of Hüseyin Baba and Hazır - Nazır Baba, as well as Kız türbesi); b) a grave in a tomb with more than four walls (the türbe of Koclu Baba - pentagonal, the türbes of Hasan Baba and Topuz Baba - septagonal) On the land of the village of Yablanovo, there are also türbes, which are situated outside the settlement. Apart from the türbe of Ali Baba, which is rectangular, there are also shrines of the type "a grave without a tomb" - those of Alvan Baba, Gul Baba, Oksiiz Baba, and Bobasan tUrbesi. Today another sacred building in the village is the mosque. The article follows the stages of the development of türbes. It examines their architectural peculiarities and interior decoration, as well as the symbolic forms of the tombstones and the epigraphs on three of them. Object of analysis is the folklore concept, connected to the sacred places and the images of the saints worshipped there. The main conclusion of the research is that the founding and structuring of the sacred places (türbes) reflect religious views, which have been formed mainly under the influence of bektashism. The influence of the bektash order in the region is confirmed by an Ottoman-Turkish document, published in the appendix. It concerns a tekke (non-existing nowadays), founded at the end of the 18-th century in the neighboring village of Vrani kon.

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