Canonic Blood Offerings in the Tradition of Bulgarian Muslims Cover Image
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Канонични кръвни жертви в традицията на българите мюсюлмани
Canonic Blood Offerings in the Tradition of Bulgarian Muslims

Author(s): Goran Blagoev
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН

Summary/Abstract: The blood offering is one of the universalia in the culture of Bulgarian Muslims codified by Islamic cannon. It puts the blood offering – kurban among the musts for the followers of the faith and makes it a persistent element in every traditional Muslim culture. The paper deals with two types of sacrifice, which can be treated as canonical – offering at birth (akika kurban) and offering on the day of Kurban Bayram. Akika kurban is the first sacrifice offered in the life of a Muslim. It designates a specific initiation of the individual into the community, preceding the first kurban, which the Muslim begins to offer as a real member of his community – the kurban for the Bayram. The Bayram kurban is like an initiating rite, expressing human obedience to Allah. This kind of kurban has also the meaning of a “psychopompos” in Muslim eschatology. The kurbans described are a special credo, marking the socialization of the particular person from the Muslim community in this and the yonder world. They are a part of the whole system of sacrifices, existing in the culture of Bulgarian Muslims.

  • Issue Year: XXII/1996
  • Issue No: 3-4
  • Page Range: 70-83
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Bulgarian