Food and dietary practices have always played an important part in religion.<\/p>\n
Among them, Islam is perhaps known to impose the most elaborate and atrict rules in this respect. In practice, these rules have been reinterpreted in regional adaptations, particularly in Turkey, where it is harder to find strict Muslims. In Anatolia, where a variety af Sufi orders once flourished, food gained a spiritual dimension above dry religious requirements, as seen in their poetry, music, and practices.<\/p>\n
Paradoxicallyi the month of Ramadan, when all Muslims are expected to fast from dawn to dusk, is alsoa month of feasting and charitable feeding of all those who are in need. Fasting is to purify the body and the soul and at the same time, to develop a reverence for all blessings bestowed by nature and cooked by a skillful chef. The days are spent preparing food for the breaking of the fast at sunset. It is customary to break the fast by eating a bite of \u201cheavenly\u201d food such as olives or dates and nibbling lightly on a variety of cheeses, slices of sausage, jams and pide. This would be followed by the evening prayers and then the main meal. In the old days, the rest of the night would be occupied by games and conversations, or going into town to attent the various musical and theaters, until it was time to eat again just before the firing of the cannon or the beating of the drums marking the beginning of the next day\u2019s fasting. People would rest until noon, when shopsand work places opened and food preparation began.<\/p>\n
The other major religious holiday is the \u201cSacrifice Festival\u201d,commemorating Abraham\u2019s readiness to sacrifice his son to God. But God sent him a ram instead, sparing his son\u2019s life. Some of the meat of the butchered animal is sent to neighbors and to the needy. The sheep is revered as the creature of God that gives its life for a higher purpose. The henna coloring on the sheep is a symbolic way of showing this respect and so are the strict instructions for slaughtering.<\/p>\n
Several occasions commemorating prophets also involve food. The six holy nights marking events in Muhammed\u2019s life are celebrated by baking special pastries, breads and lokma. The month of \u201cMuharrem\u201d occurred when the flood waters receded, and Noah and his family were able to land. It is believed that then they cooked a meal using whatever remained in their supplies. This event is celebrated by cooking \u201ca\u015fure\u201d, or Noah\u2019s pudding, made of wheat berries, dried legumes, rice, raisins, currants, dried figs, dates and nuts. You can also taste this most nourishing pudding at certain muhallebi shops.<\/p>\n
The feast of Zachariahis prepared upon being granted one\u2019s wish. This feast consists of a spread of forty-one different types of dried fruits and nutsserved to guests. Prayers are read and everyone taste all forty-one foods. A guest can then burn a candle and make a wish. If the wish comes true, one is obligated to prepare a similar \u201cZachariah Table\u201d for others.<\/p>\n
Beyondthese practices, examples of a religious tradition imbued with food metaphors are found in Sufism in general, and in the poetry of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi in particular, as well as in the verses of classical Turkish poetry and music. In fact, to understand the full meaning of this spiritual tradition would be impossible without deciphering the references to food and wine, cooking, eating, and intoxication. Mevlana, who lived in Konya in the 13th century A.D., represents an approach to sufism that follows the Way of Love to Divine Reality, rather than Knowledge, or gnosis. As mentioned earlier, the food-related guilds and the Janassaries also followed the Sufi Order. A clash of philosophies on food is told in a story about Empress Eugenie\u2019s French chef, who was sentto the Sultan\u2019s kitchen to learn how to cook an eggplant dish. He soon begged to be excused from thisimpossible task, saying that when he took his book and scales with him, the Turkish chef threw all of them out the window , because \u201can Imperial chef must learn to cook with his feelings, his eyes and his nose\u201d-in other words, with love!<\/p>\n
Asceticism, rather than hedonistic gluttony is associated with Sufism, and yet food occupies an important place. Followers of the Order began with the simplest menial duties in dervish lodges which always included huge kitchens. After a thousand and one days of service, the novice would become fully \u201ccooked\u201d and become a full member of the Brotherhood. In other woods, being \u201ccooked\u201d refers to spiritual maturity. One wonders if the Turkish tradition of cooking everything until it is soft and welldone has anything to do with this association (cooking al dente has no meaning to Turks).<\/p>\n
The story of the chick pea told by Mevlana in his \u201cMathnawi\u201d is a superb example of this idea. When the tough legume is cooked in boiling water, it complains to the woman cooking it. She explains to it that this is necessary so that it can be eaten by human beings, become part of human life and thus be elevated to a higher form. The fable of the chick pea describes the suffering of the soul before its arrival at Divine Love by the dervish. There is also the image of Allah preparing the helva for the true dervishes. In this particular verse, the whole universe , as it were, is pictured as a huge pan with the stars as cooks! In other verses, the Beloved is described as being as tasty as salt, or as a Friend who has \u201csugar lips\u201d. Wine also represents the maturation of the human soul, similar to the ordeal the sour grape endures. So many mystical meanings are attributed to wine that the name \u201ctavern\u201d stands for the Sufi hospice and experiencing Divine Love is described by the metaphor of \u201cintoxication\u201d<\/p>\n
These mystical ideas are still very much alive in present-day Turkey, where food and liquor are enjoyed with recitations of mystical poetry and dignified conversation. Often these gatherings provide an occasion for people to distance themselves from eartly matters and transcend into mysticism and promises of a better life hereafter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"