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Food and Spiritually
Food
and dietary practices have always played an important part in religion.
Among them, Islam is perhaps known to impose the most elaborate and strict
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 of Sufi orders once flourished,
food gained a spiritual dimension above dry religious requirements, as
seen in their poetry, music, and practices. Paradoxically, the month of
Ramadan, when all Muslims are expected to list from dawn to dusk, is also
a 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 reference 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 "heavenly"
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 attend
the various musicals 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's fasting. People would test until noon, when
shops and work places opened and food preparation began. The other major
religious holiday is the "Sacrifice Festival," commemorating Abraham's
readiness to sacrifice his son to God. But God sent him a ram instead,
sparing his son's life. 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.
Several
occasions commemorating prophets also involve food. The six holy nights
marking events in Mohammed's life are celebrated by baking special pastries,
breads and lokma (donut you know). The month of "Muharrem" 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 "asure", or Noah's pudding,
made of wheat berries, dried legumes, rice, raisins, currants, dried figs,
dates and nuts. You can also taste this most nourishing pudding at any
muhallebi shops. The feast of Zacharia is prepared upon being granted one's
wish. This feast consists of a spread of forty-one different types of dried
fruits and nuts served to guests. Prayers are read and everyone tastes
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 "Zacharia Table"
for others. Beyond these practices, examples of a religious tradition imbued
with Food metaphors are found in Sufism in general, and in the poetry of
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (the founder of Whirling Dervishes) in particular,
as well 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
in 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 Janissaries also followed the Sufi Order. A clash of philosophies
on food is told in a story about Empress Eugenie's French chef, who was
sent to the Sultan's kitchen to learn how to cook an eggplant dish. He
soon begged to be excused from this impossible task, saying that when he
took his book and scales with him, the Turkish chef threw all of them out
the window, because "an imperial chef must learn to cook with his feelings,
his eyes and his nose" - in other words, with love!
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 clays of service, the novice would become fully "cooked"
and become a full member of the Brotherhood. In other words, being "cooked"
refers to spiritual maturity. One wonders if the Turkish tradition of cooking
everything until it is soft and well-done has anything to do with this
association (cooking al dente has no meaning to Turks). The story of the
chick-pea told by Mevlana in his "Mathnawi" 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 higher form. The fable of the chick-pea describes the
suffering of the soul before its arrival it Divine Love. The peasant eating
helva for the first time symbolizes the discovery of 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 "sugar lips."
Wine also represents the maturation of the human soul, similar to the ordeal
the sour grape endures. So many mystical meanings ire attributed to wine
that the name "tavern" stands for the Sufi hospice and experiencing Divine
Love is described by the metaphor of "intoxication". 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 earthly matters and transcend into mysticism and promises of a better
life hereafter. |
