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19th Century Turkmen
May. 6th, 2011 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxfinialI've been researching 19th Century Turkmen people for a short story I'm currently working on, and while plenty of my research has proved really useful for the story, there're some awesome tidbits that I have no way of working in. And so, I bring them to you!
• Pre-Islamic beliefs apparently linger among the Turkmen, such that "Even today, in some extremely remote areas, one can occasionally see the skull and skin of a sacrificed horse hanging on a tree or shrub." These sacrifices are to Tengri, currying favours.
• Zengibaba is the saint-protector of cattle.
Source: Rafis Abazon, Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics, Greenwood Press: 2007.
• "Remnants of totemism cited by Rashid al-Din indicated that each tribe revered a bird that was not touched or eaten." (But it was unclear whether this referred to Turkmen or other Turkic peoples.)
• For the bridal wedding procession, where the bride goes to her husband's yurt, there are small carpet-covers for the camel's knees, "in deference to the camels' well-known sense of modesty."
Source: Louise W Mackie & Jon Thompson, eds. Turkmen: Tribal Carpets and Traditions, The Textile Museum, Washington DC: 1980.
• [a certain river] "is fabulously rich in fish at about four or five geographical miles from its mouth, so that its waters appeared almost coloured by them, and are in summer hardly drinkable. After I had only twice used it for washing, my hands and face acquired a strong fishy smell."
Source: Arminius Vambéry, Travels in Central Asia, John Murray: 1864.
• Pre-Islamic beliefs apparently linger among the Turkmen, such that "Even today, in some extremely remote areas, one can occasionally see the skull and skin of a sacrificed horse hanging on a tree or shrub." These sacrifices are to Tengri, currying favours.
• Zengibaba is the saint-protector of cattle.
Source: Rafis Abazon, Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics, Greenwood Press: 2007.
• "Remnants of totemism cited by Rashid al-Din indicated that each tribe revered a bird that was not touched or eaten." (But it was unclear whether this referred to Turkmen or other Turkic peoples.)
• For the bridal wedding procession, where the bride goes to her husband's yurt, there are small carpet-covers for the camel's knees, "in deference to the camels' well-known sense of modesty."
Source: Louise W Mackie & Jon Thompson, eds. Turkmen: Tribal Carpets and Traditions, The Textile Museum, Washington DC: 1980.
• [a certain river] "is fabulously rich in fish at about four or five geographical miles from its mouth, so that its waters appeared almost coloured by them, and are in summer hardly drinkable. After I had only twice used it for washing, my hands and face acquired a strong fishy smell."
Source: Arminius Vambéry, Travels in Central Asia, John Murray: 1864.
