(Picture supply: https://lokmaciankara.com/)
As in lots of worldwide cities, meals options closely in Istanbul. Yearly there’s a brand new style sensation, however custom-built vehicles serving up lokma—delicate, little balls of yeasted dough deep fried and dunked in a lightweight syrup—aren’t any passing fad. As quickly because the truck flap opens, individuals rapidly type traces that final so long as the scent of frying oil permeates the air. In contrast to typical meals vehicles that promote their merchandise, these distribute theirs without spending a dime.
The act of distributing lokma on this method, generally carried out straight by people or households, and at different occasions by paying a non-public firm to take action on one’s behalf, is named hayrına lokma dökmek. The phrase interprets as “to pour morsels for charity,” and derives from the Arabic phrase luqma, which means chew or mouthful. Historically, servings of lokma are handed out without spending a dime as a ritual to recollect a departed cherished one. Individuals who didn’t know the deceased are welcome to affix the queue and obtain the candy, doughy balls. Like many others in Turkey, though I’m not Muslim, I too await my flip to obtain lokma when the chance arises.
Regardless of appearances, this follow shouldn’t be solely about demise neither is it solely linked to faith. “Once we have a look at it culturally,” Sedat Taş, supervisor of the lokma distribution firm Hayır Lokması says, the explanations for distributing lokma without spending a dime are each secular and sacred, corresponding to giving because of Allah when opening a brand new enterprise or asking for prayers to grant a new child baby an extended life. As such, lokma, and the motivations for giving it away without spending a dime, present enlightening insights into the way in which faith, custom, and modernity intersect in 21st century Turkey.
The Act of Mourning and Consuming Sweets in Islam
In Islam, mourners come collectively to carry out ritual prayers 7, 40, and 52 days after an individual has died, normally of their properties. Speedy members of the family, distant relations, and associates recite mevlit, a sequence of prayers, and eat one thing candy, typically halva, to deliver reduction and mercy to the deceased. Whereas analysis means that round 94% of the Turkish inhabitants, at the moment simply over 85.5 million, believes in Allah, this doesn’t imply each particular person lives strictly in line with Islamic tenets. Nevertheless, most Turks do take part in non secular observances to mark vital moments within the life cycle, corresponding to delivery and demise, each of which contain the consumption of meals.
The structured nature of the mourning interval comes from pre-Islamic Turkic beliefs regarding the levels the our bodies and souls of the useless cross by way of after an individual takes their final breath. One of the extensively held is that the flesh detaches from the bone on the fortieth or 52nd day after demise so commemorations on these days are stated to ease their struggling. As well as, the useless had been thought to hang-out their properties for as much as forty days so the extra prayers which are stated, the much less probably they’d do any hurt to the household.
In accordance with Taş, “normally individuals principally desire the 40th day,” to distribute lokma on behalf of the deceased. “Or if there may be somebody who handed away in earlier years, they wish to distribute lokma on the anniversary of the demise.” The corporate does their greatest to accommodate the mourners’ needs, notably with regards to sharing lokma within the neighborhood the place the particular person lived.
Taş’s mom, Figen Taş, is a religious Muslim and got here up with the concept of distributing lokma from vehicles in Istanbul in 2005. Right this moment their fleet numbers 100 vehicles, and so they make use of 600 staff in whole. Individuals desirous to mark the passing of a cherished one pay 5000TL, round $130 USD on the present alternate price, for a minimal order of 750 parts of lokma. However there’s no higher restrict to what number of parts the corporate can provide. In the meanwhile they use round 20 tons of hamur, a bit over 44,000 kilos of dough, a month.
(Picture supply: Lokma Diyari Istanbul)
At public hayrına lokma dökmek choices, praying for the deceased shouldn’t be obligatory. Nonetheless individuals will typically recite the phrases, “Alhamdulillahi rabbil Alamin,” to themselves as they eat the lokma. It’s from the second verse of Surah Fatiha, the primary chapter of the Koran and actually interprets to “Reward be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe.” In accordance with Islamic specialists, Surah Fatiha was the primary full surah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Saying the phrases “Alhamdulillahi rabbil Alamin” whereas serving to to commemorate the deceased successfully commends them to Allah whereas additionally performing as an announcement of gratitude and submission.
Typically, Taş notes, “individuals wish to farewell the deceased particular person from the mosque the place they’d essentially the most associates, or to distribute lokma within the mosque the place associates, spouses, comrades and other people knew the deceased. They wish to attain out to them as a result of they are going to supply higher needs for them.”
Meals as Charity in Islam
Lots of the practices pertaining to the methods Muslims behave are prescribed by sunnah, the actions of the Prophet Muhammed that, alongside along with his phrases and the issues he authorised, are collectively often known as hadith. Nevertheless, hayrına lokma dökmek is a {custom} somewhat than a spiritual obligation. It’s predominantly related to Turkey and never common to Islam.
Feeding the hungry is talked about within the hadith. It is among the many acts a Muslim can carry out so as to guarantee their passage to heaven. There are alternative ways to supply meals, corresponding to throughout Kurban Bayramı, also called Eid al-Adha. On this non secular occasion, an animal is slaughtered, and the meat is distributed to shut household and relations with a 3rd of the meat donated to the needy. Kurban means “sacrifice” in Turkish and this act commemorates the story of Ibrahim, often known as Abrahim/Abraham within the Bible. Ibrahim was put to the check when Allah requested him to surrender his son Ismail/Ishmael so as to show the power of his religion. Simply as Ibrahim was about to attract his knife, Allah stopped him and gave him a ram to sacrifice as an alternative.
There are two sorts of sacrificial practices amongst the Turks, each of which denote gratitude, devotion, and the person’s submission to the next energy. Kurban is categorised as a bloody sacrifice for apparent causes. The second sort of sacrifices are cold.
Cold sacrifices are known as saçılga, which accurately means “scatter,” and embrace showering a brand new bride with wheat and sugar. “In all these sacrificial meals traditions,” Aylin Tan, a meals historical past researcher and columnist says, “you sacrifice one thing precious, given for a very good trigger.” Distributing lokma is one other type of cold sacrifice. Households spend their hard- earned cash, placing the wants of the beloved in heaven above their very own on Earth.
Taş says his mom believes those that “contribute to the work of distributing lokma and make it occur obtain as a lot reward because the individuals who ask for this work to be accomplished.”
“On the identical time,” Taş provides, “it’s one thing we accomplish that we are able to earn non secular benefit. In truth, the identify of our store is Hayır Lokması, however our firm identify is Sevap Gıda, which means ‘meals of benefit or reward.’”
The Historical past of Hayrına Lokma Dökmek in Turkey
Taş says hayrına lokma dökmek “is a really previous custom that comes from the Ottomans” and attributes its origins to Izmir, within the Aegean area of Turkey.
There is no such thing as a doubt lokma was widespread with the Ottoman courtroom. Official data from 1841 listing lokma tabağı, particular lokma plates, on the stock of the imperial kitchens in Topkapı Palace, the executive centre of the Ottoman Empire and residential to the Ottoman sultans in Istanbul till 1856. Whether or not it was served to commemorate a demise is much less sure. Mary Işın, a meals historian says, “Lokma for funerals in Istanbul is a brand new phenomenon, though it appears to have been recognized within the nineteenth century as a result of in his Ottoman dictionary printed in Istanbul in 1901, Şemseddin Sami says lokma is ‘normally distributed for the soul of the useless.’” Işın additionally notes that Lucy Garnett, writer of The Ladies of Turkey and their Folklore, printed in 1893, wrote that three days after a demise, the household of the deceased despatched plates of loukmas, “a form of dough-nut,” round to the homes of their associates. Additionally they distributed some to the poor with the request that they pray for the soul of the departed.
Distributing lokma was additionally frequent in Greece, as Tan factors out, the place they’re known as loukoumades. Previous to 1923, massive sections of the Aegean coast, together with Izmir, had been populated by Rum, Greeks born in Turkey. When Greece and Turkey signed the Conference In regards to the Trade of Greek and Turkish Populations, often known as the Greek-Turkish inhabitants alternate, in 1923, round 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians dwelling in Turkey and between 350-400,000 Muslims from Greece had been forcibly returned to their “homelands.”
It’s conceivable the hayrına lokma dökmek custom started with the Rum, however as with many cultural practices handed down by way of the generations, the passing of time and lack of documentation means it’s not potential to definitively state its origins.
Shamanism and Lokma
Tan says, “I believe individuals in Izmir had the behavior from Anatolia,” but in addition believes the creation and consumption of lokma as a candy delicacy related to demise rituals “goes again to pre-Islam shamanistic beliefs from Central Asia.” Shamanism refers to a perception system primarily based on shamans, people thought to have the ability to heal the sick and escort the souls of the useless to the afterlife. Within the Turkish model, Kök Tangri, the Sky God, is the last word ruler. Tangri is usually linked to Tian, a Chinese language philosophical idea which means heaven.
Tan compares frying dough to make lokma for the deceased with an previous Chinese language custom the place, she says, “the chimney has to proceed to smoke or the kitchen must survive to ship a message to the misplaced one as she or he is up within the sky already. So the misplaced one’s soul will know the home continues to be surviving and nice and everyone is in good situation.” Cooking one thing candy is the technique of releasing the odor of the oil into the air to reassure the useless.
Nevertheless, “No one is aware of that or perceives this as such in at the moment’s Turkey,” Tan continues. Individuals don’t know the rationale or the foundation of it; they simply do it “as a result of it’s custom.” But as she herself acknowledges, “many traditions in Turkey are usually not actually utterly non secular,” and the distribution of hayrına lokma dökmek is a working example.
Prayers for a Chook, an Artist and a Hollywood Visionary
Giant scale industrial distribution of lokma by way of fleets of vehicles has solely been occurring in Istanbul during the last twenty years, however locals have been fast to undertake the follow. Initially, except for deaths, it was primarily accomplished, Taş explains, for “weddings, engagements, and circumcisions.” Now, he says, they get orders for all kinds of causes. Some “individuals distribute lokma if their son handed an examination” and when certainly one of their prospects “misplaced their parrot they stated, ‘If I discover my parrot I’ll distribute lokma to individuals, I’ll sweeten individuals’s mouths.’ Every week later the fowl entered his home by way of the window and the client had lokma distributed.”
Individuals even order lokma to be distributed to the general public to look at worldwide losses, corresponding to what occurred on January 21, 2024, when a bunch of artwork lovers paid for lokma to be distributed on the 35th anniversary of Salvador Dali’s demise. Extra just lately David Lynch followers in Istanbul did the identical.
The Candy Style of Prayer
Regardless of its recognition in Turkey, the follow of handing out lokma is basically unknown exterior the nation. Taş explains how, “Individuals, foreigners, once they come as much as our vehicles in the course of the distribution of lokma, they’ll’t perceive what we’re doing. Despite the fact that we are saying it’s free, no cost, they ask ‘How is it free? Why are you distributing it then?’”
This has definitely been my private expertise as somebody who moved to Turkey greater than 15 years in the past. The primary time I noticed a hayrına lokma dökmek truck I needed to ask a lady within the queue what it was. As soon as I understood, I used to be nonetheless a bit bowled over after I noticed waitstaff from close by eating places sprint over with stacks of empty plates and stand patiently in line ready to choose up parts for his or her diners too. Nevertheless, it’s the act of consuming the lokma that’s paramount, not the particulars of who consumes them or what number of they take. Handing out lokma without spending a dime brings individuals from completely different segments of society collectively and strengthens social ties. In that second, though all of us are strangers to at least one one other, together with me, we’re united.
In a Turkey struggling to not fragment below excessive inflation and a forex weakening by the day, getting one thing for nothing is a deal with. “Individuals are joyful,” says Taş, “once we distribute sweets without spending a dime as a result of life could be very costly in our nation today.” And in spite of everything, because the Hayır Lokması firm slogan reminds us, “Mutluluk paylaştıkça çoğalır”: “Happiness will increase when shared.”
Lisa Morrow is an Australian-born writer and journey author who has lived in Istanbul and different components of Turkey for greater than 15 years. She has a Masters’ Diploma in Sociology, has written 5 books on Turkey, and her work has appeared within the New York Occasions, Hyperallergic, BBC Journey, Meanjin, CNN Journey, and elsewhere.
(Picture supply: https://lokmaciankara.com/)
As in lots of worldwide cities, meals options closely in Istanbul. Yearly there’s a brand new style sensation, however custom-built vehicles serving up lokma—delicate, little balls of yeasted dough deep fried and dunked in a lightweight syrup—aren’t any passing fad. As quickly because the truck flap opens, individuals rapidly type traces that final so long as the scent of frying oil permeates the air. In contrast to typical meals vehicles that promote their merchandise, these distribute theirs without spending a dime.
The act of distributing lokma on this method, generally carried out straight by people or households, and at different occasions by paying a non-public firm to take action on one’s behalf, is named hayrına lokma dökmek. The phrase interprets as “to pour morsels for charity,” and derives from the Arabic phrase luqma, which means chew or mouthful. Historically, servings of lokma are handed out without spending a dime as a ritual to recollect a departed cherished one. Individuals who didn’t know the deceased are welcome to affix the queue and obtain the candy, doughy balls. Like many others in Turkey, though I’m not Muslim, I too await my flip to obtain lokma when the chance arises.
Regardless of appearances, this follow shouldn’t be solely about demise neither is it solely linked to faith. “Once we have a look at it culturally,” Sedat Taş, supervisor of the lokma distribution firm Hayır Lokması says, the explanations for distributing lokma without spending a dime are each secular and sacred, corresponding to giving because of Allah when opening a brand new enterprise or asking for prayers to grant a new child baby an extended life. As such, lokma, and the motivations for giving it away without spending a dime, present enlightening insights into the way in which faith, custom, and modernity intersect in 21st century Turkey.
The Act of Mourning and Consuming Sweets in Islam
In Islam, mourners come collectively to carry out ritual prayers 7, 40, and 52 days after an individual has died, normally of their properties. Speedy members of the family, distant relations, and associates recite mevlit, a sequence of prayers, and eat one thing candy, typically halva, to deliver reduction and mercy to the deceased. Whereas analysis means that round 94% of the Turkish inhabitants, at the moment simply over 85.5 million, believes in Allah, this doesn’t imply each particular person lives strictly in line with Islamic tenets. Nevertheless, most Turks do take part in non secular observances to mark vital moments within the life cycle, corresponding to delivery and demise, each of which contain the consumption of meals.
The structured nature of the mourning interval comes from pre-Islamic Turkic beliefs regarding the levels the our bodies and souls of the useless cross by way of after an individual takes their final breath. One of the extensively held is that the flesh detaches from the bone on the fortieth or 52nd day after demise so commemorations on these days are stated to ease their struggling. As well as, the useless had been thought to hang-out their properties for as much as forty days so the extra prayers which are stated, the much less probably they’d do any hurt to the household.
In accordance with Taş, “normally individuals principally desire the 40th day,” to distribute lokma on behalf of the deceased. “Or if there may be somebody who handed away in earlier years, they wish to distribute lokma on the anniversary of the demise.” The corporate does their greatest to accommodate the mourners’ needs, notably with regards to sharing lokma within the neighborhood the place the particular person lived.
Taş’s mom, Figen Taş, is a religious Muslim and got here up with the concept of distributing lokma from vehicles in Istanbul in 2005. Right this moment their fleet numbers 100 vehicles, and so they make use of 600 staff in whole. Individuals desirous to mark the passing of a cherished one pay 5000TL, round $130 USD on the present alternate price, for a minimal order of 750 parts of lokma. However there’s no higher restrict to what number of parts the corporate can provide. In the meanwhile they use round 20 tons of hamur, a bit over 44,000 kilos of dough, a month.
(Picture supply: Lokma Diyari Istanbul)
At public hayrına lokma dökmek choices, praying for the deceased shouldn’t be obligatory. Nonetheless individuals will typically recite the phrases, “Alhamdulillahi rabbil Alamin,” to themselves as they eat the lokma. It’s from the second verse of Surah Fatiha, the primary chapter of the Koran and actually interprets to “Reward be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe.” In accordance with Islamic specialists, Surah Fatiha was the primary full surah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Saying the phrases “Alhamdulillahi rabbil Alamin” whereas serving to to commemorate the deceased successfully commends them to Allah whereas additionally performing as an announcement of gratitude and submission.
Typically, Taş notes, “individuals wish to farewell the deceased particular person from the mosque the place they’d essentially the most associates, or to distribute lokma within the mosque the place associates, spouses, comrades and other people knew the deceased. They wish to attain out to them as a result of they are going to supply higher needs for them.”
Meals as Charity in Islam
Lots of the practices pertaining to the methods Muslims behave are prescribed by sunnah, the actions of the Prophet Muhammed that, alongside along with his phrases and the issues he authorised, are collectively often known as hadith. Nevertheless, hayrına lokma dökmek is a {custom} somewhat than a spiritual obligation. It’s predominantly related to Turkey and never common to Islam.
Feeding the hungry is talked about within the hadith. It is among the many acts a Muslim can carry out so as to guarantee their passage to heaven. There are alternative ways to supply meals, corresponding to throughout Kurban Bayramı, also called Eid al-Adha. On this non secular occasion, an animal is slaughtered, and the meat is distributed to shut household and relations with a 3rd of the meat donated to the needy. Kurban means “sacrifice” in Turkish and this act commemorates the story of Ibrahim, often known as Abrahim/Abraham within the Bible. Ibrahim was put to the check when Allah requested him to surrender his son Ismail/Ishmael so as to show the power of his religion. Simply as Ibrahim was about to attract his knife, Allah stopped him and gave him a ram to sacrifice as an alternative.
There are two sorts of sacrificial practices amongst the Turks, each of which denote gratitude, devotion, and the person’s submission to the next energy. Kurban is categorised as a bloody sacrifice for apparent causes. The second sort of sacrifices are cold.
Cold sacrifices are known as saçılga, which accurately means “scatter,” and embrace showering a brand new bride with wheat and sugar. “In all these sacrificial meals traditions,” Aylin Tan, a meals historical past researcher and columnist says, “you sacrifice one thing precious, given for a very good trigger.” Distributing lokma is one other type of cold sacrifice. Households spend their hard- earned cash, placing the wants of the beloved in heaven above their very own on Earth.
Taş says his mom believes those that “contribute to the work of distributing lokma and make it occur obtain as a lot reward because the individuals who ask for this work to be accomplished.”
“On the identical time,” Taş provides, “it’s one thing we accomplish that we are able to earn non secular benefit. In truth, the identify of our store is Hayır Lokması, however our firm identify is Sevap Gıda, which means ‘meals of benefit or reward.’”
The Historical past of Hayrına Lokma Dökmek in Turkey
Taş says hayrına lokma dökmek “is a really previous custom that comes from the Ottomans” and attributes its origins to Izmir, within the Aegean area of Turkey.
There is no such thing as a doubt lokma was widespread with the Ottoman courtroom. Official data from 1841 listing lokma tabağı, particular lokma plates, on the stock of the imperial kitchens in Topkapı Palace, the executive centre of the Ottoman Empire and residential to the Ottoman sultans in Istanbul till 1856. Whether or not it was served to commemorate a demise is much less sure. Mary Işın, a meals historian says, “Lokma for funerals in Istanbul is a brand new phenomenon, though it appears to have been recognized within the nineteenth century as a result of in his Ottoman dictionary printed in Istanbul in 1901, Şemseddin Sami says lokma is ‘normally distributed for the soul of the useless.’” Işın additionally notes that Lucy Garnett, writer of The Ladies of Turkey and their Folklore, printed in 1893, wrote that three days after a demise, the household of the deceased despatched plates of loukmas, “a form of dough-nut,” round to the homes of their associates. Additionally they distributed some to the poor with the request that they pray for the soul of the departed.
Distributing lokma was additionally frequent in Greece, as Tan factors out, the place they’re known as loukoumades. Previous to 1923, massive sections of the Aegean coast, together with Izmir, had been populated by Rum, Greeks born in Turkey. When Greece and Turkey signed the Conference In regards to the Trade of Greek and Turkish Populations, often known as the Greek-Turkish inhabitants alternate, in 1923, round 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians dwelling in Turkey and between 350-400,000 Muslims from Greece had been forcibly returned to their “homelands.”
It’s conceivable the hayrına lokma dökmek custom started with the Rum, however as with many cultural practices handed down by way of the generations, the passing of time and lack of documentation means it’s not potential to definitively state its origins.
Shamanism and Lokma
Tan says, “I believe individuals in Izmir had the behavior from Anatolia,” but in addition believes the creation and consumption of lokma as a candy delicacy related to demise rituals “goes again to pre-Islam shamanistic beliefs from Central Asia.” Shamanism refers to a perception system primarily based on shamans, people thought to have the ability to heal the sick and escort the souls of the useless to the afterlife. Within the Turkish model, Kök Tangri, the Sky God, is the last word ruler. Tangri is usually linked to Tian, a Chinese language philosophical idea which means heaven.
Tan compares frying dough to make lokma for the deceased with an previous Chinese language custom the place, she says, “the chimney has to proceed to smoke or the kitchen must survive to ship a message to the misplaced one as she or he is up within the sky already. So the misplaced one’s soul will know the home continues to be surviving and nice and everyone is in good situation.” Cooking one thing candy is the technique of releasing the odor of the oil into the air to reassure the useless.
Nevertheless, “No one is aware of that or perceives this as such in at the moment’s Turkey,” Tan continues. Individuals don’t know the rationale or the foundation of it; they simply do it “as a result of it’s custom.” But as she herself acknowledges, “many traditions in Turkey are usually not actually utterly non secular,” and the distribution of hayrına lokma dökmek is a working example.
Prayers for a Chook, an Artist and a Hollywood Visionary
Giant scale industrial distribution of lokma by way of fleets of vehicles has solely been occurring in Istanbul during the last twenty years, however locals have been fast to undertake the follow. Initially, except for deaths, it was primarily accomplished, Taş explains, for “weddings, engagements, and circumcisions.” Now, he says, they get orders for all kinds of causes. Some “individuals distribute lokma if their son handed an examination” and when certainly one of their prospects “misplaced their parrot they stated, ‘If I discover my parrot I’ll distribute lokma to individuals, I’ll sweeten individuals’s mouths.’ Every week later the fowl entered his home by way of the window and the client had lokma distributed.”
Individuals even order lokma to be distributed to the general public to look at worldwide losses, corresponding to what occurred on January 21, 2024, when a bunch of artwork lovers paid for lokma to be distributed on the 35th anniversary of Salvador Dali’s demise. Extra just lately David Lynch followers in Istanbul did the identical.
The Candy Style of Prayer
Regardless of its recognition in Turkey, the follow of handing out lokma is basically unknown exterior the nation. Taş explains how, “Individuals, foreigners, once they come as much as our vehicles in the course of the distribution of lokma, they’ll’t perceive what we’re doing. Despite the fact that we are saying it’s free, no cost, they ask ‘How is it free? Why are you distributing it then?’”
This has definitely been my private expertise as somebody who moved to Turkey greater than 15 years in the past. The primary time I noticed a hayrına lokma dökmek truck I needed to ask a lady within the queue what it was. As soon as I understood, I used to be nonetheless a bit bowled over after I noticed waitstaff from close by eating places sprint over with stacks of empty plates and stand patiently in line ready to choose up parts for his or her diners too. Nevertheless, it’s the act of consuming the lokma that’s paramount, not the particulars of who consumes them or what number of they take. Handing out lokma without spending a dime brings individuals from completely different segments of society collectively and strengthens social ties. In that second, though all of us are strangers to at least one one other, together with me, we’re united.
In a Turkey struggling to not fragment below excessive inflation and a forex weakening by the day, getting one thing for nothing is a deal with. “Individuals are joyful,” says Taş, “once we distribute sweets without spending a dime as a result of life could be very costly in our nation today.” And in spite of everything, because the Hayır Lokması firm slogan reminds us, “Mutluluk paylaştıkça çoğalır”: “Happiness will increase when shared.”
Lisa Morrow is an Australian-born writer and journey author who has lived in Istanbul and different components of Turkey for greater than 15 years. She has a Masters’ Diploma in Sociology, has written 5 books on Turkey, and her work has appeared within the New York Occasions, Hyperallergic, BBC Journey, Meanjin, CNN Journey, and elsewhere.
