review of: Religious Quest and National Identity in the Balkans. Ed. by C. Hawkesworth, M. Heppell and H. Norris. London, Palgrave, in association with SSEES, University College, London, 2001. 242 pp.
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The annual general commemoration of the dead Tursko Chetiriyset [Turkish Forty] is little known and not described up to now. It could be observed on the 27 of March in the villages of Galata, Gradeshnitsa and Glogovo (Teteven Region), inhabited by compact Bulgarian Muslim population. On that day before noon a great number of people visit the cemeteries - the graves are cleaned up and poured down with water, the deceased are lamented for and food is given out. The studying of this ritual practice is a result of fieldwork in the villages of Galata and Gradeshnitsa and direct observations in Galata in 1999 and 2001. The interviews and observations are documented on audio-records, photographs and a video-film. The local people observe the day, called "Turkish/Our Forty" as their specific holiday and compare it to the "Bulgarian Forty" (the Forty Holy Martyrs, March 22). The holiday has a well-developed structure of ritual actions and takes an important place in the communal life of Teteven pomaks, in their memorial and funeral rituals. In the past, on the afternoon of that day, there were traditional amusements, characteristic for other spring holidays in the Bulgarian lands as well. These peculiarities, viewed in comparison with different cultural traditions, suggest connections to a certain type of spring memorial holidays, practiced in different forms by both Muslims and Christians on the Balkans and in Asia Minor. It could be accepted that this holiday is a local variant of the popular holiday Kırklar (Newruz), which for some reasons has become predominantly (only) a day for commemoration of the dead.
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The legend of a maiden with the byname "yellow" (Tur. Sarı Kız 'Yellow girl') is connected with two places in the eastern Rhodopes - the region of the town of Ardino and within the boundaries of Greece, between the towns of Gumurdzhina (today's Komotini) and Soflu (today's Sufli). The "Yellow girl" in the Rhodopes is a warrior hypostasis of an archetypal female image. Its sacred hypostasis is Sarı Kız from the legends and beliefs of the heterodox Muslims in Turkey. The demonic hypostasis is represented by female spirits, inhabiting forests or waters - "yellow maidens", albasti, pen, samodivi, etc. - in the traditions of Turkic, Balkan and Slavic peoples. The broad area of propagation of the byname Sarı Kız and of the notion, connected to it, suggests direct cultural contacts. The name and the image are transmitted with the movement of Turkic-speaking kinship groups in the Ottoman Empire and are re-interpreted in the process of interaction of cultural traditions. In the second half of the 20-th century the new means of information (press, media, etc) and the centralization of social and cultural life have brought about a new re-incarnation of the traditional image.
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Sabri Huseyin is a naqshbandi shaykh, who lived probably from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century. It is known by tradition that he came from Buhara. It is also told that he was a softa - first in Azerbaijan, and then in Istanbul. Because of that today he is known mainly by the byname of Softa Baba. The most of his life passes in northeastern Bulgaria. The text of the article also includes data about his descendants. During the first half of the 19-th century Sabri Hüseyin had been one of the most respected Naqshbandi shaykhs in Tutrakan and the region. A proof for that is his türbe - an octagonal stone building, erected about the middle of the same century. At the türbe there is also a semahane, which is octagonal too, but is built of bricks and beams, earlier that the türbe - probably in the second quarter of the 19-th century. Today the türbe of Sabri Hiiseyin and the semahane are in comparatively good condition and represent the only naqshbandi sacred bulidings in Bulgaria. They could be characterized as zaviye, which was the main center of Naqshbandiyya in southern Dobroudja from the middle of the 19-th to the middle of the 20-th century. After 1826 the naqshbandi community in Tutrakan and the region is strongly influenced by the Bektashis, who joined it as a result of persecution by Ottoman officials after their order was closed down. The naqshbandi community in Tutrakan is influenced also by the Kizilbashis, who even adopt the "zaviye" of Sabri Hiiseyin after the return of southern Dobrudja within the borders of Bulgaria on 7 Sept. 1940. Today the "zaviye" is visited mainly by Kizilbashis for the rituals connected to Ashura and the türbe itself is one of the emblematic buildings in Tutrakan.
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The article examines the problem of the specific interrelation space - time in Islamic art. In plastic arts, where time is absent as a form-generating factor, space is expressed in a two-dimension interpretation of the forms, in conscious rejection of depth and perspective. This means rejection of the third dimension, which is so common for the eyes of the European; a dimension, which gives volume and adapts the work of art to its real spatial environment. In Islamic art the very notion of plasticity is not connected to modeling the volume, which presupposes three-dimensional characteristics. It is rather connected to the artistic transformation of the flat surface - facade, wall paneling, cover or page of a book, canvas of a picture or carpet. The two-dimensional structuring corresponds to the abstract, mathematical way of spatial thinking, which is typical of the Arabs and which finds a bright expression in the wide application of Geometry in various spheres of artistic creation.
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Illustration pages 32 ff (without pagination in the printed edition)
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he central theme in the story of the Islamic prophet Nuh (Noah of the Bible) is the theme of salvation through faith. In the narrative tradition of Bulgarian Pomaks it is represented not only by the central plot - the story of Nuh peygamber and the Deluge - but also by some secondary ("included") plots that treat the problem of individual (personal) salvation. The paper presents two examples with opposite solutions (negative and positive) that correspond to two subthemes of the basic theme: religious belief results in Divine reward and salvation, while disbelief provokes Divine punishment. The first subtheme is represented by the story of the pious old woman with the cow that Nuh forgot to take in his Boat of Salvation but nevertheless God saved her. The second is a popular version of the Quranic story of the son of Nuh (Yam or Kanaan) who perished in the waters of the Deluge. Both stories are based on the common concept: individual (human) will for salvation is always submitted to Divine will (Predestination) and is a result of the right personal choice to lead a pious life. The examples of individual salvation are seen as proofs of possible salvation of pious Muslims and the Muslim community in the forthcoming Judgement Day as well.
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This article presents the musical component of the wedding ritual among the Bulgarian Muslims from the region of Teteven. Some of the musical examples, examined in it, are "taken out" from the memories of the informants, others are parts of the wedding, as it could be observed today. The author makes an attempt at a reconstruction of the wedding rituals among this population, which is descriptive to some extent. This is necessary for clarifying the ritual context, in which the concrete musical pattern existed, or exists nowadays. Attention is focused mostly on those moments of the wedding, in which music is present, or which are necessary for explaining the essence of the musical component. The author registers the lack of engagement songs and analyzes the instrumental music, performed while the guests are invited (here the functional difference between the local instrumental group and the professional groups, hired for weddings, is defined). She admits the possible existence in the past of music, accompanying the preparation of the bride. Special attention is paid to the music (both vocal and instrumental), performed while the bride is taken out from her parents' house, as well as to the music at the wedding table and at the wedding how dances (and especially the specific regional variant of the Paydushko how and its place in the ritual). Object of analysis are also the melodies "at wrestling", which are no longer a part of the living tradition. The author draws parallels with the wedding music of the Christian population in neighboring settlements, and in northeastern Bulgaria, proving the unity of wedding rituals in the region and in northern Bulgaria as a whole.
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In the beliefs and notions of the Rhodopean population there are female mythical creatures, whose functions are close, but not always completely identical. They bear the main features of thz samodiva and have a number of local designations, among which the denomination yuda is most widespread. The yudi appear in two main hypostases - as maidens and as whirlwinds. Their localization characterizes them as demons of nature - they appear in marginal places in the space, inhabited by man. The contact with them is designated as stepping over their sofra [table] or coming across their weddings. In the Rhodopes the image of yudi is influenced by the penetration of Islam and the notions of its demons. This is obvious in the characteristics of pen in the eastern Rhodopes. The image of the Rhodopean yuda is multi-faceted. It shows some features of a vegetation deity, connected to fertility and water. The samodiva in the Rhodopes is a character, whose appearance in the world of humans is connected to the calendar. In folk songs the yudi are mythical creatures, embodying the elements. In narrative genres they get close to sickness demons. These peculiarities characterize the yuda as one of the most interesting personages in Rhodopean folklore.
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The article examines the notions of the Turks heterodox Muslims about the Muslim saint Kız Ana, whose türbe is situated in the village of Momino, Targovishte region. The attention is focused mainly on the names, with which she is called. The image of Kız Ana is influenced to some extent by the notions of the Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima, although Kız Ana differs from Fatima by her celibacy. The name Kız Ana 'daughter mother' is interpreted as a variant of Fatima's kunya - Umm Abiha 'mother of her father' - and is connected to the Sufi idea of the searching soul, who becomes the mother of her God. The analysis of another byname of Kız Ana - San kız - leads to the conclusion that the saint's image also reflects the Sufi conception of the woman as a perfect theophany, whose archetype is Sofia Aeterna.
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The village of Yablanovo is populated by Turks, professing heterodox Islam (Kızilbashis). The village is notable for its numerous population (more than 4000 people), as well as for the unusually great number of türbes (11 known up to now), existing on its territory. The shrines in the village belong to two types: a) a grave in a rectangular tomb (the türbes of Hüseyin Baba and Hazır - Nazır Baba, as well as Kız türbesi); b) a grave in a tomb with more than four walls (the türbe of Koclu Baba - pentagonal, the türbes of Hasan Baba and Topuz Baba - septagonal) On the land of the village of Yablanovo, there are also türbes, which are situated outside the settlement. Apart from the türbe of Ali Baba, which is rectangular, there are also shrines of the type "a grave without a tomb" - those of Alvan Baba, Gul Baba, Oksiiz Baba, and Bobasan tUrbesi. Today another sacred building in the village is the mosque. The article follows the stages of the development of türbes. It examines their architectural peculiarities and interior decoration, as well as the symbolic forms of the tombstones and the epigraphs on three of them. Object of analysis is the folklore concept, connected to the sacred places and the images of the saints worshipped there. The main conclusion of the research is that the founding and structuring of the sacred places (türbes) reflect religious views, which have been formed mainly under the influence of bektashism. The influence of the bektash order in the region is confirmed by an Ottoman-Turkish document, published in the appendix. It concerns a tekke (non-existing nowadays), founded at the end of the 18-th century in the neighboring village of Vrani kon.
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Keywords: local government; investment; local development
The implemented investment projects increase the economic potential of self-governments, allow for the performance of tasks and launching innovative products and services, optimize the processes of management. The investments implemented by local self-governments influence the standard of living of the inhabitants and, through the development of communal infrastructure, they can encourage private investors to operate in their regions. This paper presents general aspects potential and investment capacity of commune self-governments (communes are principal units of territorial division in Poland) in 2004-2009. The scientific investigations were focused on the presentation of basic concepts of these issues, especially in terms of investment activity and local development.
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Keywords: financing; education systems; European Union
This article is about the ways of financing education systems in chosen European countries. The European Union does not state common education policy for all membership countries, instead it creates education standards, which are used by education systems of individual countries. The analysis of management and education systems in the European Union countries shows their significant differentiation. Education in these countries is mainly financed from public funds.
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Keywords: financial crisis; corporate governance; banking sector
Corporate governance is one of the areas in which we search for the origins of the current financial crisis. Although the governance instruments were not direct causes of the crisis, it is obvious that they were not adjusted to deal with the process of controlling and monitoring the new model of banking business, in which risk management plays a crucial role. The Polish banking sector survived the crisis in quite a good condition. The purpose of this paper is to find out to what extent good corporate governance has protected Polish banks from the global crisis.
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