RECENTLY ADDED
Mountains and Fire Worship: Sacred Peaks and Fiery Rituals: Tracing the Pre-Christian Roots of Dersim’s Alevi Beliefs
The entry informs about the continuity of pre-Christian/pre-Islamic veneration of high, usually volcanic mountains in the antic Armenian Highlands, including Dersim. These venerated mountains were...
Alevi Television Networks: Media and Alevism
Alevi television networks, created by and for Turkey’s Alevi community, have become central to the public articulation of Alevi culture, religion, and politics. Emerging in...
The Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli Dergah
This entry examines the closure of the Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli Dervish Lodge (Dergâh), a site of great importance and sanctity for Alevi-Bektashis, under Law No....
Alevi Studies and Syncretism
Syncretism refers to the formation of new religious or cultural expressions that emerge from the interaction of diverse belief systems and practices. While in academic...
Mehmet Yıldırım (Dêsimli Memed)
Dr Mehmet Yıldırım (1974–2023), known also by his pen name Dêsimli Memed, was a scholar whose academic and archival research sought to reinterpret the historical...
Dersim: Genocides (1914-18 & 1937-38)
This entry examines the 1937–38 Dersim massacres as a case of genocide, placing the events within a broader continuum of state-led exterminatory violence in late...
Village Cemevis and Transnational Alevi Placemaking
This entry examines the emergence of rural cemevis constructed through collective remittances sent by diasporic Alevis, particularly those based in Britain. It traces the social,...
Tertele
The 1937–38 Dersim massacre was not merely a regional military operation, but a systematic policy of violence by the early Turkish Republic targeting ethno-religious identities...
Suicide Amongst Second-Generation Alevi Boys in the UK
In the process of settling in the UK, the Alevi community was shaken by the suicide pandemic among second-generation boys, a previously unknown phenomenon. From...
Food in Alevism
Social activities pertaining to food such as cooking, sharing, eating and fasting are central to the expression of the lived religiosities of Alevis in Turkey,...
Women and Alevism
In Alevism, women are not only foundational to social life but also to the spiritual cosmos. The female womb is revered as the ‘gate of...
Reflexivity in Alevi Studies
The insider–outsider position of a researcher within Alevi studies brings both unique opportunities and inherent tensions. In religious ethnography, it is crucial to recognize that...
HIGHLIGHTS
Alawite (Nusayrism)
Nusayri-Alawite (Arab Alevism) is a unique belief system based on esoteric and batini (inner) interpretations within the Shiite tradition of Islam. Shaped by the teachings...
Hızır / Xızır
In Alevism, Hızır (Xızır) is a meaningful and central figure around which revolve many myths, rituals, hymns, sacred places and lived experiences. It combines many...
Deyiş
In Alevi-Bektashi culture, deyiş are a form of folk literature recited spontaneously and accompanied only by the bağlama during cem ceremonies, alongside the semah, and...
Historiography of Bektashism
The historiography of Bektashism represents a striking example of the entanglement between identity, politics, and historical narrative. Historical representations of the Bektashi tradition have been...
Dersim - Jiar u Diyar (Sacred Geography)
This entry reconceptualises Dersim not as a mere geographic or administrative region but as a sacred-political topography (a cultural geography) central to the Raa Haqi...
Çepni Alevis
The Çepni Alevis, a significant sub-group of Anatolian Alevism, emerged on the historical stage as part of the Çepni tribe, which belongs to the Üç-Ok...
Space in Alevism
This entry examines the phenomenon of space in Alevism through its intellectual, physical, and social dimensions. It argues that space is not merely a geographical...
Sivas Massacre (2 July 1993)
The Madımak Massacre, which took place during the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Festival in Sivas on 2 July 1993 and claimed the lives of thirty-nine...
Alevi Studies and Debates on "Orthodoxy" & "Heterodoxy"
Orthodoxy refers to the official and dominant interpretation of a religion, while heterodoxy defines belief systems that deviate from or are marginalised by that norm....
Environmental Ethics in Alevism: the case of Dersim
Environmental ethics in Alevism reflect a relational worldview in which connections to land, nature, and non-human life are shaped through oral tradition, ritual practice, and...
Gağan (1)
Gağan (Khal / Kalo Gaxan, Gaxand, Gaxan) is a religious-magical transition ritual unique to Kurdish Alevi communities in Dersim, symbolically marking the end of the...
Transnational Alevism
Transnational Alevism refers to the evolving religious, cultural, and institutional formations of Alevism that have emerged in response to migration, displacement, and diasporic conditions. Rooted...
ALEVISM THROUGH THE VOICES OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS
Xızır (Hızır), Xızır Orucu – Xızır Lokması – Xızır Kurbanı – Ab-ı Hayat
Bu videoda Pir Hüseyin Bildik, Alevi inancının en merkezi figürlerinden biri olan “Xızır”ı kapsamlı biçimde ele alıyor. “Xızır Orucu”, “Xızır Lokması”, “Xızır Kurbanı”, “Xızır Adağı”...
Düşkünlük Makamı
Bu videoda, Alevi yolundaki “düşkünlük” kurumu üzerinde durulmaktadır. Düşkünlük yalnızca bir ceza değil, topluluğun ortak ahlaki zemininin korunmasına yönelik bir denetim mekanizmasıdır. Video, bu geleneğin...
Alevilikte Cem & Cemevleri
Bu videoda Pir Veli Uğur, Alevi inancının en merkezi ibadeti olan cem ritüelini tarihsel ve güncel boyutlarıyla eleştirel bir bakışla değerlendirmektedir. Cem, Aleviliğin hem bireysel...
Alevilik Nedir? – Aleviler ve İslam – İkrar – Hakikat – Devriye
Bu videoda Pir Rıza Yağmur, “Alevilik nedir?” sorusu etrafında şekillenen kapsamlı bir anlatı sunmakta; ikrar verme ritüelini deyişler eşliğinde açıklayarak Alevi inancının derin felsefi, teolojik...
Düşkünlük & Düşkün Ocağı
Bu video, Alevi inanç yolunda etik dışına çıkanların karşılaştığı en ağır toplumsal yaptırım olan “düşkünlük” kavramını ve bu makamı yürüten “Düşkün Ocağı”nın işlevini ele almaktadır....
Riza Sehri
Bu videoda Seyyid Seyfeddin (Pîrî Sevdîn) Ocağı mensubu pir Ali Doğan, Alevi düşün dünyasının en temel kavramsal çerçevelerinden biri olan "Rıza Şehri"ni anlatmaktadır. Bu anlatı,...
Canların Cinsiyeti
Bu ilgi çekici videoda Ana Narin Gülçiçeği, “İkrar”, “Musahiplik” ve özellikle “Canların Cinsiyeti” meselesi etrafında şekillenen güncel tartışmaları ele alıyor. Genç kuşaklar arasında giderek daha...
Hak – Hakikat – Dört Kapı Kırk Makam – Sır – En el Hak
Bu videoda Pir Hasan Erkişi, Alevi kozmolojisinin ve inanç sisteminin merkezinde yer alan “Hak” ve “Hakikat” kavramlarını açıklamakta, bu kavramlar etrafında şekillenen “Sır”, “Dört Kapı...
Abdal Musa – Abdal Musa Cemi – Görgü Cemi – İkrar – Kurban
Bu videoda Pir Celal Fırat, Abdal Musa’nın Alevi inanç sistemindeki merkezi konumunu ve onun adına düzenlenen cem ritüellerinin taşıdığı anlamı detaylı biçimde açıklamaktadır. Abdal Musa...
Cemal Abdal Ocağı (Dersim) & Elif Ana ve bir anı
Bu videoda Pir Hüseyin Elmas, Dersim’e bağlı Cemal Abdal Ocağı çevresinde şekillenen inanç pratiklerini ve ritüel repertuarını daha derinlemesine ele almaktadır. Ocak geleneğinin iç yapısını,...
14ler – 17ler – Musahip (Misayib) – Nefs
Bu videoda Pir Mahmut Ütebay, Alevi kozmolojisinin temel kavramları arasında yer alan 14’ler ve 17’ler anlayışı üzerine konuşmaktadır. Ayrıca misayib (misak, ezelî sözleşme) inancı ve...
Bağlama
Bu bölümde Pir Erkan Çanakçı, Alevi inanç ve müzik geleneğinde merkezi bir yer tutan çalgılar üzerine konuşmaktadır. Özellikle bağlama/tembur, kopuz, kıl kopuz, yaylı ve telli...
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