bilig-32/ Winter 2005

Supernatural Beings and Beliefs Concerning Them

Assist. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Duvarcı

Abstract : There are many beliefs in and applications of beings that are not defined but believed to have supernatural, secret powers in the oral narratives of Turkish folk tales. Even though these beings are generally known as ‘genies', ‘fairies' and ‘witches' some of them have names such as ‘Kara Koncolos', ‘Congolos', ‘Kara-kura', ‘Kara-Korşak', ‘Kamos', Kayış Ayak', ‘At Binen Cin', ‘Çarşamba Karısı', ‘Ağırlık' and ‘Albastı'. This article talks about the identities of these mysterious beings, the environment they live in, their relationship with each other humans and avoiding the harms they can get from each other. At the same time this article also studies how these beings were identified as earth-water spirits, their position in the Islamic era, their identification as ‘genie' in the Koran and how they were studied through psychology with the influence they had on the human mind. Finally the topic has been evaluated through folk studies and it has been concluded that beings of this kind have been seen in Eastern and Western cultures through frames of similar beliefs.