A research on the shrine visits and its relationship to spiritual support: the sample of Aziz Mahmut Hüdai Tomb

Humanity lives by seeking, finding, preserving, remembering, changing, and transforming the meaning of life. Religion has existed with humankind as part of the search for meaning ever since humans existed. In the face of loneliness, despair, fear, sorrow, illness, loss, misfortune, and disasters, humans sought a shelter that could give them hope, comfort, and assurance. The bond established with the sacred has given people the strength to endure in the face of pain and sorrow. Tombs are sacred places where people visit in order to get rid of material and spiritual troubles and to worship. Literature indicates that people make tomb visits when they are at a turning point in their lives. The aim of the study is to understand how visiting tombs in the context of the psychology of religion has an effect on the visitors in terms of spiritual support and whether there is a relationship between the tomb and spiritual support. Aziz Mahmud Hudai Tomb was chosen as the research area because it is the most visited tomb after Eyup Sultan Tomb in Istanbul. Interviews were conducted with 25 people who visited the tomb. In the interviews and observations, a framework was drawn to reveal the relationship between the tomb visits and spiritual support through the reason of the tomb visits, the meaning attributed to the tomb visits and the effect of the tomb visits on the participants. Based on the data obtained, analyses were made to reveal the relationship between tomb visits and spiritual support in terms of psychology of religion. vii Keywords: Psychology of Religion, Spiritual Support, Popular Religiosity, Tomb, Tomb Visit.