Mawlid ceremonies and contexts of execution in Chankırı

The tradition of Mawlid lives in Çankırı as in many regions of Anatolia today. Actually, Mawlid reciting tradition and mawlid ceremonies are important phenomenon in the Islamic world. As a matter of fact, it is said that mawlids are works written with the aim of commemorating and keeping alive the name of the Prophet Muhammed, praying for him, and therefore attaining his intercession. In the light of this information, the issue of how the mawlid ceremonies, which have been performed for centuries and have a great importance for the Turkish nation, are performed in Çankırı has been examined in this thesis study, starting from the field research. In general, the researches on Süleyman Çelebi's work called "Vesiletü'n-Necât" focused on the examination of the sections of the bahirs and stories in the work. In this study, how the mawlid is performed in Çankırı today and the effect of mawlid ceremonies on the life of the society are emphasized. For this purpose, field studies were carried out in the center of Çankırı and some of its districts. However, after the Covid-19 epidemic started, the possibility of compiling in all districts of Çankırı disappeared. On the other hand, interviews were conducted with religious officials who were mevlidhan, religious officials who knew about the mevlid even though they were not, and ordinary citizens of Çankırı who were not religious officials. During the field researches, questions were asked to the resource people about the mawlid ceremonies and Süleyman Çelebi's work called "Vesiletü'n-Necât". In addition to this, observations were made by going to the mawlid ceremonies held at different places and times in order to determine the different performance contexts of the mawlid ceremonies. Sounds and images of compilations and mawlid ceremonies made during field studies were recorded. Also, three old-alphabet mawlid texts published on different dates, which we found during the field research, were also analyzed and used in this thesis.