TRACES OF SACRED RELICS IN FOUNDATION CHARTERS AND THE STRING(S) OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD’S BEARD

There are certain values people have been regarding sacred throughout history. They consist of signs and symbols triggering the same emotions and thoughts in people of the same faith in the society. They become sacred under the influence of customs and traditions as result of being transmitted from generation to generation. The concept of sacredness can be defined as the complete set of values including worships and rituals that establish, and remind, a connection between believers and the transcendental Power (the Creator). Just as there are specific times and places regarded sacred in Islam, there are also objects regarded sacred by the followers of Islam. They are called kutsal emanet (sacred relics) in the Turkish culture. Among them are the clothes and objects belonging to the Last Prophet Muhammad and his family members and close people around them. One of the most widely known of them is the string(s) of the Prophet Muhammad’s beard/hair exhibited usually on sacred days and nights at mosques, which should have a place in almost all our lives and the mystery of which we cannot understand. Going to see and greet it been in practice promoted by foundations as a good act. The tradition was seen for the first time in the charters of the foundations built after the third quarter of the 18th century