A Trial of Buyan Evirmek in Uighurs and Mevlid Prayer in Muslim Turks

The Turks who adopted a self governing belief system in their own geographical region, in time, also adopted the other religions in their domain, spreading into wide areas. There religions being the products of different regions and cultures stayed intact thanks to Turkish societies. In addition, Turks who were close to other religions sometimes were converted into these religions without much difficulty. Due to these religious conversions, some motifs were permanently embroidered into the culture of Turks because these religions continued to coexist with one another, and there were interactions among them. A motif which prevailed in one culture continued to be ordained in another one in social life. In time, Islamic religion prevailed among all others. However, this religion did not have widespread acceptance at once, it needed long time to be spread among Turks. In this period, other religions coexisted with Islam as well. On the course of time, Turks who were converted to Islam had their old customs and traditions brought to this new religion, modifying their patterns to the new belief system. “Buyan evirmek”, which is the subject matter of this study, is such a custom continuing in Islam in a disguised way. This custom, which we see at Uighurs who were of Burkhan religion, is gifting earned good deeds to another one. Turks have not abandoned this custom and shifting its disguise into “sadaka-i cariye” in Islam, making it continue to this day