Kurban in Turkey: From traditional ritual to urban practices

Abstract

Islamic animal sacrifice is a topic that has been written about little but is very significant because the sacrifice practice itself is undergoing a process of change in Turkey. My argument is that kurban practices in Turkey have been transformed by the specific urbanization experience of Turkey, particularly in the context of changes in urban sensibilities and the broader Islamic revival in Turkey. I argue that with population increase in urban sites, sacrifice practices be-came more visible, and this resulted in feelings of discomfort about animal slaughters. Related to this discomfort, kurban became a topic that is regulated more and more each day, and it became intensely debated and interpreted from various different angles. Meanwhile, in parallel to the increasing urban-ization of kurban practices, new market players have entered the field of kurban, mediating the process of buying, selling and slaughtering kurban and particularly enlarging the proxy sacrifice services. In this thesis, I explain the secular and legal debates, the regulation of kurban, the physical organization of kurban sites in Istanbul, and the new kurban practices that have led to the dematerialization of kurban in Turkey. I focus on Istanbul as it can be claimed to be representative of urbanities in Tur-key.