Productions and narrators of oral folk poetry about month of muharram rituals among Iraqi Turkmen

Abstract

Muharram month considered as an important month for all Islamic peoples and Turkish people. Since (Imam Hussein “Peace be upon him”), the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, was killed in the tenth day of Muharram in Karbala with his family and friends, after preventing them from drinking water, by Yazid Ibn Ma'awia's army. Imam Hussein's head “Peace be upon him” was cut in this event which is deemed as the cruelest event in the Islamic history. Starting from that date all Muslims around the world, especially Shia, perform diverse rituals in this month to commemorate Imam Hussein, his family and friends in Karbala's event. Iraq is one of the countries where Shia is a majority; at the same time, this country has an important place for Turkish countries across history. In these rituals there are important cultural elements; when we study and analyze them, we find a Turkish believes was among Turkish peoples before adopting Islam and elements of Turkish culture. In this study we address Muharram's rituals of Iraq Turkmen and the folk literature about these rituals then we will address the narrators who narrate Karbala event orally in Husseinia sessions. The literary texts and information in this study were collected by us from oral sources, and then we wrote, analysis and classified them.