The mawlid ceremony in Azerbaijan from past to present

Abstract

Mawlid derives from the Arabic word “Valadet” and means birth, place of birth, place of birth of a person, the masnavi describing the birth and life of the Prophet Muhammad, and the religious ceremony in which this masnavi is recited. Mawlid, which is known as an independent literary genre in Islamic literature, has become a common name given to such works over time. It is seen that the word Mawlid, which means the “birthday of the Prophet”, is used among the people in Turkey as Mevlit, Mevlüt, Mevlüd, and in Azerbaijan as Mevlid, Möhlüt, Mövlüdiye, Mövlud, Möölüd, Mövlidiye and in other ways.

While the tradition of Mawlid was more common both in Northern Azerbaijan and in Southern Azerbaijan, in areas where there used to be more Sunni communities, today it is celebrated in almost every region of Azerbaijan, both in homes and in mosques, in the month of Rabi`ul-Awwal for our Prophet, regardless of Sunni-Shia. It is seen that Mevlid, which is performed for various wishes and intentions, takes place mostly in Muharram on special days for our important religious elders such as Imams, Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Fatima and so on.

In the article, it is described what the word “Mawlid” means, how the Mawlid tradition in Azerbaijan has been celebrated from past to present and how it is done. At the same time, information about which regions the Mevlit ceremony is celebrated most commonly in both Northern and Southern Azerbaijan was given by taking knowledge from the source persons and by researching from written sources. The rituals in which some beliefs are believed to be realized in the Mawlid ceremony in Sheki region, which is the most different from other regions, were also included in the research.