Die Zeichen der Wiedergeburt

Körper, Stigmata und Seelenwanderung bei den Alawiten der Südosttürkei

Abstract

Bodily stigmata, particularly among newly born infants, play an important role in Alawi cosmology, since they are intrinsically intertwined with the idea of rebirth. This essay analyses how the Alawi of Southeastern Turkey – a so-called heterodox Islamic group – conceives of such bodily marks (pigmented and vascular birth marks, henna marks, a specific colour of the skin, bodily deformations, missing limbs, blindness, palsy, etc.) as a visible proof of metempsychosis and how such phenomena are narrated and debated in everyday life. In order to understand the interrelationship between the ideas of rebirth, metempsychosis, bodily stigmata and the remembrance of former lives it is necessary to scrutinise the way in which the Alawi conceptualise the person, the latter being socially and ritually constructed from a variety of bodily substances and spiritual components ('light soul', 'blood soul', nafs). Moreover, the article demonstrates that there are fundamental differences between the religious elites (Sheikhs) and Alawi laymen regarding the interpretation of the meaning of rebirth and the importance of bodily stigmata. The differentiation between dogma and pragma is thus essential for the understanding of contemporary Alawi religious practice.