5 Centuries-Old Quranic Tradition Starts in Turkey’s Erzurum (+Photo & Video)
Known as “1001 Hatims” in Turkish, the ceremony starts around mid-December every year and goes through for nearly a month.
People of the region read the Quran in their homes, mosques, and streets, following the 500-year-old tradition which believed to be founded by a scholar named Pir Ali Baba.
After a strong quake and subsequent diseases, Pir Ali Baba started traveling through villages by his horse while reading the Holy Quran, asking Allah to protect the lands from disasters and wars.
Still in the ceremony, a group of Quran memorizers read out holy verses while riding horses.
Addressing the start of the event, Governor Okay Memiş referred to verses that describe the Quran as a cure, noting “We believe that human beings also have a spiritual dimension, we are not limited to matter,” Anadolu Agency reported.
Another speaker was Metropolitan Mayor Mehmet Sekmen who said the tradition was just interrupted for a certain period of time during World War I.
“We continue this tradition with the same enthusiasm and love,” he pledged.
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