A RESEARCH ON TIHTAP/HEALING BOWLS FOUND IN SIVAS MUSEUM

Abstract

In this study, eleven healing bowls from the Ottoman period in the Sivas Museum were examined. In order to get rid of various diseases and spiritual troubles, it is one of the tools-equipment blessed with prayers written inside the healing bowls made of different materials and different symbols drawn on it. In the museum, 6 of the 11 bowls were acquired, 4 of them were transferred, and 1 of them was acquired by confiscation. Only one of the bowls is on display and the others are in good condition and kept in the warehouse. Healing bowls, which are generally made of copper and its alloys, are typologically handled in four different types in the museum and are mainly worked in the scraping technique. The bowls are made in casting technique and they are works that will contribute to the development of local naming with their rich content. Apart from the fact that the healing bowls in Sivas and its environs are called as wood bowls, a different name record is seen as oma bowl in one example and this unknown new name is aimed to be added to the literature. In addition, the discovery of the previously known record called the Kaaba bowl shows the prevalence of the use of bowls in the region and the diversity of nomenclature. It is important that new data are obtained with the inscriptions on one of the bowls in the museum regarding the unknown use of healing bowls employed in rituals. From the obvious information in the inscription, the knowledge that a person who has the power or the right to make this bowl makes it available to people who need it as a charity that not everyone can have. A name has been determined directly on the bowl without being affiliated with any religious institution or organization about the rituals and especially the use of the bowls, which are not fully known. It is important to reveal the information that small metal artefacts are also used in common. It has been tried to determine the place of healing bowls, where academic studies in Turkish metal art are limited, in Ottoman metal art with examples in Sivas Museum. Only one of the works has an inscription with no history but a name. It can be determined that the bowls evaluated date to the eighteenth century-twentieth century range, hut mainly to the nineteenth century range. The bowls examined were handled in four different types, and two were made of copper, whereas nine of brass materials. Casting technique was applied in the bowls, the inner and outer faces of the bowls were carved and adorned with scraping and relief technique. The mouth diameters of the pedestal and non-pedestal bowls were measured between 10.7 cm. and 16.02 cm., and the depths were measured between 3 cm. and 13 cm. When looking at the text contents of the bowls, eleven bowls are also in the form of surahs, prayers, names of the elders of religion, seven sleepers, vefks, and are widely used in the 255th anniversary of the Baccarat Surah. Verse (Verse-al-Kursi) and Surah of Feral, Nas, Ihlas, Fatiha, Kafirun, Yasin Surah, Isra Surah 82. Verse, Pen Surah 51.-52. It is understood that the verse was created from religious contents in the form of the names of Esma-ul Husna and Ehl-i beyt. The figure was not found in the healing bowls, and the seal of the seven and the word Beduh were included in the bowls in the form of the most common talismans. With the study, the use, prevalence, materials, contents of the bowls were evaluated, and solid results were reached especially in line with the inscription on the local naming and diversity and the use of bowls as donations. Today it is extremely difficult to describe and explain, especially in front of advanced medicine, that those who believed in the positive effects of water recovered with the water in the bowls whose usefulness and perhaps whose existence are questionable and the miraculous effects of healing bowls. It is understood that the bowls are valid and accepted as important works of art, culture, and folk medicine, no matter how the healing bowl, tihtap bowl or oma bowl is named. Healing bowls shaped together with rich contents will cure people's diseases and protect them against evil at all times which is good for their souls. In the museum, various typologies, rich contents of bowls made mainly of copper and alloys, and sociological changes in both artistic and usage aspects of ottoman mining art were detected.