Xıdır Nəbi
Azerbaijani · numen · Azerbaijani traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Xıdır Nəbi is the deathless green prophet of Azerbaijani folk religion, an immortal who wanders the earth aiding the lost, the poor and travellers in extremity, and who quickens the frozen land as spring approaches. His feast, Xıdır Nəbi, falls in the depth of winter roughly forty days before Novruz and centres on qovut, a roasted-wheat meal; families set out a tray of flour overnight hoping his horse will leave a print, taken as a promise of plenty. Rooted in the Islamic figure of al-Khiḍr and often paired with the prophet Ilyās as Xıdır İlyas, he has absorbed older Turkic notions of a fertility-bringing lord of the seasons. Sources differ on whether he and Ilyās are one being or two who meet once a year.
Domains
- fertility abundance
- spring renewal
- protection of travelers
Powers
- bestows abundance and increase
- appears to rescue the lost and imperilled
Epithets
- Xıdır Zində — Khidr the Ever-LivingCelal Beydili, Türk Mitolojisi Ansiklopedik Sözlük, Ankara, 2005, s.v. 'Hızır' (secondary)
Sources
- Xıdır Nəbi is a deathless saint-prophet of Azerbaijani folk belief, patron of the returning spring, fertility and of those in distress, honoured with his own winter feast some weeks before Novruz.: Bəhlul Abdulla & Tahir Orucov, Novruz bayramı ensiklopediyası, Şərq-Qərb, Baku, 2008 (secondary); Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. 'al-Khaḍir (al-Khiḍr)', by A. J. Wensinck (secondary)