Xidir Nabi

Xidir Nabi, the prophet Khidr, is the deathless 'Green One' of folk Islam as venerated among the Talysh and their Azerbaijani neighbours. Immortal and ever-wandering, he is the giver of plenty: on the night of his winter festival he is believed to ride unseen through the countryside on his horse, bestowing sustenance and blessing on the households of the faithful, who mark the day with roasted grain (qovurğa) and set out flour and food for his touch. Standing at the seam of late winter and coming spring, he is a bringer of renewal and abundance in whom older seasonal and vegetation associations survive beneath an Islamic name. Sources differ on the precise dating and local names of his festival, which is variously called Xıdır, Xızır and Xıdır Elyas.

Domains

• sustenance abundance
• spring renewal

Powers

• ride bearing plenty

Epithets

• Xıdır Nəbi — the Prophet Khidr'Qərbi Azərbaycanda Xıdır Nəbi bayramı' (ResearchGate) (secondary)

Sources

• Xidir Nabi (Khidr) is the deathless prophet of Talysh and wider Azerbaijani folk belief, who on the night of his festival rides through the land distributing sustenance and blessing, honoured with a roasted-grain rite in late winter.: 'Qərbi Azərbaycanda Xıdır Nəbi bayramı' [The Xıdır Nəbi Festival in Western Azerbaijan] (research paper, ResearchGate) (secondary); Alexandre Bennigsen, 'Talysh,' in Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. VI (1994), on surviving pre-Islamic and folk-Islamic observance among the Talysh (secondary)