Al
Turkmen · numen · Turkmen traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The al is the malevolent female childbirth-demon of Turkmen folk belief. Where other Turkic peoples of the steppe and Volga speak of the albasty, the Oghuz Turkmen name the being al: a hag who preys on women in and after labour and on their infants, bringing puerperal fever, suffocation, and death. Guarded against by midwives, iron, and protective charms and rites at the birth-bed, the al preserves a pre-Islamic layer of belief in hostile spirits attending the perils of birth.
Domains
- childbirth
Powers
- afflict the mother and newborn
Epithets
- al kempir — the al hagDallos, Edina. 'Albasty: A Female Demon of Turkic Peoples', Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 64/2 (2019). (secondary)
Sources
- Among the Oghuz Turkmen the puerperal demon that threatens women in childbirth and their newborns is named al (rather than albasty, its counterpart among other Turkic peoples).: Dallos, Edina. 'Albasty: A Female Demon of Turkic Peoples', Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 64/2 (2019): 413-424. (secondary); Basilov, V. N. Kul't sviatykh v islame. Moscow: Mysl', 1970. (secondary)