The fortune telling in the Siberian Tatars culture

Zinnatullina Guliuza ORCID: 0000-0002-0371-0812 PhD in History Senior Researcher at the Tobolsk Complex Scientific Station of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 626152, Russia, Tyumen region, Tobolsk, Academician Yuri Osipov str., 15 Zgulyusa@gmail.com

Fortune telling or fortune telling is a common tradition in all societies. In the usual conventional sense, this is a magical action aimed at obtaining information about an upcoming event. However, in any culture, fortune-telling is also used to find out the causes of phenomena that have already been verified. For example, deaths, losses, illnesses, etc. In general, fortune-telling is a valuable material for the study of the traditional culture of the people, their worldview. There are a number of special articles on the topic of studying various types of fortune-telling among the Turkic peoples, where the most common methods are described in detail. ^{[2, 4, 8]} However, there is no separate study on the history of the Siberian Tatars, although there are some mentions in the works devoted to the Tatars. ^{[4, 8, 11, 13]}

The Siberian Tatars, being the northernmost people professing Islam, for several centuries combined the worldview of monotheism with the shamanic practices of their ancestors. On the one hand, the preservation of shamanic elements in the traditional culture of the Siberian Tatars was facilitated by close proximity with non-Muslim related Turkic peoples, and on the other hand, the Sufi tradition transmitted by the first Sufi missionaries. It was the Sufis from Central Asia who were the first preachers of Islam in Siberia. In Islam, the Sufi order is associated with such a phenomenon as Muslim mysticism, in which magical practices are widely used. ^[5].

Of course, predictions in the form of forecasting were widely used by the household, labor, and craft activities of the people in the life of the people. In this article, we will not consider such a layer of predictions as predictions on weather, stars, etc., since this type of predictions still contains certain rational knowledge. We will also not consider the activities of fortune tellers, clairvoyants, because here the psychic abilities of the performer are decisive.

The subject of our research is widely used in the past and preserved to this day among the Siberian Tatars, divination rituals that were irrational in nature, which were resorted to mainly when a person needed to make an important choice in solving a problem, in case of loss of things, livestock, in case of disappearance of a person, in order to diagnose an illness, and also predict the outcome of the disease , etc.

One of the oldest and most widespread types of fortune-telling among the Altai, Turkic and Mongolian peoples is the stone prediction system. This system has different names and variants, but the method of execution is the same and has only minor differences.

For example, the Tuvinians and Altaians call fortune-telling on stones "huwaanak", the Mongols "chuluu tatah" (dividing stones), es o n chuluu (nine stones). Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Turkic peoples have a similar name "kumalak-ta?", "kumalak" from the name of sheep droppings, which was used as a divination tool. ^{[2, 4, 11, 8]}

Among Bashkirs, Tatars, including Siberian Tatars, the name "nogyt bulu" (nogyt – beans, bulu – to divide) or "noyt salu" (salu – to lay) is common, and large beans were more often used as a tool instead of stones.

The method of divination for all these peoples was the same, differing only in the tools and accentuation of some stages of the rite. With the adoption of Islam by the Muslim Turkic peoples, this rite has undergone significant changes.

In this method of divination, non-Muslim peoples are characterized by the energy of the stone, i.e. the power that the stone was endowed with. Therefore, they used stones for divination, which were collected in certain places, the so-called "places of power". These are clean mountain rivers or high mountainous terrain. For Muslims, the cleanliness of the stone collection site was also important, but the stones were not endowed with power. 

Some stages of the ceremony also have differences. If the Tuvans fumigate the stones with herbs at the beginning of divination, light a fire, then the Tatars, before starting divination, perform the ritual purity "takharat", pronounce the intention and read Muslim prayers.

As we can see among the Muslim Turks, the elements of shamanism have been erased, and stones (or beans), like the fortune-teller himself, act as an instrument (intermediary), and the main driving force in terms of prediction becomes the will of Allah, to which the fortune-teller addresses before the beginning of the ceremony.

In the scientific literature, various variants of fortune-telling on stones from different peoples are well described. Based on this, it can be concluded that the methodology of the rite was the same. This is the use of three rows of layout and the use of stones in the amount of 41 pieces, as well as the semantic meaning of the rows: the upper row of the position of the stones has a projection of the head and tells about the abilities, character of a person;  the middle row – hands or soul, speaks about human emotions and well–being, the lower row - legs, is responsible for movement, position, movement of a person, etc. The same technique is typical for the variants of divination of the Siberian Tatars. However, the Siberian Tatars and Bashkirs have an interesting element in this divination, when a hand may fall out, which is considered a great success, which is called "pygambar nogyty" (beans of the prophet). If this layout comes across in the first row, it means that this person will be fine, and further stages of divination can not be carried out.

The Siberian Tatars called fortune tellers on the stones "nogytsy", "nogyt salu tsy" (laying out women), "nogyt p uly tse" (dividing beans). There were cases when such specialists traveled to villages in order to earn money, although there was no certain cost of these services, and the fortune-teller counted on the so-called "sadaka" (alms) [PMA].

A method of predicting "tastar Tartu" was common among Siberian Tatars, which was not recorded among other groups of Tatars. This divination was carried out with the help of a cloth. The term "tastar", translated from Persian "dastar", means a rectangular female headdress in the form of a stole. This term is also used in relation to turban fabric. Judging by the origin of the term, it can be concluded that this type of divination was borrowed from Central Asia, most likely also through the Sufi tradition.

According to Rezvan M.E., Muslim magic develops within the framework of a religion that has absorbed Semitic, Hellenistic, Indian, and Iranian traditions. Turkish researchers also hold a similar opinion, saying that the traditions of divination were introduced to the Muslim Turkic peoples through Iranian culture ^{[10, p. 5-6]}. Perhaps the term "tastar", which has an Iranian origin, is a confirmation of this fact. This type of divination requires further research, since we have not found similar methods of divination among other Turkic peoples.

According to available data, this rite was performed more often by women. So, the informant said that her mother taught her this type of fortune telling, and her grandmother taught her mother. According to its content, the rite of "tastar Tartu" (pull tastar) is not as informative as "nogyt bulu" or "kitap achu". In this divination, the correct formulation of the question was important, because divination was carried out according to the type of answer to the question "yes" or "no".

Before the beginning of the ceremony, the fortune-teller performs the following actions: makes ablution "takharat"; then reads two rakats "nafil-namaz", which is considered a God-pleasing deed and brings the reader closer to Allah; then pronounces the intention and proceeds to perform the actions.

A narrow cloth of dense fabric (waffle, linen, cotton) of about three meters is used for fortune-telling "tastar Tartu". From one edge of the fabric, the fortune teller makes a mark and fixes it with her elbow on her knee, then measures the fabric along the arm to the middle finger, this section of fabric is also fixed with a fold.

Similar actions are repeated two more times, and thus, the fabric is divided into three parts marked by a fold. Then, the fortune teller additionally fixes the three marked folds with the help of her mouth, biting into the fixation points. After that, the fabric is dissolved and repeated actions are performed. At the end, the fortune teller looks at whether the labels match, thereby determining the answer to the question posed. If the mark on the fabric falls on the middle of the first phalanx of the middle finger "barmaknin yerage", then the answer to the question is "yes", if lower, then "no". As the informant notes, the answer is sent by Allah "Yugarytan Alla Tag ala use kursate".

Some fortune tellers, endowed by Allah with the gift of premonition, could predict the details of the incident. For example, where to look for the missing person, the characteristics of the person involved in the event, etc.

It should also be noted that in Islam such practices were condemned and this, to some extent, was realized by the performers. So, for example, the informant answered the question "Why are you not guessing now?", "Min namazga bastym, kaser yaramaity mina" "I started reading namaz, I can't do it now" [PMA].

Despite the fact that Islam prohibits such practices, there is a system of magical rituals in the culture of Muslim peoples, in which great importance is given to the holy book of Muslims, the Koran.

With the spread of Islam and Muslim book culture among the Siberian Tatars, fortune-telling appeared on the pages of books "Koran atsu", "kitap achu", and the name "fal achu" was also spread. In this case, the use of the Koran was widespread. According to some researchers, among the Omsk Tatars there were such concepts as "black, white and red Koran", which contained the concealment of knowledge for initiates ^[3].

In general, the practice of fortune-telling in order to find out the future or fate with the help of books, including books of religious content, was widespread among other non-Muslim peoples ^[7].

In addition to the Koran, divination based on Kul Gali's book "Kyissai Yosyf", which the Siberian Tatars called "Yosyp kitap", was widespread among the Tyumen-Turin Tatars. Since this work is a literary monument of the Bulgar period of the history of the Tatars of the Volga region, it is likely that this method of divination from the book was borrowed from the Kazan Tatars.

In addition, in the practice of fortune-telling by the book among the Siberian Tatars, handwritten books were used in the form of collections, which contained a variety of information, ranging from oriental calendars, ending with the interpretation of dreams and predictions by letters.

In general, the Tatar people had very popular dream books and interpretations of dreams, dream interpreters, because there was a tradition of "ordering a dream", which arose from the desire to know the future, fate – this is "toshlek salu" or "toshlek saldyru" ^[7]. Similar dream books were also common among Siberian Tatars.

Those who were good at predicting from the book were called by the Siberian Tatars "kitap karauchy" (looking at the book), "kitap atsutsy" (opening the book) ^[1]. According to the testimony of informants, they were mostly enlightened people who could read in Old Tatar, and probably knew Arabic "ukymyshly keshel a r, Araptsa pelg a n mullalar kitap atskannar" - "educated people who knew Arabic and mullahs predicted from the book."

"Beznan kurshe katrnyn kortkayagi avyryp kitepte. A py babai kitap karai pelgan igan. Shannan, py kart oy bashannan kitap alyp toshep “kitap aztyryp” pagypty. – Ay, kortkayak, alle yashaysen igan sin! Komeren par igan tipte. Tsynnanta, kortkayak street Osaka yashete sun" – "Our neighbor's grandfather somehow got very sick wife. And he could read a book. Grandfather took out a fortune-telling book from the attic, told fortunes and said to her, “Hey, old woman, you'll live a long time, you'll have a long life.” And indeed, this grandmother lived for a very long time afterwards" [PMA]

As we can see, it is clear from the text that in Soviet times such books were tried to be kept in inaccessible places and were used only as a last resort.

Field materials of recent years have revealed an interesting fact, which, in our opinion, testifies to the influence of secular culture in the Soviet period of our history. This is the spread of fortune-telling on maps among the Siberian Tatars of the Yalutorovsky district of the Tyumen region. [PMA].

Thus, the divination rituals common among the Siberian Tatars reflect the transformation of the people's worldview. In the early stages of the development of the Siberian Tatars, the rituals were closely connected with shamanic traditions and were formed on the basis of a pan-Altai, all-Turkic basis. Later, with the adoption of Islam, these traditions, while maintaining their form, change their content, where we see the replacement of the magical power of objects and abilities of shamans with the power of the word and will of Allah, and the role of the performer is reduced to the role of an intermediary.