Contra el mal de ojo

Nazars contra el mal de ojo en una tienda de regalos de  Azerbaiyán, de la entrada Nazar de la Wikipedia

La amenaza del mal de ojo, así como sus antídotos, son bien conocidos en todo el Mediterráneo. Uno de ellos se difunde ahora por todos lados: un talismán de vidrio en forma de ojo que refleja contra el maligno la mirada dañina. De hecho, puede adoptar diversas formas. En las regiones árabes, la variante más efectiva es la hamza – «la mano de Fátima» –, con el ojo protector en la palma, mientras que de las regiones turcas procede este estilizado ojo de círculos concéntricos azules, el nazar.

El logo de la compañía aérea turca FlyAir, con el dibujo de un apotropaico nazar, y el talismán de nuestro deteriorado bus de alquiler durante el reciente viaje a Azerbaiyán (con un logo debajo que celebra la toma de Constantinopla en 1453)

El peligro del mal de ojo es también familiar a la cultura tradicional judía, que lo combate con fórmulas apotropaicas parecidas. Además de la «Mano de Miriam», versión judía de la mencionada «Mano de Fátima», también encontramos esta información en la Wikipedia, en el artículo “Evil Eye”:

Muchos judíos practicantes evitan hablar sobre los objetos de valor que poseen, o sobre la buena suerte que hayan tenido, en particular sus hijos. Si alguna de estas cosas se menciona, quien habla y/o su oyente dirán: “b'li ayin hara” (hebreo), que significa “sin ningún mal de ojo”, or “kein eina hara” (yidis; a menudo abreviado en “kennahara”), “no hay mal de ojo”.

Podemos ver la variante visual exacta de este gesto en Quba, el asentamiento de los Judíos de Montaña, donde los acaudalados judíos caucasianos han ido edificando impresionantes palacetes de varios pisos, cubiertos de mármol, de un gusto y una ostentación similar a la de los «palacios gitanos» que encontramos en tantos pueblos de Transilvania y Maramureș. Y los protegen con la versión local, turca, del talismán, el nazar, contra cualquier malicioso asalto de la inevitable envidia.

Nazar protector contra el mal de ojo en la puerta de un ostentoso palacete de unos Judíos de Montaña recientemente construido. Barrio de los Judíos de Montaña, Quba, Azerbaiyán

El nazar, tan popular entre los musulmanes de Azerbaiyán, salta a la vista en muchas otras casas del barrio de los Judíos de Montaña azerís, a menudo al lado de los «mezuzah samaritanos», hechos de piedra, de los que hablaremos próximamente.

Nazar protector del mal de ojo, junto a un “mezuza samaritano”, en la cancela de una casa de Judíos de Montaña. Barrio judío, Quba, Azerbaiyán

La preparación a la vida adulta nunca empieza demasiado pronto. La industria de chucherías apoya así a la juventud de Azerbaiyán con los caramelos «Nazar». No solo el nombre nos recuerda el amuleto contra el mal de ojo, la bolsa muestra también el conocido talismán. Obviamente contra la envidia de los amiguitos que no tengan una.

Caramelos de Azerbaiyán “Nazar”, con el talismán protector contra el mal de ojo. Foto de Dani Kálmán en una tienda de carretera cerca de Quba

Pink postcards 28

Absender: Odesilatel: Nadawca: Mittente: Pośiljatel: Posiljać: Presentatur:

K. Timó 1st Marching Regiment Martini Battalion Bányay Company Post 350

Feldpostkorrespondenzkarte

To the honored Miss Antonia Zajác
3rd district, Kis-Korona Street 52.
Budapest

Previous letters (gray dots): • Galicia, 22 August 1915 • Galicia, 6 August 1915 • Galicia, 2 August 1915 • Galicia, 25 July 1915 • Galicia, 14 July 1915 • Galicia, 12 July 1915 • Galicia, 6 July 1915 • Galicia, 25 June 1915 • Galicia, 10 June 1915 • Debrecen, 5 June 1915 • Budapest, 1 June 1915 • Budapest, 1 March 1915 • Budapest, 10 February 1915 • Kecskemét, 30 January 1915 • Dukla Pass, 11 January 1915 • Felsőhunkóc, 4 January 1915 • Sztropkó, 31 December 1914 • Budapest, 23 December 1914 • Budapest, 21 December 1914 • Budapest, 11 December 1914 • Budapest, 2 December 1914 • Budapest, 28 November 1914 • Budapest, 27 November 1914 • Budapest, 18 November 1914 • Budapest, 27 October 1914 • Debrecen, 25 September 1914 • Szerencs, 28 August 1914

My dear Mom

On 27 August

I have received the cards you sent me on the 29th. I was very much looking forward to it. I don’t understand what you write that only at home they received a card from me, when I always send my postcards in pairs. And it would not be bad if you wrote more frequently, because from here I am allowed to write only that I feel well, but you can write more.

Buy The Evening of 22 August, from there you can learn more about what we are doing here (from the article of Ferenc Molnár, he was here at us).

I have seen cherries and peppers, but I have not eaten of them. Let us leave them for better times.

I thin I will have no more winter here. It was enough in the past.

Many hugs and kisses from your Károly


[The curious posterity can get some idea of the life of the soldiers on the front line, even if indirectly, because censorship works perfectly.

It appears from the letter, that the part of the front line where Károly served, was visited by war correspondent Ferenc Molnár, the reputable journalist and novelist, who would later make a career in the United States. He shared his experiences with the readers of Az Est (“The Evening”).

He published his collected reports as early as in 1916 with Franklin Társulat, entitled Memories of a war correspondent. Strike the iron while it is hot!

Ferenc Molnár as a war correspondent (Hungarian National Library / Department of Theater History, KB 838/1964)

One can easily find the written record of his visit paid to Károly’s trench, from page 411:

“AT ZLOTA-LIPA

Panowice, August

I spent the morning in the positions of the 1st Infantry Regiment of Budapest. As you have almost expected: they have established a veritable city partk in the forest, with stands and swings, they built a stylish villa for their commander, and a cabaret stage for themselves. The buildings and labels are full of ideas. There is a soldiers’ promenade, a choral society, they wrote a couplet “Venetian Nights”, programs distributed in several copies; arts and crafts, statues carved from white limestone, superb sticks clipped from young pine, mouthpieces, they have poems, songs and “Phone Newsletter” (on silent evenings they connect the phones of the trenches, they play violin, sing and recite poems), newspaper reading, promenade (with a sign “it is strictly forbidden to step on the grass”), Gypsy musicians and acrobats – Pest remains Pest even here…

…The first commander of the young regiment was Colonel Zsigmond Csicsery, who was later commanded to another commission. Now Lieutenant Colonel Ferenc Frauendorfer is their commander-in-chief, Captains Tauffer, Martini and Ghiczy the captains of battalions. The regiment is fighting a standing war. After hard and wild battles, the kids of Pest now show in the trench-war, what they are capable of…”

The place and the persons can be perfectly identified. The writer visited the 1st Infantry Battalion of Budapest, and he mentions a name which always figures in the address of the sender of the pink postcards: Battalion Commander Martini.

The wartime censorship obviously severely filtered the information, and suggested the description of an intentionally idyllic picture to the correspondent, who reassured the anxious families with it. Perhaps also the members of the Timó and Zajácz families who remained at home, if they ever read Az Est.

However, Ferenc Molnár finds a way to play out the rigors of censorship, and to show in a few lines the reality of the war:

“…I never wrote letters on paper as hopelessly as now. You cannot describe the war for those at home. Whoever is here, understand each other without speaking… The twenty-year-old disease of the will to write torments me here with such a heat, that I must forget all prudence, and just write, write to home – shouting through miles, over the mountains, from Galicia, that the center of the world is not at home, but here, in this dirt and dust, between the trenches and wooden crosses, where the pike-gray kids look out with hope from the holes of the earth…”]

Against the evil eye

Nazars against the evil eye in an Azerbaijani gift shop, from the Wikipedia entry Nazar

The threat of the evil eye is well known across the Mediterranean, as well as its antidote, the eye-shaped talisman that reflects the malefic look back onto the evil eye. The talisman can take many forms. In Arab regions, the most effective variant is the hamza – “Fatima’s hand” –, with the protective eye on its palm, while in Turkic regions we find a stylized eye painted with concentric blue circles, the nazar.

The logo of the Turkish FlyAir airline, in the shape of an apotropaic nazar, and the talisman of our decaying rental bus during our recent Azerbaijani tour (with a logo below it celebrating the conquest of Constantinople in 1453)

The threat of the evil eye is also familiar in traditional Jewish culture, which defends itself against it with similar apotropaic formulas. In addition to “Miriam’s hand”, a Jewish version of the above mentioned Arab “Fatima’s hand”, we also read in the Wikipedia article “Evil Eye”:

Many observant Jews avoid talking about valuable items they own, good luck that has come to them and, in particular, their children. If any of these are mentioned, the speaker and/or listener will say “b'li ayin hara” (Hebrew), meaning “without an evil eye”, or “kein eina hara” (Yiddish; often shortened to “kennahara”), “no evil eye”.

We can see the visual variant of exactly this gesture in Quba, the Mountain Jewish settlement, where the extremely wealthy Caucasian Jews have been erecting breathtaking, multi-story, marble-covered representative palaces, similar to the “Gypsy palaces” of Transylvania and Maramureș. And they protect them with the local, Turkish version of the talisman, the nazar, against the malicious intent of obvious envy.

Nazar protecting against evil eye on the gate of a lavish recently-built Mountain Jewish palace. Mountain Jewish quarter, Quba, Azerbaijan

The nazar, so popular among the Azerbaijani Muslims, pops up on many other houses in the Mountain Jewish quarter of Azerbaijan, often next to the “Samaritan mezuzah”, made out of stone, about which we will write in the following post.

Nazar protecting against evil eye, next to a “Samaritan mezuza”, on the gate of a Mountain Jewish house. Mountain Jewish quarter, Quba, Azerbaijan

Preparation for the adult life cannot be started too early. The Azerbaijani candy industry supports in this the Azerbaijani youth with the candy named “Nazar”. Not only the name of the candy reminds you of the amulet against the evil eye, but its bag also displays the well-known talisman. Obviously against the envy of the little companions left without candy.

Azerbaijani candy called “Nazar”, with the talisman protecting against evil eye. Photo by Dani Kálmán in a roadside convenience store next to Quba

Pink postcards 27

Absender: Odesilatel: Nadawca: Mittente: Pośiljatel: Posiljać: Presentatur:

K. Timó 1st Marching Regiment Martini Battalion Bányay Company Post 350

Feldpostkorrespondenzkarte

To the honored Miss Antonia Zajác
3rd district, Kis-Korona Street 52.
Budapest

Previous letters (gray dots): • Galicia, 6 August 1915 • Galicia, 2 August 1915 • Galicia, 25 July 1915 • Galicia, 14 July 1915 • Galicia, 12 July 1915 • Galicia, 6 July 1915 • Galicia, 25 June 1915 • Galicia, 10 June 1915 • Debrecen, 5 June 1915 • Budapest, 1 June 1915 • Budapest, 1 March 1915 • Budapest, 10 February 1915 • Kecskemét, 30 January 1915 • Dukla Pass, 11 January 1915 • Felsőhunkóc, 4 January 1915 • Sztropkó, 31 December 1914 • Budapest, 23 December 1914 • Budapest, 21 December 1914 • Budapest, 11 December 1914 • Budapest, 2 December 1914 • Budapest, 28 November 1914 • Budapest, 27 November 1914 • Budapest, 18 November 1914 • Budapest, 27 October 1914 • Debrecen, 25 September 1914 • Szerencs, 28 August 1914

My dear mom

August 22.

Today I received your long-awaited postcard. I had thought you completely forgot about me. Since the 4th, this is the first card from you. I was starting to get annoyed. I was very happy that Feri had written, so you see, one must not give up hope. Now you only have to patiently wait until he comes home. As to me, you can be completely calm. We have been in peace for a longer time, so far as one can be in the battle field.

You can imagine, if martial music is playing in the front! The Russians also like it, they also listen to it without shooting.

In the workplace, nothing special. Béla also went away again, certainly to the Italian battlefield. Kozma(novics) is down somewhere in Dalmacia.

There is currently no other news.

Many kisses and embraces from Károly


[The whereabouts and exact place of Károly Timó’s troops, apart from fighting somewhere in the Russian front, are completely unreadable from the field postcards. After a hundred years it is almost impossible to exactly trace how the regiments, battalions and sections swirled, sweeping along Infantryman Károly Timó. And even if we could identify the details, like the place where he was wounded in the winter, we cannot imagine what he and his comrades might have thought and felt there. His braid-maker colleagues from the workshop are scattered around all the fronts. They must be missing from the rapidly increasing market of black braids, cords and fringes.

Censorship works perfectly. Only the stamp of the field post office and the number 350 gives some hint to the modern researcher.

On the structure of field post offices there are several overviews on the internet.

The structure of field posts

My starting point was an English-language website of Austrian philatelists. It lists the names of the divisions, whose correspondence was forwarded by a field post of a certain number. Accordingly, Károly served in ID 55, that is, the 55th Infanterie-Division, whose commander-in-chief between October 1914 and October 1915 was General Marshall Ignaz Fleischmann. These data can be obtained in just a few clicks from the English-language database of the division commanders.

A few more clicks lead us to the most important source on the divisions. According to them, their military activities and major battles in August and September 1915 were the following.

The offensive in Eastern Galicia was conducted between 26 August and 6 September, the battles along the Siret river between 6 and 12 September. The site maps.hungaricana.hu, published by the repeatedly cited Arcanum Kft., is a great help in following the Galician military events.

Galizien (Karpathen), Bukowina nebst anschiesendem Ungarn, Russland U. s. w. (Ludwig Ravensteins Kriegskarte N. 26.

Then, in 13 and 14 September 1915, the Russians launch a counterattack in the region of Burkanow and Lutsk.]

Interpretation of an object found

On the basis of the elaboration of objects of many thousands of years ago and of their historical context, archaeologists are able to reconstruct the function and use of such objects, as well as the way of life and mentality of the societies that used them. How will they interpret these never-before-seen objects, which were placed all over Berlin only two days ago?


1. In the society of Berlin of that era, when everyone was heading to some social event, especially after dusk, certain members of the middle class would go about on the streets and on public transportation with open bottles of beer in their hands. We know that in other societies of the period, this habit was considered uncivilized, but who are we to judge the customs of societies of many thousands of years ago?


2. When the bottle was empty, they would throw it out. The Berlin society of the age was, relatively speaking, rather clean and orderly compared to the European norms of the age, and therefore they would preferably throw the empty bottles into the street dustbins, which were generally arranged on the streets in sufficient density, with the exceptions of the immigrant neighborhood of Moabit, where the local norms were still in an incomplete state of acquisition, the yuppie neighborhood of Kreuzberg, where there was the conscious practice of neglecting these norms as a form of group identification, and the neo-nazi neighborhood of Köpenick, where internalized frustration directed at immigrants and yuppies elicited the response of symbolically breaking the bottles on the ground next to the dustbins. However, on the whole, these represented a small minority within the population of street beer-drinkers in Berlin.

3. A non-negligible segment of Berlin society of that era consisted of a sub-group of rubbish-hunters, for whom the beer bottles and beer cans, which were redeemable for ten cents in currency, were an important source of revenue. We deliberately do not use the terms “class” or “stratum”, because according to their origin, qualifications, livelihood and ideology, they could have been divided among many groups, which included a range identifications, from chronic alcoholics to destitute pensioners who would strenuously try to keep up their bourgeois image, and who, on their early-morning bike ride for good health, would stop at each bus stop, clean off the discarded beer can with leaves from a nearby rosebush, and, having carefully packed it away, would continue on their way (as observed this very morning).

“Many people are afflicted by poverty in our neighborhood. Many of them manage to conceal their situation, others withdraw and become invisible.”

4. Among the middle-class street beer drinkers of Berlin, bottle collecting as a source of livelihood was widely known. Therefore, to make the work of the collectors easier and more hygienic, by way of an implied convention, they would place the empty bottles next to or under the dustbins. Indeed, the principle of solidarity was a premium value of the Berlin society of the age. However, this practice thereby neglected the important “garbage into the dustbin” principle, on which a sustainable public state of cleanliness in the city of Berlin was based.

5. The Berlin magistrate, which considered its task not to discipline the citizens, but rather to satisfy their emerging needs, solved this incipient conflict by affixing next to the dustbins intended for non-recyclable garbage and on the same columns, a kind of bottle-holder expressly invented to serve this function, resembling canted stair treads with openings at a propitious angle to receive the unwanted beer containers. As for their aesthetics, they were somewhat undeveloped, but their function neatly fit the demands of the citizenry who sought to express their solidarity with the needy on the one hand, and those who aspire to create their livelihood by reducing street litter, on the other.

Sett'ispadas de dolore

Eva Lutza (trumpet, song): Sett’ispadas de dolore (Seven swords of pain) (video here). Medieval Lamentation of Mary in Sardinian language, still sung in the towns of Sardinia on the Holy Week.

Eva Lutza (trompeta, voz): Sett'ispadas de dolore (Siete espadas de dolor) (vídeo aquí). Lamentación medieval de la Virgen, sardo. Aún se canta en las ciudades de Cerdeña durante la Semana Santa.

Pro fizu meu ispriradu a manos de su rigore sett’ispadas de dolore su coro mi han trapassadu. Truncadu porto su coro su pettus tengo frecciadu de cando mi han leadu su meu riccu tesoro fui tant’a cua chignoro comente mi es faltadu sett’ispadas de dolore su coro mi han trapassadu. In breve ora l’han mortu pustis chi l’han catturadu bindig’oras estistadu in sa rughe dae s’ortu e bendadu l’ana mortu cun sos colpos chi l’han dadu sett’ispadas de dolore su coro mi han trapassadu. Morte no mi lesses bia morte no tardes piusu ca sende mortu Gesusu no podet vivever Maria unu fizu chi tenia sa vida li han leadu sett’ispadas de dolore su coro mi han trapassadu.

For my son, who died at the hands of violence seven swords of pain have pierced my heart My hart is broken my chest pierced by arrows since they have taken away my precious treasure with such fury, that I do not know, how he disappeared seven swords of pain have pierced my heart In short time they killed him after they captured him it lasted fifteen hours from the garden to the cross they killed him blindfolded with the beating they gave him seven swords of pain have pierced my heart Death, do not leave me alive death, do not delay more because being dead Jesus, Mary cannot live any more: from the only son I had they took away the life seven swords of pain have pierced my heart

Por mi hijo que ha muerto a manos de la violencia, siete espadas de dolor han traspasado mi corazón. Tengo el corazón roto el pecho asaeteado desde que me han robado mi tesoro precioso con tanta saña que ignoro cómo se me ha ido, siete espadas de dolor han traspasado mi corazón En breve tiempo lo mataron después de capturarlo, pasaron quince horas desde el huerto a la cruz, atado lo mataron  con los golpes que le dieron, siete espadas de dolor han traspasado mi corazón Muerte, no me dejes viva, muerte, no te tardes más pues estando Jesús muerto, María no puede vivir: un hijo que tenía le han quitado la vida, siete espadas de dolor han traspasado mi corazón.

Giovanni Tedesco: Fragment of a Crucifix. Perugia or Siena, ca. 1460. Berlin, Bode Museum
Giovanni Tedesco: Fragmento de Crucifixión. Perugia o Siena, c. 1460. Berlín, Museo Bode

Ghost sign

مرگ بر شاه marg bar shâh, death to the shah. Now, in July 2015. Thirty-six years after the revolution. In Isfahan, in the alleys behind the bazaar.

“Forty days after the Qom events, people gathered in the mosques of many Iranian towns to commemorate the victims of the massacre. In Tabriz, the tension grew so high that an insurrection broke out. A crowd marched through the street shouting “Death to the Shah.” The army rolled in and drowned the city in blood. Hundreds were killed, thousands were wounded. After forty days, the towns went into mourning – it was time to commemorate the Tabriz massacre. In one town – Isfahan – a despairing, angry crowd welled into the streets. The army surrounded the demonstrators and opened fire; more people died. Another forty days pass and mourning crowds now assemble in dozens of towns to commemorate those who fell in Isfahan.”

Ryszard Kapuściński: Shah of Shahs, 1982

Ashura-day mourning song about Abolfazl, the brother of Imam Hussein, who died a martyr’s deat along with his brother at Kerbala. As we wrote earlier, this is the defining event ot the Shiite martyrdom paradigm.

Photo by Abbas (Magnum Photos), 1979

Señal fantasma

مرگ بر شاه morg bar shâh, muerte al sha. Ahora, en julio de 2015. Treinta y seis años después de la revolución. En Isfahán, en los callejones detrás del bazar.

“Cuarenta días después de los acontecimientos de Qom, la gente se reunió en las mezquitas de muchas ciudades de Irán para recordar a las víctimas de la matanza. En Tabriz, la tensión creció tanto que estalló la insurrección. Una muchedumbre recorría las calles gritando “Muerte al Sha.” Se desplegó el ejército y convirtió la ciudad en un baño de sangre. Cientos murieron, miles quedaron heridos. Tras cuarenta días, las ciudades estaban sumidas en el luto – era el momento de conmemorar la matanza de Tabriz. En una ciudad – Isfahán – el gentío desesperado, colérico, se lanzó a la calle. El ejército rodeó a los cabecillas y abrió fuego; murió más gente. Pasaron otros cuarenta días y el dolor volvió a reunir a la gente en docenas de ciudades para lamentar la suerte de los caídos en Isfahán.”

Ryszard Kapuściński: El emperador, 1982

Canción de dolor del día de Ashura, por Abolfazl, hermano del imam Huseín, muerto en martirio junto con su hermano en Kerbala. Como ya hemos escrito, este hecho define el paradigma del martirologio chiíta.

Foto de Abbas (Magnum Photos), 1979