Hortlak

Λέγεται και: hortdan, xortdan, cadı, obur

Hortlak is the everyday Turkish word for a dead person who climbs back out of the grave. Ottoman judges and muftis were asked to rule on such cases from at least the 16th century and authorised staking or burning the bodies, much as Christian authorities did in the Balkans. Related figures appear among the Azerbaijanis (xortdan) and Tatars. The tradition shows that the walking-corpse panic of south-eastern Europe was shared across the religious frontier.1 2

⚔️ Πολέμησέ το

Πρώτη καταγραφή

1550

Cases involving hortlaks appear in Ottoman kadı court records from the mid-16th century

Προέλευση

Turkish and wider Turkic

Τουρκία, Αζερμπαϊτζάν

Τι το προκαλεί

Δεν εξηγείται ποτέ

The dead person does not stay dead; Ottoman usage often attributes this to the deceased having been a witch (cadı).

Πώς γίνεσαι ένα

A corpse that fails to decay in the grave, often that of a reputed witch or sorcerer.

Ευφυΐα

Κάποια ευφυΐα

Αδύναμα σημεία

a stake through the heart or body
burning
decapitation
quicklime poured on the corpse
throwing the body into a river

Πότε εμφανίστηκε για πρώτη φορά;

Αρχαίος κόσμος

Μεσαίωνας

1500–1899

1900–1967

1968–1999

2000–2009

2010 μέχρι σήμερα

1550

Cases involving hortlaks appear in Ottoman kadı court records from the mid-16th century

σημειώσεις πεδίου

Τι λένε οι πηγές

The name comes from the Turkish verb hortlamak, to come up out of the grave1 2

The traveller Evliya Çelebi defined obur as witches, sorcerers and those who rise from their graves1 2

Ottoman fatwas permitted exhuming and destroying corpses that returned to trouble the living1 2

Risen cadıs were blamed for throwing stones, moving objects and possessing animals1 2

In 1826 former Janissaries at Tırnova were publicly branded as risen dead, a case historians read as political1 2

Πηγές

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