I can always remember the "tambour" drummer who served the Salacak district in Üsküdar, walking up and down the streets playing his drum. The drummer's work begins before sunrise. The local drummer in my neighborhood seemed to start down by the Bosporus and walk up the street perpendicular to my house, which means he walked right up the north side of the building where I lived -- in fact right along by my bedroom window. It was nice not needing to set my alarm clock.Although I was not on the ground floor, the drum could be clearly heard. I could hear the sound of the drum for quite a long time because he was walking up the hill. Once he reached the corner and walked away from the building in the other direction, the sound quickly disappeared. The drummer was always successful in waking up the families in the building where I lived. After all, his goal was to go about waking up the faithful for suhoor, the pre-dawn meal. This meal helps Muslims keeping the fast last until sunset without food or water.
I could hear a couple of my neighbors stirring in their respective kitchens, getting a bite to eat before the fast began. Sometimes I got up and sat on my balcony to glance quickly at the moonlight on the Bosporus strait and watch the drummer disappear from my sight as he crisscrossed the alleyways and narrow streets. I noticed a light turn on in nearly every residence, usually the kitchen light.
Part of the drummer's nightly rounds for the month of Ramadan in my neighborhood involved sauntering the narrow streets past the old traditional wooden houses with balconies and bow-windows as well as the modern apartment buildings.
Once I spent a few days in a village in Pakistan and was there for the start of Ramadan. The drummer was much more personable with the people there. You could hear him crying out the residents' names, "Wake up, wake up and say God's name," He even stood under their windows and shouted, “So and so,” (whatever the person's name was) “Get up!”
Times have changed. A Jordanian Muslim friend of mine who lives in the States told me that nowadays in places like Jordan a person may use their car and go up and down the streets shouting through a loud speaker or maybe even using a recording to call out to the faithful.
The purpose of Ramadan will never change.
This holy month of fasting is referred to as “Sultan, the king of the other 11 months.” It is a mandatory fast, and individuals can also fast voluntarily at other times of the year. Devout Muslims abstain from food, drink, sex and smoking during the daylight hours.
Calendars are printed showing the exact times at which the fast begins in the morning and ends in the evening. Of course, the times vary from city to city across Turkey: people in İstanbul and İzmir in the west will start their fast after those in Trabzon and Diyarbakır in the east. Children, travelers, pregnant women and the sick are exempt.
Each day the fast is broken at sundown. The breaking of the fast is called iftar, which begins with a prayer. It is tradition to eat a date or an olive to start iftar. There are many ways of knowing when it is time to break the fast -- firecrackers, poppers, cannons and a timer on the television are the most common.
Ramadan drummers nowadays face major competition: the first competition came with the alarm clock, but more recently it is from mobile phones through which text messages are sent to wake people. Even my neighbors in my old neighborhood, Üsküdar, who in previous decades had relied on the drummer to wake them up, seem to be moving toward the use of modern technology.
Where I live now you can barely hear the call to prayer, much less the drummer who comes around in the wee hours. Still, many elderly residents hold the drummers dear and wait for them year after year. It is tradition. On the last night of Ramadan, the drummer comes around and hopes to collect a monetary gift as a token of the recipients' appreciation. There is no fixed price. It all depends on how much you have been blessed and want to bless others.
Note: Charlotte McPherson is the author of “Culture Smart: Turkey, 2005.” Please keep your questions and observations coming: I want to ensure this column is a help to you, Today’s Zaman’s readers. Email: c.mcpherson@todayszaman.com
