Al Basty (

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

: ''Albastı'';

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

, Kazakh: ''Албасты'', Chuvash: ''Алпастă'', az, Albasdı,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Албасты́'') or Al Kardai is an ancient female spirit, the personification of

guilt Guilt may refer to: *Guilt (emotion), an emotion that occurs when a person feels that they have violated a moral standard *Culpability, a legal term *Guilt (law), a legal term Music *Guilt (album), ''Guilt'' (album), a 2009 album by Mims *Guilt ( ...

, found in

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

throughout the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

mountains, with origins going as far back as Sumerian

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

. ''Al'' means red, and ''bastı'' means pressure or pressing in

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

Other languages

* Bashkort: ''Албаҫты'' * Uzbek: ''Албасты́'' * Altai: ''Алвасти́'' * Turkmen: ''Албассы'' * Kyrgyz: ''Албарсты́'' * Nogai: ''Албаслы́'' * Kumyk: ''Албаслы́'' * Balkar: ''Алмасты́'' * Tajik: ''Албасти'' * Lezgian: ''Алпаб'' * Chechen: ''Алмазы'' * Yaghnobian: ''Албасты'' * Çuvaşça: ''Алпастă'' * Sogdian: ''Олбасты'' * Russian: ''Албасты́''

Caucasian and Middle Eastern folklore

Sumerian folklore

A variation of the Al Basti myth stretches back into Sumerian times as one of the names given to

Lilith Lilith ( ; he, Wiktionary:לילית, לִילִית, Līlīṯ) is a female figure in Mesopotamian Mythology, Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. ...

.Ann, Martha and Imel, Dorothy Myers. ''Goddesses in world mythology''. ABC-CLIO, 1993. , p 336 In later Rabbinical interpretations of the Talmud, she was regarded as the first wife of

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, cast out of

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

for her willfulness and independence. In this form much of the mythology surrounding Lilith has also been ascribed, in different accounts, to Al Basti, though with local regional variances taken into account.

Turkic folklore

In Turkic folklore Al Basti has been often confused as both a

Mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...

, a

Succubus A succubus is a demon or supernatural entity in folklore, in female form, that appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. According to religious tradition, a succubus needs male semen to survive; repeated sexual activity ...

, as well as any number of Middle Eastern female spirits which are told to enter a man's erotic dreams. However, the difference in the Al Basti legends is that she is not a sexual spirit, she rather visits those ''“who have guilty souls”''Littleton, C. Scott, ed., Gods, Goddesses & Mythology. Tarrytown: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2005, page 245 and ''“come from families that have committed bloody crimes that have gone unpunished.”'' This spirit is mostly known as ''Al Karısı'' in

Turkic folklore Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

. It is believed that she mostly haunts women in their

postpartum period The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal perio ...

which causes emergence of phycological problems. Therefore, traditional practices applied for 40 days for these women as a part of

postpartum care Postpartum care or postnatal care is a service provided to individuals in the postpartum period, to help with postpartum recuperation and restoration. Traditional postpartum care Many traditional forms of postpartum confinement exist throughout ...

. According to scholar

Özhan Öztürk Özhan Öztürk (born 1968) is a Turkish writer and researcher. He wrote a Turkish Folklore Encyclopaedia and an encyclopaedic dictionary of the culture and folklore of the peoples of the Black Sea region of Turkey. Works * ''Karadeniz Ans ...

those who Al Basti visits are said to wake up in ''“an intense fever ... She is also known to steal horses, who are found sweating and exhausted in the morning, and unable to provide a full day's work. Due to her torments, she is also known as the 'red mother'.”''

Armenian folklore

There is a further version of Al Basti, referred simply as Āl, a ''“demon of childbirth who blinds unborn children and causes miscarriages and stillbirths to women who have committed crimes that have gone unpunished.Coulter, Charles Russell and Patricia Turner, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities''. Oxford University Press, 2000. , page 212 In this form she appears as spirit of flame, with snake-like hair, brass fingernails and iron teeth ... hehides in damp places.”''Ann, Martha and Imel, Dorothy Myers. ''Goddesses in world mythology''. ABC-CLIO, 1993. page 316 According to Ann and Imel there is a similar legend found in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

References

{{Reflist Turkish folklore Chuvash folklore Mesopotamian deities Turkic demons Female legendary creatures