ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author is concerned with its accessibility as a model for religious conversation to facilitate successful incorporation into non-Sunni religious repertoires as well. She describes the exploration of sohbet as a mode of transmission of knowledge through which religious consciousness is cultivated, and the means to acquire cultural capital engendered. Based on several months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Ankara between 2011 and 2013, the author draws on weekly sohbet meetings of the female healer, Evliya Zohre Ana, to examine how contemporary concerns about Alevi identity find articulation within the sohbet. Since Republican ideals and the promise of secularism were attractive goals for Alevis, they embraced Ataturk’s vision of a modern, secular Turkey. The author offers some of her translations of Zohre Ana’s poems selected from her many published volumes of poetry. Illustrative of the way political issues are embedded in religious contexts, the poems are self-explanatory.
