The sound of an oud drifting through the door of a vineyard house or a coffee house in Konya is more often than not the sound not of ordinary entertainment but of a centuries-old school of manners. It is called barana. Born of the "sıra oturmaları" — the ordered gatherings of the Ahi organisation founded by Ahi Evran in the 13th century — and reaching us purified of the degenerate oturak revels of the Ottoman period, this tradition brings the saz, conversation, the table and good conduct together in a single night. Let us look, through a guide's eyes, at one of Konya's least known and most profound pieces of cultural heritage.
Its Origins: From the Ahi Brotherhood to the Ordered Gatherings
From the 13th century onwards, the Ahi brotherhood was an institution that organised tradesmen, craftsmen and young men in Anatolia both professionally and socially. Konya was one of its strongest centres — Ahi Ahmed Şemseddin Karamanî, Ahi Evran's deputy, founded the Ahi organisation in the city together with Fatma Bacı, Ahi Evran's daughter. The "sıra oturmaları", at which Ahi communities came together at regular intervals to discuss professional and social matters, turned in time into gatherings with musicians and laid the foundation of today's barana tradition.
From Oturak to Barana: A Moral Cleansing
In the Ottoman period the oturak revels of Konya began as entertainment within moral limits but came in time to disturb public peace; in the early 1900s they were banned by the governor of Konya of the day, Avlonyalı Ferit Pasha. The gap that opened was filled by barana gatherings, which stripped away the negative sides of the oturak and brought the principles of the Ahi tradition to the fore: there is no alcohol and no women present, one does not even smoke in front of one's elders, the head of the room is reserved for elders, and sharing and mutual respect are essential. In the words of contemporary sources, barana is described as "the most harmless, most beneficial and most legitimate form of the oturak" — not the abolition of a degenerate tradition but a return to its essence.
The Ahi Legacy: A School of Conduct That Protects the Young
The four basic principles of the Ahi brotherhood are chastity, courage, wisdom and justice; their summary is held in a single maxim: "Master your hand, your loins and your tongue." Behaviour such as lying, backbiting, arrogance and betraying a trust was enough to have someone expelled from the brotherhood. One of the organisation's most important functions was to protect young men from unemployment and idleness and to channel their energy into social solidarity — and barana evenings carry that protective function into the present. The professional hierarchy rises through the ranks of helper, apprentice, journeyman and master; the "şed kuşanma" ceremony marking mastery is a moment of passage at which a person proves both his craft and his character.
How a Barana Evening Unfolds
A barana is a group formed of people close in age or temperament, called an "öğür" in Konya; rich and poor, old and young, all hold equal status without distinction. Each barana has a name of its own — "Yârenler Baranası", "Sedirler Baranası" — and its rules are strict: anyone who casts a shadow on the community's good name is excluded, and sometimes, so as not to offend him, the gathering is quietly moved elsewhere.
The night begins with a shared evening meal — the crowning dish of the city baranas is tandır çebiç, roast kid. After coffee, the company turns to conversation or to music; towards midnight the instruments are tuned in the "tel barıştırma", and Konya folk songs (the "millîler") are sung in the order of their modes. Between sets, çetnevir is eaten and the tea refreshed; then a floor table is laid with soup, tirit, meat pilaf, okra, höşmerim and hoşaf. After a set of forty songs known as the "kırk hava", the night closes in the late morning with a prayer and a song of praise for the gathering, thanking the host.
Sille: Where Barana Is Lived Most Deeply
Nowhere is Konya's barana culture as alive as in Sille. As the people of Sille describe it, a barana is an idealistic group of solidarity gathered under the motto "give up your life but not a secret; be a companion in bitter days and sweet". Sille's "helfene" tradition — a communal meal — is that solidarity at the table. Yet in Sille this tradition has been weakening over the past half-century with social and economic change; local sources voice their concern that this deep-rooted heritage is about to pass into history.
Places and Music
In the city centre, the vineyard houses of Meram, Dere and Sille; in the countryside, the barana rooms of the villages of Göçü, Yarma, Karakaya, Sakyatan, Ova Kavağı, Kargın, Şatır, Hayıroğlu and Divanlar are the main places where this tradition lives. The core instruments are the bağlama and the darbuka; in time the oud and the cümbüş were added, the kanun in the early 20th century, and the clarinet, violin and kemençe in the Republican period. The opening is traditionally the "Konya Peşrevi", and the night closes with the song "Bir Şarap İçtim Testiden" — and after that song no one touches an instrument for twenty-four hours. Musicians such as Ramazan Koyuncu and Adnan Demirci continue to pass the tradition on to younger generations in the discipline of master and apprentice.
The Guide's Note
If you stop by Sille on your next visit to Konya — this historic quarter, only 7 kilometres from the centre and declared an urban conservation area in 2001, is easily reached by minibus or taxi — who knows, you may hear the sound of a saz in the distance. That sound is a centuries-old legacy distilled from Ahi Evran to the present through the principles of "not hurting a heart, good conduct, mutual respect". Barana is not entertainment but a school of manners in which the saz melts into song, song into conversation and conversation into sharing — and one of Konya's quietest yet deepest stories.