In Turkish mythology, the Yada Stone is known as a magical stone that can control natural events. This stone, which is believed to have effects such as rain, snow and hail, is also called “Cada, Cata, Sata, Caya or Zaya Stone”. Yada Stone, which has an important place in Turkish folk beliefs, has been seen as both an object with protective properties and a tool to intervene in meteorological events.
Legends About the Yada Stone
According to legend God gifted this stone to the great people. In this way, weather events such as rain, snow and frost could be intervened. Yada Stone is usually fist-sized, dark colored, decorated with vein lines and has a cold structure. It is said that voices come from inside; However, it is known that it is full. The most valuable of these stones, whose effect decreases as they are used, spontaneously take the shape of sacred animals. kept in special places Or Moveis used only when necessary and is not handled frequently.
According to another legend, some of these stones came out of the belly of wolves and have protective properties. According to Chinese sources, Turkish shamans won victories in wars by making rain and snow fall with this stone. People who can cast spells with the Yada Stone are called Yadaçı, Yatçı, Witcher or Yayçı.
The Origin of the Yada Stone and Ancestral Legends
There are various rumors in Chinese, Christian and Islamic sources that the ancestors of the Turks were given the power to rain by God. According to Islamic writers, Japheth, the ancestor of the Turks‘s father inherited Turkestan to his son. When Japheth was asked what to do in an arid country, his father told him about the power of the “rain stone” and advised him to pray to God for rain. His father gives this talismanic stone with a prayer written on it to Jafes.
In some legends, this The stone passed from Jafes to Oghuz Khan is explained. The fall of the Yada Stone into the hands of the Oghuzs caused endless wars between the Turks, Karluks and Khazars. The name Zada Han is mentioned as the protector of the stone. In historical sources, the last example of the Yada Stone being used as a weapon in wars was seen in the Ottoman-Russian War of 1768-1774.
Yada Stone and Alchemy in Turkish Shamanism
Use of the Yada Stone in Turkish and Altai shamanism “Alchemy” associated with the concept. This process is also called “yadlamak” or “yatlamak” and its basis is the aim of dominating natural events with the Yada Stone. While the effort to transform minerals into gold is at the forefront in Western alchemy, the use of the Yada Stone in the Turks is more focused on intervening in meteorological events. Making it rain and snow is the most well-known aspect of these practices.
After the acceptance of Islam, this tradition was partially replaced by rain prayer left it to his rituals. Marco Polo, He also mentions the existence of the Yada Stone and the art of rainmaking among the Kashmiri people who mixed with the Turks. The expressions “Yadamışı” and “Cadamışı”, which were translated into Persian during the Mongol period, describe making rain through magical methods.
Yada Stone in Historical Sources: Traces of Legendary Power
The ancestors of the Turks were gifted a magic stone from the skies. This stone has been found in the hands of Turkish Shamans and great Turkish commanders in every period, and according to this belief, it is still used today. This stone is still in the hands of leading Shamans. It is claimed.
This legend is not just a folk belief, in ancient Chinese historical records We can also confirm. Many historical sources have been found about this stone, which the ancient Turks called the Yada Stone. Chinese sources say that the Turks could make it rain or snow whenever they wanted with this stone. The ability of the Turks to dominate natural events with the power of this stone was accepted as a reality for them, not just a legend.
In one of the first historical documents in ancient Chinese sources, it was recorded that the ancestors of the Turks had the power to make rain, snow and hail fall:
“The great ancestors of the Turks were from the So dynasty in the north of the Huns. The chief of the tribe was Ananbu. These were seventy brothers. The first one was derived from a she-wolf and was called Ichjini-nishibu. Ichjini-nishibu had supernatural properties. “He could make it rain and cause a storm.”
In the same source, the effects of the magic stone carried by the Turks in a war that took place in 449 are described as follows:
“There are soothsayers among the people of the Supreme Khan, who was formerly under the rule of the Northern Huns, that when they stood against the attacks of the Dwarfs, they made it rain very heavily and created a storm. Three-tenths of the Dwarves drowned in the floods and suffered from cold.”
In Islamic sources, this mysterious stone is mentioned by the Turks. “Hajjr-ul Matar” or “Seng-ı Cede”. The power of this stone aroused curiosity in the Islamic world, and some historians investigated the existence of this stone. Ibn-ul Fakih states that Caliph Ma’mun asked Nuh b. to conduct research on this stone among the Turks. He writes that he appointed Assad. Noah b. After Asad’s research, it was stated that the Turks were telling the truth about the magic stone, but they did not understand how the stone worked.
Additionally, in the records of Ibn-ul Fakih, the Emir of Khorasan, Ismail b. We also come across Ahmet narrating an incident he experienced regarding the Turks’ stone:
“I went to war against the Turks with twenty thousand people. There were sixty thousand Turks in front of us, armed from head to toe. Some of them went over to our side. They told us that the Turks would rain huge hail. We said to them: ‘Disbelief has not left your hearts yet, no human being can do such things.’ They said: ‘We are informing you, we are warning you, the time they have appointed is tomorrow morning, but you know better.’ It’s morning. Terrible clouds covered us. Everyone was afraid. “It rained tremendously.”
According to Ibn-ul Fakih, in the face of this miraculous power of the Turks, the Emir of Khorasan, Ismail b. Ahmet prayed two rakats and directed the hailstorm against the Turks. These events reveal that the power of the Yada Stone has a historical and cultural basis.
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