Бата аяқ
The matchmakers' final blessing
The final agreements between the two families: the wedding date, the bride price, and the order of the rituals.
The bas kuda from both sides, senior relatives.
What this rite is about
Bata ayak is the concluding meeting of the sides after kuda tusu, at which the terms of the wedding are finally fixed. As a rite it is the blessing (bata) of the matchmakers, the “seal” of the matchmaking: after it the agreement is considered concluded. “Bata” is a blessing, while “ayak” has three meanings: “bowl”, “end” and “foot”. The literal “blessing of the foot” sometimes found in popular texts is misleading; in sense “the concluding blessing” or “the bowl of blessing” is closer.
Two kinds of bata
Ethnographers distinguish two kinds of bata ayak, and the difference between them lies in how definite the terms are.
- Kesimdi bata (“definite”) — everything is named in advance: the number of livestock, the date of the toi, the amounts of expenses, mutual exchanges. It is the firmest kind of agreement.
- Kesimsiz bata (“indefinite”) — the date is known, but the amount of livestock and expenses stay open and are settled later.
How the meeting goes
- The groom’s father arrives a second time with his closest relatives — now “for final agreement”.
- They discuss the date of the toi, the size and schedule of the bride price, the composition of the dowry, the costs of seeing the bride off, mutual visits and obligatory gifts — “kade-zhora”.
- Livestock is slaughtered and meat served, including kuyryk-bauyr.
- An elder reads the bata: everyone holds their hands open, palms up; at the end they say “Amin!” and draw their palms over their faces.
- The sides exchange gifts; the matchmakers are presented with kiit.
How a bata is spoken
There is no canonical text of a bata: elders speak it freely, in a settled structure — an appeal to the Almighty and the ancestors, then a wish for the young couple, then a wish for the union of the two families, and the concluding “Amin”. As an example, the typical meaning: “May the matchmaking of the two families be firm! May the road of the young be open and the family prosperous! Amin!”. A bata is given not only by imams: any respected elder can do it. A bright blessing is called “ak bata”.
Why it is a “seal”
In a nomadic society without notaries and papers, an elder’s word bound more firmly than a signature. A bata spoken before witnesses made the agreement public and irrevocable: to withdraw from it meant to go against a respected person, the whole clan and the blessing itself. Open palms are a gesture of receiving: people “receive” the good; palms drawn over the face are as if washing the face with the blessing, taking it in.
What has changed
After the ban on the bride price in 1920, bata ayak became in effect the only “tangible” stage of the agreement: today this is where it is settled where and when the toi will be held and who takes on which expenses. Kuda tusu and bata ayak are often combined into one meeting at the table — at home or in a restaurant; the bata is read by an elder (aksakal) or an imam, and “amin” remains the obligatory ending.
Interesting facts
In some descriptions bata ayak and syrga tagar are one and the same rite, in others two different ones. This is not an error of the sources: in different families and at different times they really were sometimes combined and sometimes separated.
The words of a bata are not kept as a text: they are composed at the moment of speaking, so a good elder was renowned for the ability to speak “to the occasion” — briefly, compactly and rhythmically. The skill of giving a bata was a mark of wisdom and authority.
The gesture of open palms is common to many Muslim peoples: it expresses readiness to receive a gift from above. Kazakhs add “drawing the palms over the face” as the conclusion: the blessing “stays” on the person.
The exchange of visits between families (kuda shakyru) is in some descriptions considered part of bata ayak: after agreement the sides take turns inviting each other “as guests with the rights of kin”.
Glossary
- Бата
- A blessing spoken by an elder; a word that seals an agreement.
- Аумин
- “Amin” — the shared response to a bata; afterwards the palms are drawn over the face.
- Ақ бата
- “Bright blessing” — a kind bata from a pure heart.
- Кесімді бата
- A bata ayak with fully named terms: livestock, date, expenses.
- Кесімсіз бата
- A bata ayak where only the date is known and the rest is settled later.
- Кәде-жора
- Customs and obligatory gifts on which the sides agree.
- Ақсақал
- A respected elder; the one who most often gives the bata.
- Құда шақыру
- A return reception of the matchmakers in the groom’s village.
Customs vary from family to family — this is a general description.
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