Image: PNT-00812 > Anonymous, Limassol, Watercolour, 31 x 23 cm, 1878.
Very close to the old castle and harbour of Limassol is the shrine of Pir Ali Dede, a holy man of Islam, and protector of sailors. He came to Limassol in 1570 with the Ottoman army, carrying his sceptre which calmed the sea. During the fighting, he was killed and buried with his sceptre.
He is also regarded as the protector of children. Thus, if a woman loses a child, after birth she goes to the shrine and prays. When she gives birth again, she leaves her new-born at the shrine. Another woman would take the baby, provide for it, and return it to the mother upon receiving the baby’s weight in meat.
Often the Moslems of Limassol claimed that Ali Dede would appear to them as an old man with a long beard and a turban on his head.
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
The ‘Did You Know’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus).
