Scientific work conducted on the mummies of Muslim Turks reveals that the Turks used salt, onions and honey while mummifying their dead. The study was carried out on 800-year-old mummies at the Amasya Museum, which has the biggest mummy collection in Turkey. The research is being conducted by art historian Muzaffer Doğanbaş.
Speaking to the press, Doğanbaş said that the 14th-century physician Dr. Hacı Pasha chronicled the techniques of mummification in his 1380 work entitled, "Şifa-ül Eksan" and noted that "Hacı Pasha mentions about 40 ingredients for mummification including, salt, honey, wax, coal tar and pitch."
Working on the physical remains of the Governor of Anatolia Shahzade Cumudar, Governor of Amasya İşbuğa Noyin, the Beg of Amasya Pervane and his wife and children who lived under the rule of the Ilkhanids in the 14th century, Doğanbaş discovered that the mummification techniques that Egyptian used, which include cloths soaked into resin, is not even close to the mummification techniques that the Muslim Turks used. Stating that the mummies discovered in Amasya were preserved without the application of cloth, Doğanbaş said: "As long as these mummies do not encounter moisture, they will not decay in any condition. In the mummification techniques that Turks used, salt plays an important role"
The Amasya Museum is specially equipped for the exhibition of mummies discovered in ancient Anatolian lands and is visited by more than 3,000 people every week. The governor of Amasya said that they expect a total of 650,000 domestic and international tourists to visit the museum by the end of this year.