‘ Beyond belief and faithlessness there lies the space in whose heartland this love of ours has found its place. It holds no room for religion or sacrilege. That’s the ground where the man of wisdom rubs his face ’.
Every year on 17th
December, followers and lovers of mevlana gather in Konya in central
Turkey to commemorate Û eb-iArus, the ‘Wedding
Night'. This was the night in philosopher passed from worldly life into
eternal union with his beloved God. Since then the mystic Mevlevi
philosophy has become a universal culture, known in the western world for
its ‘ whirling dervishes '. These passionate whirling which have attracted
and moved the hearts of people of many races, colours and beliefs are only
the outer manifestation of a complete philosophy. Mevlana's teachings of
pure love of God stripped of all dogma, of dedication to world peace and
his love of humanity have found an equally wide and timeless
appeal.
Apart from the Mevlevis, many
dervish sects have existed in the history of Anatolia and central Asia.
Some of these also performed dance-like movements during their rites, but
it is the Mevlevi Sufis who have achieved the highest artistic form by
combining graceful, disciplined dancing, accompanied by elaborate
instrumental and vocal music, with exquisite poetry.
Born in 1207 in Balkh (now in
Afghanistan), Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi came to Konya, the Seljuk Turkish
State's capital, at the age of 22. He was already an esteemed scholar,
reading Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Hebrew. But he was only at the
age of 37, under the influence of his beloved friend ‘Û ems' (meaning sun)
that Celaleddin Rumi discovered the inner secrets of transcendental love.
He took up poetry and immersed himself in passionate whirlings as he cited
his ecstatic poems. During his lifetime Mevlana created a huge amount of
poetry and prose which were collected in his Mesnevi (consisting of some
26,000 couplets), Divan-ý Û ems, divan-ý Kebir, Fih-i Mafih, and Rubaiyat.
All were written in Persian, this being the official language of the
Seljuk State, and were translated into English from the 19th century
onwards.
Mevlana was, above
all, a poet or the highest caliber and a great humanist. He believed that
man is only the creation but also the image of God.
At one time when
life was real, your soul was one with my soul.
He merged the rational, the
sensual and the transcendental aspects of an all-embracing love of God in
his being and poetry.
Wisdom is light for each step
Feeling is
a sun through the road
Conscience is a voice wide as the horizons.
As much a man of spiritual love, Mevlana (meaning Grand Master )
was also fervently involved in the social affairs of his time.
He advocated social
justice, intellectual freedom, and stressed the vanity of political power:
Lordship is hardly worth the pain of being deposed. You might
enjoy it for a day, but you'll shudder for a century.
Come, come again, whoever,
Whatever you man be, come
Heathen, fire-worshipper, sinner of
Idolatry, come.
Come even if you broke your
Penitence a hundred times,
Ours is not the portal of despair or
Misery, come…
The whirling ritual (Sema) is a very
aesthetic ceremony, carrying its participants to ecstasy and mesmerising
its spectators. The ethereal Mevlevi music is an inseparable part of this
rite, which has influenced not only secular Turkish music, but also other
musical traditions, including jazz. The haunting, heart-piercing strains
of the Ney (the reed flute) form the lead motif. The other instruments of
the Mevlevi orchestra are the kudüm (a small double kettledrum played with
leather belts, or sticks), cymbals, the Rebab (a string instrument with a
deep, solemn sound ) , the Kanun (a zither-like instrument with 72 strings
) , the Tambour (a kind of lute), Ut (another lute-like instrument) and
violin.
The attires of the whirling
dervishes (Semazens), their gestures and motions all have symbolic
significance. Their cloaks symbolise Mevlana's coffin, the white attires,
his shroud, and the conical hats, his tombstone. But don't be misled by
these macabre connotations. The whole Mevlevi philosophy as well as its
serene and passionately beautiful rituals is full of joy from the heart
and the mind.
The Sema ritual begins with a Naat
- a hymn praising Prophet Mohamed, sung solo. The chief reed flutiest
(Neyzen-ba¸ ý) makes an improvisation called Taksim, at the end of which
he sets the chosen move for the day. This is followed by another
enchanting instrumental piece, a prelude, called Pe¸ rev. As soon as the
Pe¸ rev starts, the seated dervishes hit the floor with their hands and
stand up. Each dervish bows to the sheikh and then turns back to salute
the dervish following him in the same manner.
The
whirling part of the ritual begins with each dervish kissing the hand of
the sheikh, who in turn, kisses their sikkes (hats). Immediately
afterwards each semazen starts whirling, first slowly with his/her arms
crossed at the breast and hands grasping the shoulders. As they spin
faster, they open their arms and raise them horizontally. The palm of the
right hand is turned upwards, and the left hand is turned down. This
means: ‘With one hand we receive from God, with the other we give out to
the earth and people.’ The turns symbolise the attempt to see God in all
directions; and each dancer has to do a double feat of twirling around his
own axis while constantly moving forward. Watching the ceremony, you'll
observe that the Mevlevi dervishes do not carry their trance-like state to
the extreme. The Mevlevis are calm and collected. They skilfully dance
without even touching each other, and abruptly stop whirling at the signal
of the chief Semazen.
In 1925, shortly after
the foundation of the Turkish Republic, all dervish orders and lodges,
including the Mevlevis, were disbanded. Many of these sects' leaders had
become politically involved in the late Ottoman period, provoking
reactionary religious movements, which the Republicans deemed detrimental
to social progress.
Two years later, Atatürk,
the founder of the Republic opened the mausoleum of Mevlana, of whom he
was a great admirer, as a museum in Konya. In the 1950's the Mevlevis were
allowed to perform their rituals openly again.
In Istanbul, The Contemporary Lovers of Mevlana Association perform
Sema ceremonies and Sufi music on the last Sunday of each month at the
Galata Mevlevihane in Tünel, Beyoè lu.
The Mevlana Festival is
celebrated during the first three weeks of December every year when
additional performances will be given in Istanbul, beginning on 11th
December. They will be repeated on the 15th, 16th, and 17th December - the
' Nuptial Night '.
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