Dancing Dervishes

Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi founded the sufi order in the 13th century which practiced tolerance, forgiveness and enlightenment. Seven hundred years later the practice continues in Turkey. The largest of the Whirling Dervishes are located in Konya, but smaller numbers are found in other cities including Istanbul. The sacred ritual of Dancing Dervishes is not a theatrical spectacle but a religious act performed to obtain spiritual bliss and nearness with the Creator. This act is known as “sama” which is a Persian word meaning ‘to hear’. The sect believes that during the performance of the sama, the soul is released from earthly ties and soars to unite with Allah.

With these basic information passed on to our group of eight people, it was emphasized to dress properly, scarves, trousers or skirts for females and shirts and trousers for males. We were to maintain a respectable silence during the performance ,as would be expected in any place of worship. We were taken in a mini-bus to an old mosque Dargah Nurettin located in the Fatih district. Our guide Hikmat Naccim was in his early thirties, who spoke fluent English, German and Italian in addition to Turkish .We were seated at the edge of the hall with the locals, while the female tourists were sent back in a balcony reserved for ladies through which they could observe the entire performance while remaining in purdah.

Suddenly in the backdrop of pipe music, drums and cymbals walked in the leading dervish, dressed in an all enveloping black cloak with soft leather shoes .They came with slow measured steps, arms across their chests, heads bowed, and stopped at their marked spots. When the circle was completed, the last dancer entered and stood in the center at a marked place facing towards Mecca, he was the Shaikh who would guide the dervishes towards their union with God. The orchestra was the last to enter and took its place at the head. It was composed of viola, violin, reed pipes, ney, lute, flute, drums, cymbals and many other indigenous instruments.

The spiritual journey begins by seeking the eternal truth with devotion, dedication and love, transforming self into being one with the Creator. The ritual is restricted to four sessions of ten minutes duration, which starts with slow drum beats accompanied by the wailing ney, each dancer throws away his black cloak exposing his loose white tunic, flared skirt-like dress and a conical hat on his head. The throwing away of the black cloak signifies discarding worldly possessions in return for the spiritual gain. On an unseen signal they lift their hands, right palm facing heavenwards and the left palm towards the ground, head tilted towards the left palm, right open palm asking for Allah’s beneficence and mercy and the left palm passing on the beneficence and mercy to the mankind on earth.

Slowly in anti clock-wise movement they start whirling and moving towards the Shaikh, standing in the center, and pass by him, bowing their heads in obeisance and continue onwards. The tempo of the music gains momentum without any perceptible difference and the white skirts of the dervishes start billowing with the faster whirling keeping pace with the music. At this stage a group of dervishes sitting in front start in chorus the “Zikr” which is the chant of “Allah Hoo” to the beat of the music, the chanting also includes the ninety nine names of Allah in between the Hoo. The rising tempo of music, becoming increasingly overpowering seems to be getting into the whole being of the visitors, creating a trance-like state of ecstasy. The swooshing sound of billowing skirts, the piercing sound of “ney”, the constant movement at breakneck speed feels like an assault of senses by wave after wave of sight, sound and smell. The seemingly endless rotations of the dancers reach an astonishing rate of thirty times or mare per minute – and after sometime their movements seem to melt into one another and the dervishes become a moving blob of white in their quest for the eternal truth, their dancing becomes a prayer and most of us present there became a part of it.

With this part of the ceremony over, the dancing dervishes sit down on the floor, in a circle putting on their cloaks, signifying return to the material world, the Shaikh knelt in the center of the circle of dervishes and they joined in unison the “zikr” once again with the other group which had been kneeling and singing in chorus Allah Hoo….the fusion of the voices and the ambience raised goose bumps. The ceremony ended with a prayer for the peace of the souls of all prophets and believers. The dervishes silently go to their rooms for meditation leaving the visitors with an unforgettable experience of love and devotion for the Creator of the universe.