Museum of Mevlana

Whirling Dervishes Festival
10-17 December 2009
Museum of Mevlana

 

 

The Commemorative Ceremony for Mevlana, the great Sufic saint (1207-1273), is one of the world’s greatest spectacles. More than a million people descend on Konya, the ancient Seljuk capital, for the Whirling Dervishes Festival (Sema).
Mevlana taught complete tolerance, positive thinking, awareness of God through love and union with God through dance. At his Mausoleum in Konya, centuries-old mystical dances are performed in his honour by his Sufi followers.

The dancers are accompanied by the ney (the title of one of Mevlana’s longer poems) reed pipe, a reference to the mythological trumpet sur that will be blown on the Day of Judgement.

The final night commemorates the death of Mevlana and his union with God.

Known to the west as Whirling Dervishes, the members of the Mevlevi Order from Konya lived in a mevlevihane (monastery). The one at Galata in Istanbul is an example of late Ottoman architecture, with an elaborate tomb, a large chamber for the ceremony of the whirling dance (Sema), a fountain from which water was charitably distributed to the public, a time keeper’s room, cells for the dervishes, separate quarters for the Master, a section for women, a chamber of silence, a large ornate fountain for ablutions and a laundry room.

The rituals of the  Whirling Dervishes are among the enduring as well as the most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual whirling of the Dervishes is an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trans. The music that accompanies the whirling from beginning to end ranges from somber to rhapsodical, its effect is intended to be mesmerizing. Chanting of poetry, rhythmic rotation, and incessant music create a synthesis which, according to the faithful, induces a feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight.

The meeting places of the dervishes became academies of art, music, and dance. Today, the performances of The Whirling Dervishes includes twelve musicians (on traditional Turkish instruments) and 12 dancers. There is also a master of ceremony. A performance is broken into two parts with the introduction conducted by the master followed by 3 or 4 pieces of music. This is followed by a 4-part whirling ceremony.