Dervish dancing

 Dervish dancing in Capadoccia

Dervish dancing, also known as whirling dance or the Sema, is a spiritual practice associated with the Mevlevi Order, a Sufi Muslim sect founded by the followers of the philosopher, poet and mystic Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (c. 1207-1273) aka Rumi, who was living in Konya, then the capital of the Turkish Seljuk Empire in the 13th century.

Rumi told his followers, “There are many roads which lead to God. I have chosen the one of dance and music.” He would fast, mediate and then dance to reach a state of unparalleled enlightenment.

Dervish dancing is a form of dhikr (remembrance of God) and represents a journey of spiritual ascent through love, a quest to shed one's ego and connect with the divine. Their movements are precise and meditative, reflecting the balance and harmony of the universe.

The dance involves dance participants called semazen spinning in repetitive circles, symbolizing the Earth's rotation and the universal motion of all creation. 

All the performers are Mevlevis, members of the Muslim Mevlevi (or Mewlewī) Order – the Sufi mystic congregation order founded by Rumi. The grandmaster or chief of all the Mevlevis is always a direct descendant of Rumi. All whirling dervishes are Mevlevis, but by no means are all Mevlevis ‘turners, though all may become so - if they wish to and can learn to ‘turn’.

The performers wear specific attire, on the dancers’ heads sit tall conical felt hats called sikke, ranging from brown to grey to black depending on their sect; these represent the tombstones of their egos. Over the robes, the dancers wear long dark cloaks, which embody the wearers’ worldly life and are cast off during the ceremony. On their feet, they wear soft black boots or slippers.

The performance takes place in a large hall in the tekke, the building in which the dervishes live. 

The muquabala - the whole dervish performance (the actual whirling is called the sama)- begins with the musicians tiling in. 

The dervishes start by sitting in a circle and listening to music. Trained performers sit together, playing a long, thin, reed-like 7-holed flute (ney) that produces a high, desolate sound; an oud, a wooden, pear-shaped lute (rebabs); and kettle drums (kudum or qudum). 

Then, rising slowly, they move to greet the sheykh or master, and cast off the black cloaks to emerge in white shirts and waistcoats - now wearing only his long white robe, the dancer is assumed to be without fault and ready to start the mesmerising complex whirls that define the sema.

A ritual prayer is intoned, never by the sheykh, but by one of the older ‘turners’, who acts as the imam or priest. Now, a few verses from the Koran are sung.

The musicians next play improvisations on music of the Saba rite, named for the dawn wind that blows in Anatolia in spring and fall. In the key of D flat, the words are taken from Sultan Veled’s Rabapname (Sultan Veled was the third grandmaster of the Mevlevi order and Rumi’s son)

‘Thou art the unseen and the seen

Had no clue.

Thou art hiding in bodies and souls

Had no clue.

I was looking for a sign of Thine in this world.

At last, I have found that the world itself is a sign of Thine;

Now I have a clue.’

The dancers, who fast for many hours before the ceremony, begin to walk, counter-clockwise, slowly, in a single file. They keep their places concerning one another and begin to revolve and turn in rhythmic patterns, using the left foot to propel their bodies around the right foot, with their eyes open but unfocused. 

As the dancers turn, the skirts of their robes rise, becoming circular cones as if standing in the air of their own volition.

They turn the right palm upward, to receive God’s grace, and the left downward, to pour it upon the earth. They move anti-clockwise, towards the heart only; for the Mevlevi way is the way of divine love, and the dancers turn from the west of non-existence to the east of God’s sole existence. They take small steps like reverse waltzing.

The variety of individual styles of ‘turning’ is very individualised: no two dervishes ever turn alike. Some move smoothly; some are almost polka; some stay on their toes; others are flat-footed.

The rhythm accelerates, and they whirl faster and faster. In this way, they enter a trance in an attempt to lose their personal identities and to attain union with the Almighty. 

The dhikr ceremony always ends with a prayer and a procession led by the shaykh, or master out of the hall.

In 1925, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s first president, closed all the orders and hermitages as part of his secularization policies. For decades, the dervishes had to retreat underground. In 1956, even though legislation still outlawed these Sufi sects, the Turkish government revived the whirling dervish ceremony as a cultural asset. Dancers began to perform on the anniversary of the death of Rumi, a tradition that has led to an annual nine-day December festival in Konya.

UNESCO recognized the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

References

1. Freemantle, A. (1976, May 5). The Origin of the Whirling Dervishes. History Today. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://www.historytoday.com/archive/whirling-dervishes
2. Tabachnick, C. (2019, April 12). Here’s what you should know before attending a whirling dervish ceremony in Turkey. Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/heres-what-you-should-know-before-attending-a-whirling-dervish-ceremony-in-turkey/2019/04/11/1af4bbac-57af-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html