{[Islamic Art –] Dance and Theatre [continued (4)]}[15th April 1991]

[Redbook9:122-123][19910415:0840w]{[Islamic Art –] Dance and Theatre [continued (4)]}[15th April 1991]

19910415.0840

[continued]

‘There is one outstading example of pure dance: that of the whirling dervishes, an art that has been practised for more than seven centuries. The procedure is part of a Muslim ceremony called the dhikr,* the purpose of which is to glorify God and seek spiritual perfection. Not all dervish orders dance; some simply stand on one foot and move the other foot to music. Those who dance, or rather, whirl, are the Mawlawi dervishes, an order that was founded by the Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi** at Konya, in Anatolia, in the 13^th century.***

‘The performance, for which all of the performers don tall, brown, conical hats and black mantles, takes place in a large hall in the tekke, the building in which the dervishes live. The dervishes sit in a circle listening to music. Then, rising slowly, they move to greet the shaykh, or master, and cast off the black coat [sic] to emerge in white shirts and waistcoats. They keep their individual places with respect to one another and begin to revolve rhythmically. They throw back their heads and raise the palms of their right hands, keeping their left hands down, a symbol of giving and taking. 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. Later they may sit, pray, and begin all over again. The dhikr ceremony always ends with a prayer and a procession.’

****

I have seen this – at the Commonwealth Institute, in London, in 1982, in company (more-or-less) with a Naqshbandi shaykh.#

*{(Remembering?)}

[Yes]

**[See [Redbook9:109-110][19910414:1104w]{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (14)][Rumi]}[14th April 1991]]

***~2048J~1280

****– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 70

#[See eg [Redbook2:282][19830522:1130b]{The Sufi}[22nd May 1983]&f]

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