On Rumi's trail

The Turkish whirling dervishes of ecstatic spinning accompanied by orchestra and chanting chorus is a truly spellbinding spectacle characteristic of the Rumi festival, writes Purnima Sharma

The tomb shrine of Rumi in Konya

Dervishes. PHOTO BY AUTHOR

There’s something magical about the moment when, upon crossing a busy street, you suddenly come upon Majma’ al-Bahrayn, a beautiful dramatic monument also referred to as the Union of the Two Seas in Konya. It is evening time and the soft, tangerine hues of the setting sun coupled with the chiaroscuro effect created by strategically placed bulbs around it, create a mystical effect. This place, we are told, harks back to a great moment in history — when the great Muslim scholar Rumi or Mawlana Muhammad Jalal al-Din first met his mentor, the renowned Sufi Master Muhammad Shams al-Din Tabrizi. The meeting is depicted by this statue that is looked at as a meeting of two great waves, or minds.

Indeed it’s with a feeling of awe and exhilaration that we walk around Konya, a city that stays on the bucket list of all those who admire and follow the writings of Rumi or Mewlana (the great master), as he’s referred to in Turkey.

Nestling in the picturesque Central Anatolian Region of Turkey, Konya became the home of this great Afghanistan-born philosopher way back in the 13th century. And despite the fact that he passed on more than 748 years ago, many Rumi lovers often confess to feeling his reassuring, benign presence close by as they walk down this city’s beautiful boulevards.

Celebrating love, devotion

While visitors throng to be with Rumi all through the year, the month of December holds something special for them. For, that is the time when the Seb-i-Arus, or the Rumi Festival, is celebrated to commemorate his passing on “to unite with his Lord.” December 17 is thus referred to as the night of his wedding.

Excited crowds move towards the Mewlana’s museum that lies under a turquoise-tiled cylindrical tower covered with blue-and-gold calligraphy. Soon, going past a rose garden, taking in the pleasant floral scent that fills the air, we move towards a small doorway that lets you into a marble courtyard that houses many graves with most having a Mevlevi turban placed on their headstones.

Artistically designed cells covered with small domes lie at one end of the courtyard. What catches our eye is a water fountain or Shadirvan that visitors call “the water of life,” as a young lady with a beige hijab well in place over her head tells us. Like many others, we too sprinkle a few droplets over our heads and head towards the kitchen of the dervishes.

Going back to Rumi’s time, this huge hall or kitchen was once an important part of the life of the dervishes as it initiated them into the Sema or the dancing tradition. With old utensils and furniture, and human-sized mannequins that could easily be passed off as real, we get a peek into what life was like back then. The whole atmosphere, complete with the cooking area, a group of dancers that seem to be in a trance, a low round table with some elderly men ruminating over some serious matter and a youngster in a small cubicle getting ready for his initiation into the Sema, are all fascinating.

To enter the Mewlana’s mausoleum close by, everyone is required to wear polythene shoe covers. We step into a huge hall housing six coffins of the dervishes who had accompanied Mewlana and his family to Konya. A hushed silence prevails in front of the sarcophagus of the Mewlana that is placed under a green dome covered with brocade and embroidered in gold with verses from the Quran. With heads bowed, many stand quietly as if engaged in a silent dialogue with Rumi.

There was a time when, to the sounds of traditional musical instruments such as kemence, keman, halile, daire, kudum, rebab, and the flute that was played by the Mewlana himself, dervishes would perform the Sema here. A small mosque in the adjoining section is now an exhibition area that houses a collection of old, illustrated Korans and valuable prayer rugs. You can also see a decorated box containing the holy beard of Prophet Muhammad.

Konya also houses the Sems-i-Tebrizi Tomb & Mosque. Although the tomb inside does not belong to Rumi’s philosopher-friend Shams, the serene-looking structure is still on the must-visit itinerary of visitors.

The divine dance

In the evening, we line up for a special Mevlevi Sema or the dance of the dervishes that is believed to mirror the movement of the universe. Dancers dressed in long white gowns and high conical hats take centre stage. With arms crossed in front of their chests, they move in measured steps and then slowly raise their right palm to face upwards and the left hand downwards. This is believed to let them receive blessings and God’s goodness and energy from heaven and pass it down to the earth.

As we watch them perform even from a distance, the dancers seem to cast a hypnotic spell as they move rhythmically as if in a trance. In fact, as our friend from Konya tells us, this is a form of meditation and the dervishes can spin for hours on end.

While the Mewlana and his tradition seem to be alive at every corner, the city has many more gems to offer. There is the 13th century Ince Minare Madrasa that boasts a single minaret and has now been converted into a museum of stone and wood art. Besides the Alaeddin Mosque built between the 12th and 13th centuries, there is also the Aziziye mosque that offers a mix of Turkish baroque and traditional Ottoman style of architecture.

A Konya experience is not complete without a visit to the ancient village of Sille. The drive past an ancient mountain range unveils a number of ancient caves dating back to the Byzantine period. At one corner of Sille lies the grey-hued Aya Eleni Museum or Grand Church that was among the first few structures to be built by Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena. Once a beautiful masterpiece of Christian Orthodox, this Church was destroyed several times and even served as a military depot during World War I. But now, with restoration work on, it should be back to its original glory soon.

A long road running alongside a picturesque brook gives a peek into the village life of Sille. A friendly fruit seller offers us some berries and enjoying their bitter-sweet taste, we walk past a number of fruit, cookies and souvenir shops. Later, as we sip some great Turkish coffee in a cosy restaurant, its owner opens up some fascinating chapters of Sille’s history — of the time when a population exchange took place in the 1920s — when over a million people who were originally Greeks were asked to move to Greece, and an equal number of Turks were brought back here after a gap of nearly 800 years.