ABSTRACT Title of Disertation: THE AESTHETICS OF MOTION IN MUSICS FOR THE MEVLANA CELAL ED-DIN RUMI Victor A. Vicente, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Disertation directed by: Profesor Robert C. Provine Division of Musicology and Ethnomusicology School of usic, University of Maryland This disertation investigates the concept of motion as a fundamental aesthetic element in the devotional music, dance, and rituals performed in honor of the celebrated thirtenth-century Persian mystic poet and saint, the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhamad Rumi. The main focus of the study is threfold. First, it investigates the prevalence of the notion of movement in Islamic music and culture, specificaly within the Sufi communities of Turkey, in order to arive at a broader understanding of the relationship betwen music, aesthetics, and worldview. Secondly, it explores how musical performance functions as a form of devotion or religious worship by focusing on the musical repertories performed in honor of a single holy figure, the Mevlana Rumi. Finaly, it provides an ethnographic acount of contemporary developments in Sufi musical culture in Turkey and across the world by describing the recent activities of the Mevlana?s devotes, which includes members of the Mevlevi Order of Islamic mystics as wel as adherents of other Sufi brotherhoods and followers of so-caled New Religions or New Age. The primary research for this study involved two short one-month field trips to Turkey and India in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and a longer one year expedition to Turkey in 2004 and 2005, which also included shorter stays in Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt. Additionaly, the disertation draws directly from critical theories advanced in the fields of ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, and ethnochoreology and focuses on the kinesthetic parameters of music, dance, trance, and ritual as wel as on broader forms of socio-cultural movement including pilgrimage, cultural tourism, and globalization. These forms of movement are analyzed in four broad categories of music used in worship, including clasical Mevlevi music, music of the zikr ceremony, popular musics, and non- Turkish musics. THE AESTHETICS OF MOTION IN MUSICS FOR THE MEVLANA CELAL ED-DIN RUMI by Victor Amaro Vicente Disertation submited to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degre Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Commite: Profesor Robert C. Provine, Chair Profesor Emeritus J?zef M. Pacholczyk Profesor Barbara Haggh-Huglo Profesor Adrienne L. Kaeppler Profesor Madeline C. Zilfi ! Copyright by Victor Amaro Vicente 2007 i DEDICATION To The Mevlana Celel ed-Din Rumi, His devotes, and Al who helped me in this journey. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like al similar projects, this disertation comes as the last step of a long journey of discovery that has taken me to worlds I could never have imagined. Although some find the path of researching, writing, and editing to be so grueling that they sometimes lose their way, I have enjoyed nothing but happy trails thanks to the guidance of a great many kind souls. Whatever faults or discrepancies aflict this study, none is greater than my failure to properly acknowledge al those who have helped and encouraged me at every step. My deepest apologies and most sincere gratitude, therefore, to al those whose names do not appear in print here. First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. J?zef M. Pacholczyk and Dr. Robert C. Provine for their wisdom and sage advice. Both served as my advisors at various stages of this project and it is doubtful that it would have ever come to light without their support, insight, and magical abilities to change deadlines and sign rule waivers. It was Dr. Pacholczyk who recommended this topic to me and who enthusiasticaly encouraged my first ventures into the musics of the Middle East through his detailed lectures and expansive conversations. Meanwhile, Dr. Provine was not only gracious enough to serve as my final advisor and give of his own time frely to work through my drafts, but he also offered me numerous opportunities to lecture and teach in his clases, which helped me refine my approaches and thoughts on this topic. Additionaly, I would like to expres my gratitude to Dr. Barbara Haggh-Huglo, Dr. Adrienne L. Kaeppler, and Dr. Madeline C. Zilfi for their enlightening seminars and iv for agreing to serve on my advisory commite. Their atention to detail and suggestions have been enormously helpful in producing the final version of this disertation. For help with early drafts, I also thank Christina Taylor Gibson, whose support and counsel kept me going and kept me on schedule. For their insights into Turkish culture, I thank especialy Dr. Ahmet Y?r?r and his wife Carol Stevens Y?r?r, who not only generously housed and fed this peripatetic researcher-backpacker, but also unreservedly shared their wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm. My stay in Turkey would have been far les rich without them, and I cherish the times we spent together. Likewise, I am also indebted to al the wonderful people I met in Konya as wel as to Kerem Atalay for his unique perspectives on Turkish culture, for his endles help with translations, and for agreing to give me that house in Urla. For their insights and help with my Turkish, I also owe a deep sense of gratitude to Dr. Naime Yaramano!lu, U!ur Aybar, Serap Davaz, and Kur"ad Albayraktaro!lu as wel as to Nilg?n, ?mer, and Onur for being my tutors and translaters in #zmir and for the boundles geyik etmek. I am also indebted to Dr. Natalie Sarazin and Anand Kumar Dwivedi not only for their help with Urdu and Hindi translations, but also for their friendship and for having introduced me to the wonders of South Asia. Along with them, I would like to thank Debbie Kuckuda and Virginia Wyant for their guidance and al of my teachers and students from whom I am stil learning. In addition, I am deeply grateful to al my friends and colleagues who have supported me throughout the years. In the U.S., I would like to thank Dr. Stuart Cheney, Katie Curtis, Olivia Hauser, Dr. Benjamin Levy, Dr. Jonathan McCollum, Dr. Heather v Miler, who waited patiently with me in #zmir for the arival of my spiritual package, Rachel Muehrer, Dr. Kenneth Schweitzer, Mary Scott, X?chitl Tafoya, Cheryl Tobler, Aja Burrel Wood, and Sunmin Yoon. Of my friends in Turkey and elsewhere around the world, I would like to single out Malin Brodin, Anne Buijtenhek, Amanda Chreptowich, Florian Henning, Demet Kaygusuz, Antonio Leite de Castro, Carlos Martins, Sebastian Mehling, Nora Oertel, J?hanna R?narsd?ttir, and G?zde S?t?? for al the wonderful memories. I hope we can al met again at Cosmo for ?ay and then saunter over to K?z for dinner and more ?ay soon. Finaly, I would like to expres my deep thanks and love to my whole family, especialy my father Mario, my mother Maria, my brother Helder, his wife Laura, and their beautiful baby boy Samuel. Sizi ?ooooook seviyorum! ?ok te"ekk?r ederim! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ORTHOGRAPHY AND CONVENTIONS ix LIST OF FIGURES xi CHAPTER I Introduction: From Plurality to Unity 1 ! Starting in the Middle 1 Bearings, Directions, and a Roadmap: Introduction 2 ! The Journeys of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhamad al-Balkhi al-Rumi 7 Advancing after Annihilation: The Cult of the Mevlana 13 ! The Mevlevi and Music for the Mevlana 19 Paths Wel Trodden: Previous Scholarship 25 ! Fieldwork in Multiple Field Sites 30 Itineraries to Enlightenment: Structure of the Disertation 33 CHAPTER I The Geometries of Belief: Toward an Understanding of the Aesthetics of Motion 36 ! At the Shrine of the Mevlana 37 Music as Culture : Worldview in the Study of Music and Culture 42 ! Haram as Aesthetic: The Legality of Music and the Arts 49 Motion as Devotion: Motion in Sufi Cosmology 53 ! usic as Devotion: The Music of the Spheres 65 CHAPTER II Modes of Motion: The Spirit of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana 71 ! The Konya Otogar, A Modern Caravanserai 72 Global Movement and the World of Islam 77 ! Theoretical Wanderings on Pilgrimage and Tourism 85 Music, Trance, and the Inner Journey 92 ! Dance, Musical Motion, and Structured Movement Systems 98 vii CHAPTER IV In Perfect Proportion: The Sacred Sounds of a Secular State 103 ! Reviving Rumi: The Mevlana Cultural Center 104 The Political Economy of the Soul: The Mevlana in Politics, Tourism, and Ziyaret 111 ! The Otoman-Clasical Musical Tradition of the Mevlevi 125 o The Concept of akam 128 o The Concept of Usul 130 o The Concept of Suite 131 o Performing Forces and Performance Practice 140 o Mevlevi Composers and the History of the Ayin-i !erif 146 ! Ethnography of a Whirling Show 153 Musical Movement in Mustafa Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif 171 CHAPTER V Arcs of Ascent and Descent: Music, Trance, and Ritual in Zikr Ceremony 184 ! ?Always Remember God? 185 Modes of Remembrance: On the Various Types of Zikr 190 ! usic, Ecstasy, and the Zikr Ceremony 195 Ethnography of a Zikr Gathering 208 ! Arcs of Ascent and Descent: Analysis of a Zikr Ceremony 214 CHAPTER VI Sounds Like Sufi Spirit: The Mevlana in Popular Music and Culture 226 ! Sufi Spirituality at the Supermarket 227 Towards a Sufi Popular Music in Turkey 229 ! The Mevlana in the New Age 236 Our Lady of Mysticism: Madonna and the Mevlana 249 ! Sufism and Popular Music in South Asia 254 Mevlevi Sufism and Rock and Roll Music in Turkey 262 ! ercan Dede, Sufi Traveler 273 Spinning in Circles: Intentionality and the Polemics of Authenticity 278 vii CHAPTER VI Songs from Other Spheres: Non-Turkish Music in the Worship of the Mevlana 283 ! ?Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus?. It Means Alahu Akbar? 284 The Mevlana and Western Music 286 ! The Pyrotechnics of Piety: Music at the First Annual International Mystic Music Festival 295 ! Returning to Rumi?s Roots: Music from Iran and Afghanistan 304 CHAPTER VII Caught in Motion: Conclusion 313 ! ?Welcome Home? ? Caught in Motion 313 Music and the Mevlevi in the Year of the Mevlana 315 ! oving Beyond Static States: An Ofering to Ethnomusicology 322 Coming Full Circle: An Ofering to the Mevlana 326 APENDIX: List of Makam-s Used in the !edaraban Ayin of Mustafa Nak"i Dede 329 BIBLIOGRAPHY 333 ONLINE CITATIONS 353 ix ORTHOGRAPHY AND CONVENTIONS In 1928 the parliament of the newly formed Republic of Turkey oversaw a series of sweping reforms regarding the Turkish language. Turkish was systematicaly purged of foreign influence, especialy of Arabic and Farsi vocabulary and gramar, and the Arabic script used during the Otoman period was replaced with a modified Latin script and a phonetic orthography. Thus, modern Turkish is now writen in a manner that is both more suiting to the nature of the language and more acesible to speakers of European languages. The modern Turkish alphabet contains twenty-nine leters, only six of which (?, !, ?, ?, ", ?) wil sem unfamiliar to an English reader: A a ?a? in art L l ?l? in look B b ?b? in book M m ?m? in music C c ?j? in judge N n ?n? in noise ? ? ?ch? in check O o ?o? in or D d ?d? in dog ? ? ?u? in fur E e ?e? in empty P p ?p? in pilgrim F f ?f? in foot R r ?r? in red (slightly rolled) G g ?g? in go S s ?s? in song $ ! not pronounced % " ?sh? in shake (lengthens preceding vowel) T t ?t? in top H h ?h? in heavy U u ?u? in rule I ? ?e? in number ? ? exaggerated ?u? in nude # i ?i? in if or ?e? in el V v ?v? in van J j ?s? in Asia Y y ?y? in yes K k ?k? in kis Z z ?z? in zero Despite the best eforts of the Turkish Language Society, however, many Arabic, Farsi, and even French words are in official use in modern Turkish. This is largely due to the fact that Central Asiam Turkic languages, with their generaly limited indigenous vocabularies, are used as primary sources. Consequently, Arabic and, to some extent, x Farsi remain important particularly with respect to religious terminology, which is central to this study. The Turkish solution to the dilema of Arabic and Farsi orthography is to respel al vocabulary phoneticaly acording to the Turkish alphabet. For the sake of consistency and owing to the great dificulty of transliterating the Arabic script, I have opted to employ Turkish over Arabic and Farsi spelings whenever possible. Thus, al- Qur?&n (Quran, etc.) is rendered as Koran, Jal&l-ad-D?n (Djalal al-Din, Jelaluddin, etc.) as Celal ed-Din, and Mawl&n& (Maulana, Mulana, etc.) as Mevlana. The exceptions to this concern words that are in common usage in the English language and in instances when the Turkish version may cause confusion. Thus, the name of the Prophet Mohamad (Mohamed, etc.) is writen Muhamad, rather than the Turkish Mehmet, and al-Q&hirah is writen Cairo, rather than Kahire. While much of the terminology foreign to the English appears in italic typescript, proper nouns and some musical terminology, particularly instrument names, remain in regular plain typescript. With respect to pluralization, I substitute the typical Turkish suffixation (-lar, -ler) with -s, as in zikr-s. xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Entrance to A!z?kara Han?, a 13 th -Century Sel?uk Caravanserai (Near Aksaray, June 6, 2002) 10 2 Map of Mevlevi Lodges and Centers in the Near East (Provided by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism) 15 3 The Mevlana Museum and the Rear Garden (Konya, July 9, 2005) 37 4 Right Door of the Main Entrance to the Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 18, 2005) 39 5 Tomb of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi, Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 9, 2002) 40 6 Interior Dome Decoration, Semahane, Mevlana Museum (Konya, November 14, 2004) 41 7 Interior Dome Decoration, Mosque, Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 9, 2002) 42 8 Dabke Dance Performed at a Circumcision Celebration (Konya, July 9, 2005) 48 9 Sufi Numerical Symbolism (Based partialy on the Ikhwan al-Safa and Ibn Sina) 57 10 Ud, Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 18, 2005) 68 11 Front View of the Konya Otogar (Konya, November 14, 2004) 73 12 Side View of the Konya Otogar (Konya, November 14, 2004) 74 13 Dome Interior, Konya Otogar (Konya, May 12, 2005) 75 14 Whirling Dervish Coffe Mug and Other Trinkets, Konya Otogar (Konya, November 14, 2004) 76 xii 15 Turkish Flags Adorn the ?e"me Town Center (?e"me, April 23, 2005) 79 16 The Kapal? ?ar"?s? (?Covered Bazar?) (#stanbul, June 24, 2002) 82 17 Pedestrians Shopping in Kar"?yaka (#zmir, March 26, 2005) 83 18 Image of a Whirling Dervish Made of Cabbages (Konya, December 10, 2004) 104 19 The Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, June 18, 2005) 105 20 Map of the Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 107 21 Detail over Open-Air Sema Amphitheater, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 108 22 Dres Rehearsal and Preparations for Opening Night, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 110 23 Detail from the Hood of a Tourist Minivan (Near Aksaray, June 05, 2002) 116 24 Tourist Arivals and Revenue in Turkey and Egypt, 1999-2005 117 25 Mevlevi Figurines, Store Window Display (Konya, November 14, 2004) 119 26 ?Pilgrimage to the Konya of Shams & Rumi? 121 27 Formal Outline of the Otoman Fas?l 132 28 Formal Outline of the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony 135 29 Outline of Genre Types in Use in the Modern Sema Ceremony 139 30 Instruments on Display, Mevlevi Museum (Konya, June 9, 2002) 142 31 Silsila of Mevlevi Musicans and Composers 151 32 Fireworks over the Mevlana Museum (December 12, 2004) 154 33 Musicians of the K?lt?r ve Turizm Bakanl?!? Konya T?rk Tasavvuf ?zi!i Toplulu!u, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 160 34 The Postni"in Siting in Contemplation, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) 161 xii 35 Performing the Nat-? !erif, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 162 36 The Sultan Veled Procesion, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) 163 37 Semazen-s in Niyaz Posture, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 164 38 Stages of Sema Whirling, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) 165 39 Semazen-s Performing Sema, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) 166 40 Semazen-s Performing Sema, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) 167 41 Semazen-s Performing Sema, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) 167 42 The Postni"in and Semazen-s Whirling, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) 169 43 !edaraban Scales 175 44 Acidentals Used in Turkish Musical Notation 175 45 Opening of the Fist Selam of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif 177 46 Upper Range of Makam !edaraban, Stanza I, Verses 3-4 of the First Selam of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif 178 47 Ending of the Teslim of the !edaraban Pe"rev Atributed to Gazi Giray Han 178 48 Transitional Section betwen Stanzas I and I of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif 179 49 Scale of Makam Rast 179 50 Formal and Modal Layout of the !edaraban Pe"rev Atributed to Gazi Giray Han 180 51 Melodic Motives from the Third Stanza of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif 181 xiv 52 Modal Layout of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif in Ritual Context 182 53 Public Sink (Damascus, October 04, 2004) 185 54 Usul D?yek 201 55 Usul Sofiyan 201 56 Rhythmic Contraction of the ?Alah Hayy? Formula 223 57 Changes in Kud?m Rhythmic Cycles 223 58 Painting of a Native American Flute Player (Do!ubeyazit, November 19, 2004) 240 59 Qawwal-s at Chitaurgarh Mosque (Chitaurgarh, August 7, 2003) 256 60 Zikr-like Formula from ??ekirge Dans?? 264 61 Zikr Formula used in ?K?h? 265 62 Flyer for Mercan Dede?s Concert Tour during the Mevlana Festivities of December 2004 276 63 Bendir Decorated with a Whirling Dervish (Konya, December 17, 2004) 307 64 1973 Commemorative Stamps featuring Whirling Dervishes, K?dum Players, and the Mevlana 315 65 UNESCO Mevlana 2007 Emblem 316 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: FROM PLURALITY TO UNITY Starting in the Midle February 24, 2005 Cairo ?Where are you going?? asks a turbaned man siting on a box amid the bustle of honking horns, wailing vendors, and blasting radios. This time I do not even want to acknowledge him. ?Why does everyone always think I?m lost,? I ask myself, annoyed. ?What does he want? Baksheesh? Is he just curious and has nothing to do? Why can?t someone just wander around looking for the mosque listed in the guidebook without being questioned? #stanbul, Urfa, Aleppo, Aswan: al the same.? ?Don?t look,? I tel myself. ?He?s just going to ask you where you?re from now.? I look up anyway and se him propping himself up with his left hand, leaning to the right in my direction. His neck is tilted at a forty-five degre angle to the right, reminding me of the position I was forced into during my ney lesons in Konya. His right hand is slightly outstretched and he rotates his wrists and thre fingers a few times, as if he is trying to twist of a bottle cap. This is not the first time I have encountered this posture in my travels, yet only now, halfway into my fieldwork, does it dawn on me how ?Sufi? it is. I smile and ask him where the metro station is. He points me in the direction from which I had just come and guides me halfway to the octagonal metro sign darting up into the sky before wishing me a pleasant stay in Egypt. 2 Bearings, Directions, and a Roadmap: Introduction As the previous anecdote suggests, travel has significant cultural value in the Middle East. Despite being the cradle of ancient setled civilization, the lands betwen modern day Turkey and Egypt have always been inhabited and criscrossed by peoples who hold mobility in high estem. So important is physical movement that it takes on religious significance. Viewing setled society as ?corrupting? and ?imoral,? nomadic groups like the Bedouins and Roma maintain centuries-old itinerant traditions in the face of sedentarization. 1 Similarly, travel in the form of religious pilgrimage has been, since antiquity, a basic precept of devotional practice. In Islamic tradition, travel and spiritual devotion are interconnected as a mater of religious obligation. Pilgrimage (hajj, ziyara) to Meca, Medina, and saints? shrines is expected of al Muslims and is considered as central a pilar of faith as belief in the onenes of Alah. Acordingly, a musafir (an Arabic term eaning both ?traveler? and ?pilgrim?), a konuk (Turkish for ?guest?), or even a yabanc? (Turkish for ?foreigner? or ?stranger?) is typicaly considered not unlike a gift from God, and it is incumbent upon the honor of a Muslim host to offer hospitality, generosity, and asistance. 2 Conversely, the refusal of food, drink, or aid is sometimes taken as an act of deep insult. Equaly wounding are the felings of annoyance or suspicion that some Western travelers to the region harbor toward overly inquisitive would-be guides. Such sentiments are generaly unwaranted. In the Middle East, questions like ?Where are you going?? and ?Where you from?? 1 Lila Abu Lughod, Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, 2 nd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Pres, 1986): 8. 2 For more on the proper treatment of a guest, se ibid., 45-46. 3 function as salutations, 3 revealing the cultural primacy of mobility, and usualy elicit conversations about previous journeys or the desire to visit distant lands and peoples, in"allah (?God wiling?). Travel is al the more esential in Sufism, the esoteric, mystical branch of Islam. Concepts of movement permeate Sufi thought and underpin many critical theological principles and devotional practices, ranging from the doctrine of unity to ascetic wandering. For the Sufis of the Mevlevi Order in particular, motion is wel articulated through music, dance, and endles volumes of sacred poetry. For instance, their eponymous founder the Mevlana Rumi wrote in the thirtenth century: Listen as this red pipes its plaint Unfolds its tale of separations: Cut from my redy bed, My crying ever since makes men and women wep ? Once severed from the root, Thirst for union with the source endures ? The red, soother to al sundered lovers ? Its piercing modes reveal our hidden pain; ? The red tels the tale of a blood-stained quest? 4 This oft-quoted opening pasage from the Mevlana?s Mesnevi encapsulates some of the more fundamental tenets of Mevlevi Sufism. Like the ney, the delicate red flute severed from its concealed underground stem, humanity is difuse, detached from its esential source, Alah. Mankind, the lover, is consequently on a journey seking and yearning for unification with the One God, the Beloved. In Mevlevi religious belief, the journey is 3 The act of giving and receiving salutation is also a religious obligation predicated on mandates writen in the Koran. Se Thomas Patrick Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, Being a Cyclopedia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, Together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhamadan Religion, 3 rd ed. (Delhi: Adam Publishers and Distributors, 198): 563-64. 4 Quoted in Franklin D. Lewis, Rumi, Past and Present, East and West: The Life, Teaching and Poetry of Jal?l al-Din Rumi (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 200): 362. 4 both physical and mental and requires the devote to overcome selfishnes and ego through mystical love (a"k). Mevlevi ritual practices therefore are designed to nurture that love and to direct individual worshipers from their plurality of existence to communal unity with Alah. Although the thrust of this disertation is threfold, it too has one principal goal: to provide a comprehensive acount of Mevlevi and Mevlana-related musical practice. To this end, I expand the available literature on the subject by exploring first and foremost the concept of motion, in the broadest sense of the term, as a fundamental aesthetic of Mevlevi and other Sufi musical practice. 5 Kinesthetic elements of performance, normaly considered ?extra?-musical by Western-trained music scholars, on the contrary, constitute esential aspects of Mevlana-related music and this disertation thus analyzes structured movement systems like performance gestures, ritual procedings, and especialy dance and trance activity as integral to sonic phenomena. Literary scholars, on the other hand, while often aluding to the concept of motion in their citations and hermeneutic discussions of Sufi poetic verse, fal short of describing the ways in which the mystical texts are rendered through chant and song. Here as wel as in instrumental music the aesthetic of motion also plays a critical role. This study, therefore, takes an expanded definition of movement that encompases a host of musical features related to modal, rhythmic, and structural changes over time, including modulation as wel as intensification of volume and tempo. 5 There is no single term in Arabic, Farsi, or Turkish that encompases al the physical, mystical, and musical forms of movement found in Sufi theology and practice. I employ the term ?motion? and like synonyms in this study for convenience, using literal meanings and metaphorical conotations as in indigenous convention when apropriate. 5 In this study, I extend the concept of motion further stil to include various forms of social movement that are likewise pertinent to the musical tradition. Thus, in addition to analyzing specific musical and performance elements in terms of movement, I also place Mevlana-related music within the context of pilgrimage, tourism, and globalization. This broad approach to musical aesthetics, inspired by the ethnomusicological concern with the integration of sonic and social dimensions of performance, alows for a more thorough understanding of Mevlevi music than is found in existing writen acounts. The second broad area of focus in this disertation is the study of how musical performance functions as a manifestation of religious or spiritual devotion. In the Sufi context, faith (iman) has many facets, but, as Wiliam Chitick summarizes, ?from the earliest times Muslims who strove to gain nearnes to God did so through activity, love, and knowledge.? 6 For Sufi followers, the thre are subsumed within the ritual of zikr in which music plays an important role in inducing an ecstatic trance state (co"kunluk, vecd). Life is conceived of as a journey best described as ?Human Love seking admision into the Sanctuary of Divinity.? 7 Through zikr the dervish (?mendicant traveler?) undergoes self-annihilation (fana) and achieves sublimation (baka) in the love of the One God. Ritual musical performances like zikr are pregnant with figurative and symbolic meaning and indeed much of Sufi life is predicated on esoteric knowledge. Alusions to movement, for instance, are metaphorical of the quest for mystical love. In this disertation, I focus especialy on decoding the symbols of motion in Mevlevi musical performance for the purposes of demonstrating how music functions as act of devotion, 6 Wiliam C. Chitick, Sufism: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 200): 61. 7 Hughes, 620. 6 an offering of love for the Mevlana Rumi and God. Thus the term devote in this study refers not simply to a worshiper, but to a lover fervently seking spiritual union with both the Mevlana and Alah through even the most quotidian of gestures and actions. Finaly, in this disertation I document Mevlevi Sufism not so much as an historical institution, but as a vital, living religious system that thrives both inside and outside of Turkey despite considerable opposition. The general consensus in academic and political circles and among critics of the Mevlevi is that the order is virtualy extinct. Likewise, there is the widespread belief that Mevlevi musical and ritual practices, having been co-opted by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and New Age dabblers, survive today only in adulterated forms as tourist spectacles and farcical ceremonies. As this disertation demonstrates, nothing could be further from the truth. Viewing Mevlevism from within the context of such modes of social movement as pilgrimage, tourism, and globalization leads to very diferent conclusions and reveals not only the broader cultural values of motion central to the sect, but also the fact that the tradition flourishes because of its inherent dynamism and aversion to stasis. Having laid out these thre principal avenues of investigation?the aesthetics of motion, music as devotion, and Mevlevism as vital tradition?I provide a biographical sketch of the poet-saint Mevlana Rumi in the following section so as to impart a deeper understanding of the man who inspired the foundation of new religious sects as wel as new musical forms of ritual worship, two developments I explore more fully in the succeding fourth and fifth sections of the chapter. As these thre background sections imediately reveal, the concepts of motion and devotion shaped the life of the Mevlana and hence also the religious and musical forms that emerged after his pasing. 7 The sixth and seventh sections of this chapter demonstrate that previous scholarship on Mevlana tradition has failed to highlight these central themes of movement and devotion and consequently has generated a rather limited understanding of the tradition. Thus, after presenting a critical analysis of the available literature on Mevlana culture in the sixth section, I describe in the seventh section my fieldwork experiences in Turkey and elsewhere as I came to understand the importance of these concepts. This reflective section describes my fieldwork proces, research methodology, and fidings, those elements so critical to an ethnomusicological study. I end the chapter with an outline of the major topics that emerged from my fieldwork and that I explore more thoroughly in the rest of the disertation. The Journeys of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhammad al-Balkhi al-Rumi The aesthetic of motion so prevalent in Mevlevi devotional practice is inspired by and reflected in the semi-nomadic life of the order?s widely revered eponymous founder. Although much of what is known about him comes through myth, legend, and scholarly supposition, certain details do emerge from the historical record. 8 The Mevlana H?davendig?r Celal ed-Din Muhamad ibn Muhamad al-Balkhi al-Rumi, who acquired names and honorifics as he traveled, was likely born on September 30, 1207 in Vakhsh in what is today Tajikistan, near the Afghan border. He was named Muhamad after both the Prophet of Islam and his father Muhamad Baha ed-Din Veled, who also gave him the title of Celal ed-Din (?The Splendor of the Faith?). Celal ed-Din 8 For a critical review of the scholarly sources and the most recent scholarly evidence for the life of the Mevlana se Lewis, 42-49 and 90-95. Much of the folowing discusion is based on Lewis?s acount. 8 Muhamad?s father was a native of nearby Balkh and a traveling Islamic preacher and jurist of some note who was based largely in Vakhsh betwen 1204 and 1210. The town of Vakhsh is situated on the east bank of the main tributary of the Amu Darya River and gives its name to the fertile valey surrounding it. The Amu Darya, which extends from the Aral Sea to the Vakhsh River, is the largest river in Central Asia and is known most widely as the Oxus, an ancient Grek corruption of Vakhsh. In medieval imagination, the Oxus River marked the edge of the civilized world, separating the exquisite cities of Persia from the desolate lands of the nomadic Turkic tribes that lay just beyond (literaly, Transoxania). At the turn of the thirtenth century, Vakhsh and more cosmopolitan Balkh, along with Bukhara, Herat, and Samarkand, the fabled hubs of commerce and learning on the Silk Road, were within the fold of Greater Khorasan, the resplendent eastern domain of the Persianate Khwarezmid Empire. By the end of the first decade of the thirtenth century, however, the atmosphere in either Vakhsh or Balkh must have been that of an anxious, uncertain frontier town. To the east, the forces of Genghis Khan had vanquished the Western Xia, a region comprising what is today Western China and parts of Tibet, and his great Mongol Horde would soon turn its atention further west. By 1222, the entire Khwarezmid Empire had falen, its great cities burned to the ground, smoldering in ashes. So extensive was the devastation and human toll that over a century later, in the 1330s, the celebrated Muslim traveler Abu ?Abdalah ibn Batuta described Balkh as stil ?completely dilapidated and uninhabited.? 9 9 Quoted in Ros E. Dun, The Adventures of Ibn Batuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14 th Century, 2 nd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Pres, 205): 176. 9 The Veled family, however, had escaped this apocalypse. Baha ed-Din moved his family progresively westward in advance of the Mongol invasions, though they might not have traveled entirely as refugees. It may be that Baha ed-Din became entangled in local Vakhsh religious politics or sought beter employment elsewhere and thus the family moved initialy more like migrants than imigrants through Samarkand, Balkh, Nishapur, and elsewhere before leaving Persian lands altogether. 10 What is certain is that sometime around 1215 or 1216 Baha ed-Din took his family, the young Celal ed-Din in tow, through Baghdad en route to Meca for the hajj and subsequently setled in Larende, modern day Karaman in Turkey. In 1224 Celal ed-Din Muhamad maried Gevher Hatun of Samarkand, whose family had been in the Veleds? caravan to Meca, and soon had two sons with her, ?Ala ed-Din and Sultan Veled, who asumed his father?s legacy after his death. In the meantime, Celal ed-Din?s own father, Baha ed-Din, as a scholar and ascetic, setled in nearby Konya where he secured a teaching post in the medrese (?Islamic religious school?) and developed a religious following. Upon Baha ed-Din?s death in 1231, Celal ed-Din inherited his father?s legacy, but feling il-prepared to continue it, he traveled to Aleppo and Damascus to undergo an extended period of religious education. Sometime betwen 1237 and 1241, he joined his family in Konya, becoming a Hanefi jurist and head of the community of mystical disciples established by his father. Konya was the capital of the Sel?uk Sultanate of Rum, the large Anatolian Muslim empire that the Sel?uk Turks of Central Asia had recently wrested away from ?Rome,? as Byzantium, formerly the eastern half of the Roman Empire, was stil known to Muslims. Celal ed-Din?s Konya was at its cultural apogee in the thirtenth century with wealth 10 Lewis, 51-52 and 5-6. 10 from Silk Road trade alowing for an intelectual and artistic flowering that resulted in, among other things, the construction of hundreds of elaborately decorated caravanserais, mosques, and medrese-s across the Anatolian Peninsula (se for example Figure 1). Figure 1: Entrance to A!z?kara Han?, a 13 th -Century Sel?uk Caravanserai (Near Aksaray, June 6, 2002) Like many other Persian ?migr?s fleing the Mongol invasions, Celal ed-Din Muhamad setled in prosperous Konya and maried Gera Hatun after the death of his first wife, fathering a third son and a daughter. There he acquired the toponym Rumi, by which he is today most widely known in the West. Although he may have physicaly setled in Konya, it was there that he began his inner spiritual journey. Perhaps in reaction to the growing decadence of daily life in the 11 city, he turned more seriously to the spiritual, ascetic principles of Sufism, reading the works of mystical writers like his father and undergoing austere acts of self-deprivation including long periods of fasting. Consequently, Celal ed-Din Muhamad Rumi became arguably the most respected, inspiring, and charismatic Sufi master of his time. Yet after the deaths of his two most important mystical teachers, his father and Sayyed Borhan al- Din Mohaqqeq al-Termez, he searched endlesly for a spiritual guide who was in al ways his superior. Such a teacher came in the form of the Persian dervish %ams ed-Din-i Muhamad al-Tabrizi (literaly, ?Muhamad of Tabriz, the Sun of the Faith?). Relatively litle is known of %ams, who is often likened to the sun coming in from the east and seting Rumi?s heart aflame with the fire of spiritual love (a"k). 1 He was originaly from Tabriz in the west of Persia and not from Khorasan in the east, which is the traditional heartland of Sufi Islam. Nevertheles, like other Sufis of the time, he was a teacher and traveling ascetic and was evidently highly educated in Islamic theology and law. In addition, he was Celal ed-Din?s senior by a generation, which meant that Rumi would have asumed the role of disciple in the relationship more readily except that %ams was an Ovaysi Sufi, meaning that he sought enlightenment directly from Alah rather than through a Sufi master, and he trained Rumi unrelentingly in the same principle. Reportedly, the two were kindred spirits, shared an intimate bond of deep personal friendship, and spent extended periods together in isolation, imersed in sohbet (?religious conversation?) debating esoteric topics. Upon the mysterious disappearances and later death of %ams, the distraught Celal ed-Din Rumi poured his bereavement into periods of travel, as he atempted to track him down, and into bouts of profuse writing. 1 For the most authoritative sumary biography of %ams Tabrizi to date se ibid., 134-241. 12 During this period he composed his Mesnevi, a six-volume collection of spiritual couplets, and the Divani !amsi Tabrizi (The Works of !amsi Tabrizi), consisting of over forty thousand verses. Much of this vast corpus comprises love poetry that conflates %ams and Alah and incorporates a series of stock images, themes, and metaphors including notably references to motion and travel. Here I come again, Again I come from the Friend Look at me, look at me, I?ve come to look after you I come in joy, rejoiced, I come fred from al Several thousand years went by Before I found the words: I ascend, ascend I dwelt up there, am heading there ? Shams-e Tabriz Won?t you search me out, Comb the earth, end to end? For I have cris-crossed Heart-sore and soul-sick Through the sands of efacement 12 Such verses are deeply moving and their performances through recitation and music drew a large following and turned Rumi into a venerated saint in his own lifetime. Rumi?s most common sobriquet in the Islamic world, already in use during his time, was Mevlana, an Arabic term eaning both ?our master? and ?our guide? and refering to the spiritual direction his followers receive from his writings and teachings. The Mevlana?s following continued to grow wel after his death on the evening of December 17, 1273, known to his devotes as his %eb-i ?urs (?wedding night?) when he atained complete union with Alah. While the Mevlana?s death and journey of ascent into Paradise may be wrapped in legend, the subsequent spread of his spiritual teachings is not disputed. 12 Quoted in ibid., 352-53. 13 Advancing after Anihilation: The Rise of the Cult of the Mevlana The Mevlana?s cult of disciples was already quite substantial during his lifetime, and, aside from his students, the large audiences that came to hear his lectures included Sel?uk nobility and the governing elite of Konya and the surrounding areas. Celal ed-Din himself, however, semed to have had only limited interest and patience with such audiences and most likely did not preside over a fuly established order of followers. As a consequence of the Mevlana?s resistance to earthly maters, the initial institutional growth of his cult was somewhat limited until after his death. It was only through much efort, for instance, that the Sel?uk financial minister and Mevlana devote Taj ed-Din Mo?taz Khorasani was able to establish the early infrastructure for the Mevlana?s followers, including the founding of the first teke (?lodge?), despite the Mevlana?s refusal. 13 Taj ed-Din?s eventual succes came only through the intercesion of Sultan Veled, the son of the Mevlana. It is, therefore, Sultan Veled ?elebi (1226-1312) who is generaly credited with founding the Mevlevi tarikat of dervishes and its sacred rites. The word tarikat, meaning literaly ?path? in Arabic and often translated as ?order,? ?brotherhood,? or ?confraternity,? applies to a sect or cult of Sufi mystics. Despite many points of commonality, Sufi orders are distinguished in particular by the spiritual guides and saints (pir-s) they include in their pantheon, their symbols, which are especialy evident in their regalia and apparel, and in certain specific theological beliefs and ritual procedures. It is doubtful that during Celal ed-Din?s lifetime or even in the early years of the order that his disciples were organized into any strictly defined or structured tarikat. Indeed, many 13 Ibid., 425. 14 features of Mevlevi theology and ritual practice have their origins in the Sufi traditions already common throughout the Islamic world. That said, Sultan Veled did coordinate the political structure of the order, appointing "eyh-s (?elders?) and deputies and establishing himself as halife (?succesor?). Using the lives of the Mevlana and %ams as models, he also institutionalized particular dres, titular designations, symbolism, terminology, and ritual practices that would distinguish the Mevlevi from other tarikat-s. 14 In addition, Sultan Veled and his son Arif ?elebi ensured the financial stability of the growing number of Mevlevi teke-s by securing pious endowments (vakif-s) from wealthy patrons and the government. It was through strategic aristocratic and governmental sponsorship that the ?elebis, henceforth a hereditary title designating the supreme Mevlevi authority, acomplished the subsequent spread of the tarikat across Anatolia. Under the auspices of the Sel?uks and other Anatolian princedoms (beylik-s), Mevlevi teke-s and mosques soon sprang up in K?r"ehir, throughout the neighboring Kapadokya region, and as far northeast as Erzincan. During Otoman rule, royal patronage intensified and the tarikat extended deeper into Asia as wel as into Europe and Africa. Sultan Murat I (r. 1421-44, 1446-51) supported the Mevlevi Order in Europe by founding a teke in Edirne, near the modern border of Bulgaria. Around 1492, Sultan Beyazit I (r. 1481-1512) founded the important teke at Galata, today the oldest lodge extant in #stanbul. In the mid-sixtenth century, Sultan S?leyman the Magnificent (r. 1520-66) had the worship hal (semahane) adjacent to the Mevlana?s tomb in Konya constructed as an imperial gift. Other important sultans, including Murat I (r. 1362-89), Mehmet I, conqueror of Constantinople (r. 1444-46, 14 Se, for instance, Nurhan Atasoy, ?Dervish Dres and Ritual: The Mevlevi Tradition? in The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Otoman Turkey, ed. Raymond Lifchez, trans. M. E. Quigley-P?nar (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Pres, 192): 253-68. 15 1451-81), Selim I (r. 1512-20), and Murat II (r. 1574-95), were likewise atracted to the Mevlevi order and were strong supporters of its expansion and further development. Through such patronage the Mevlevi became virtualy omnipresent throughout the Otoman Empire and penetrated into the heart of the rival Shiite empire of the Persian Safavids. At their height, the Mevlevi had fourten major centers across the Near East, stretching from Yeni"ehir (modern-day Larisa, Grece) and Gelibolu to Bursa, Manisa, Afyon, K?tahya, Eski"ehir, Kastamonu, Aleppo, and Cairo, with four in #stanbul at Bahariye, Galata, Kas?mpa"a, and Yenikap?. Another seventy-six smaler teke-s were founded mostly in Anatolia and the Balkans, but also as far afield as P?cs (in modern-day Hungary), Tabriz (Iran), Baghdad, Meca, Medina, and Jerusalem. At the geographic and symbolic heart of the Mevlevi world lay the Asitane (?great central lodge?) and t?rbe (?mausoleum,? ?tomb,? or ?shrine?) of the Mevlana in Konya (Figure 2). Figure 2: Map of Mevlevi Lodges and Centers in the Near East (Provided by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism) 16 As impresive as this multitude of Mevlevi centers may be, however, it acounts for only a portion of the Mevlana?s cult of devotes. Not al of the Mevlana?s disciples subscribed to the Mevlevi tarakat, which was, despite al its fame, one of the more modestly sized Sufi orders. Followers of the Mevlana could be found al over the Islamic world as far away as Central and South Asia, including among the Bekta"i, Cerahi, Chishti, Nak"ibendi, and Nimatollahi orders, among many others. In addition, some later tarikat-s also adopted the Mevlana?s teachings and traced their silsila (?spiritual and hereditary lineage?) to Celal ed-Din Rumi. Nevertheles, the Mevlevi were unequivocaly one of the most powerful Sufi tarkitat-s in the Islamic world, thanks to their Otoman benefactors. By the reign of Selim II (r. 1789-1807), adherents to the Mevlana commanded from al echelons of the Otoman Empire; Selim himself, in addition to being the Sultan, was also a poet, ney player, composer, and a Mevlevi. The political status of these powerful religious leaders within the Otoman ranks would be their undoing, however, when the forces of Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk seized control in the wake of the First World War. With the collapse of the Otoman Empire in 1922, the newly formed Turkish Republic sought to create a secular nation-state and eliminated any potential revival of the Empire. On December 13, 1925, just days prior to 652 nd anniversary of the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs, the new secular regime, under Article 1 of Law 677, officialy banned al Sufi tarikat-s. Al teke-s were closed down and al ritual acoutrements including costumes and musical instruments were confiscated and put on display in museums as vestiges of Turkish heritage. For the remainder of the twentieth century, the Mevlevi in Turkey languished as cultural relics, their venerated saint 17 demoted to the status of a mere poet, their centers of worship shut down or turned into museums. Despite the best eforts of the secular government, however, the Mevlana remained extremely popular. His devotes went underground and continued their traditions in secret. The number of Mevlana admirers did not dwindle over the course of the twentieth century and the government was forced to make several important concesions to them. The most significant of these was that the Mevlana?s sacred shrine in Konya was not permanently closed down, but reconstituted as a popular museum in which tourists and large numbers of pilgrims intermingled. Under the auspices of their new patrons, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Mevlevi were partialy rehabilitated in 1953 when their sacred liturgy was publicly performed in Konya in honor of the 680 th %eb-i ?urs, though officialy only as a display of Turkish cultural heritage. In subsequent years more elaborate cultural and tourist performances were permited in commemoration of the Mevlana?s death, first in Konya, then in Ankara and #stanbul. Most significantly, the Turkish government in collaboration with UNESCO observed the 700 th anniversary of the Mevlana?s pasing in 1973, formaly recognized as the Year of Rumi, with great pomp. In addition, the Turkish government permited the Mevlevi to travel to London, Paris, and across the United States to perform their ceremonies. This tour, along with those through Europe and the U.S. in the years prior, mark the most recent phase of Mevlevi expansion. 15 After visiting the United States and amasing a modest following, %eyh S?leyman Hayati Dede of Konya sent his son Celaleddin Loras there in 1978 to continue his work in New York and Mendocino, California. Loras officialy established the Mevlevi Order 15 Much of the folowing discusion on recent Mevlevi developments is based on Lewis 520-24. 18 of America in 1980 and has since been especialy active along the West coast. The order now boasts centers in Seatle, Portland, Eugene, southern Oregon, San Francisco, and Marin Bay and Sonoma counties, California as wel as in Ithaca, New York and even has afiliates in Vancouver, Munich, and Frankfurt. The dervishes of the Mevlevi Order of America regularly perform the Mevlevi rite throughout the United States and Europe as wel as in Turkey. In 1994 they were alowed to perform in the semahane of the Mevlana Museum in Konya, even though the Turkish government has not permited local Turkish Mevlevis to do the same. In 1998 and again more recently in 2005, the North American Mevlevis also performed in the Galata Mevlevihane in #stanbul. A second Mevlevi group known as the Threshold Society was founded in 1975 by Kabir and Camile Helminski in Bratleboro, Vermont, also known as ?New Konya? until the Helminskis relocated to Aptos, California. In 1990, Kabir Helminski was appointed a Mevelvi "eyh by Celaleddin Bak?r ?elebi (1926-96), the Grand ?elebi of the Mevlevi tarikat, and began to expand the organization soon after. The Threshold Society now also operates out of San Diego, Portland, Washington state, Washington D.C., Madison, Wisconsin and internationaly in Montreal, Toronto, and London, Canada, as wel as in Mexico City and Santiago, Chile. Interaction betwen the two U.S. based Mevlevi groups, however, is limited owing to tensions over which of the two "eyh-s, Loras or Helminski, is the rightful head of the Mevlevi in North America. Although the place of the Mevlevi in Turkey today remains tenuous at best and subject to the whims of capricious Turkish state officials at worst, their presence is growing. As we have sen with their activities in North America, however, the true potency of the Mevlevi at the dawn of the Mevlana?s eighth century is on the global 19 stage. In 1996, Celaleddin Bak?r ?elebi broadened the Mevlevi tarikat further by founding the International Mevlana Foundation, which is now headed by his son Faruk Hemdem ?elebi (b. 1950). The Foundation was created to regulate the global presence of Mevlevi and has in a sense replaced the tarikat outlawed by the Turkish government. It is currently active in Austria, Chile, Germany, Iran, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The spiritual direction of the Mevlevi is entrusted to President ?elebi?s smal but growing contingent of loosely confederated "eyh-s currently based in Turkey, Iran, across Europe, and in North America. The Mevlevi and Music for the Mevlana In many ways, the globalization of the tarikat, particularly in the West, has posed new chalenges for the Mevlevi Order. Paramount among the changes ushered in by internationalization is the debate revolving around the expanded definition of a ?Mevlevi.? Such revaluation significantly impacts what constitutes Mevlevi ritual practice and complicates traditional notions of what is ?Mevlevi music.? Predicated on the principles of mystical love (a"k) and self-annihilation (fana and baka), Sufi identities have always been rather fluid. Historicaly, many Sufis owed their alegiance to various "eyh-s and pir-s who may or many not have inspired a specific order. In many cases, especialy in that of the Mevlana Rumi, multiple tarikat-s would coalesce around the teachings of one mystical leader, forming a sort of brotherhood among various brotherhoods. In a similar manner, it was not atypical for dervishes to be initiates of more than one order. As a result, Sufism developed as a generaly open and 20 occasionaly quite heterodox belief system, with many Sufi groups espousing a tolerance and universality that have rendered them rather enigmatic. To varying degres, Islam is considered the religious esence and defining feature of most tarikat-s, but Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian influences are prominent among the most basic Sufi theological precepts. 16 The Mevlevi, maintaining that Islam is the shel within which Sufi mysticism is contained, are nevertheles extremely welcoming of Christians, Jews, and even atheists, particularly from the West. Most controversialy, the Mevlevi centers in the West do not currently require members to convert to Islam, though they are given Islamic training and engage in study of the Koran. Another peculiarity of contemporary Mevlevi Sufism is that it has become inextricably linked with Turkish national identity (se Chapter Four), even though the order remains oficialy banned in Turkey. In particular, the concentration of Mevlevi teke-s in Anatolia over seven centuries has cemented the place of the tarikat within Otoman and Turkish heritage. This has made it dificult for non-Turks to be considered ?Mevlevi? in the traditional sense, that is Turkish and Muslim. Yet owing to the worldwide appeal of the Mevlana, the modern Mevlevi is increasingly neither a Turk nor a Muslim. The last recent significant change to complicate the traditional characterization of a Mevlevi is the more liberal inclusion of women. Particularly contentious have been the initiation of female "eyh-s and the intermixing of male and female dervishes in the sacred rite. Khalija Radin Goforth, a disciple of Celaleddin Loras, for instance, serves as a female Mevlevi "eyh in Danby, New York where she teaches the Mevlevi rite to Western Sufis of both sexes. After some deliberation in 1991, Celaleddin Bak?r ?elebi oficialy 16 Hughes, 609. 21 granted women the right to participate with men in the public ceremonies commemorating the Mevlana?s birth and death. There has been some reticence among traditionalists, however, in acepting these changes fully or in granting women further liberties. 17 The increased presence of non-Turks and non-Muslims, as wel as women, in Mevlevi culture has resulted in appreciable changes in Mevlevi religious practice and music and has initiated serious debate as to the nature and authenticity of current praxis. Although I discuss the nature of historical and contemporary Mevlevi music and ritual in greater detail in the following chapters of this disertation, it is useful at this point to consider briefly what is meant by the term ?Mevlevi music.? Mevlevi music, along with ritual and theology, is based on the many writings, speeches, and sermons of the Mevlana, which, acording to tradition, were codified by his followers and his son. 18 Sultan Veled, who once again asumes a legendary role in the origins of the tarikat, is often cited as having established the Mevlevi liturgy by seting his father?s mystical poetry to music and dance. The implication is that the music performed today, or at least its style, was composed by him and may even date to the time of the Mevlana. Such claims are highly contestable, however, given that the earliest surviving music from Islamic Anatolia comes from the Otoman, not the Sel?uk, period. It is, therefore, the extant collection of Otoman clasical music composed by Mevlevi Sufis that music scholars, the Mevlevi themselves, and even the Turkish 17 In ceremonies I witnesed in Konya, the inclusion or exclusion of women was somewhat arbitrary. At the first zikr I atended, the woman I was with was seated with the other female congregants behind a curtain segregating them from the men and the main ceremony. On most subsequent visits with other female visitors, however, men and women worshiped jointly. 18 %eyh Nail Kesova for one claims, ?The Mevlevi rite, in the form in which it has come down to us, is Sultan Veled?s.? Se James More, The Whirling Dervishes: A Comemoration (London: International Rumi Comite, 1974): [12]. 22 government overwhelmingly endorse as the primary Mevlevi repertory (se Chapter Four). Comprising both vocal and instrumental compositions dating largely to the ninetenth and early twentieth centuries, the music is performed by ensembles of Turkish clasical instruments and choirs of singers. Performances of this music acompany groups of so-caled ?dancers? who, with outstretched arms, elegantly spin counterclockwise in white flowing gowns. This whirling, caled sema, 19 is the most characteristic feature of the Mevlevi rite and is performed by devotes in order to achieve a meditative trance state in which the worshiper is believed to be in spiritual unity with mankind, the cosmos, and Alah. 20 The sema, however, is only one aspect of zikr, the main Sufi ritual also practiced by the Mevlevi. Zikr (Arabic dhikr), often translated as ?remembrance,? involves the ritualized iteration of the word ?Alah? thousands of times, usualy in a seated position while swaying from front to back. In Sufi theology, it is believed that through such repetition, eventualy, as the formulae cease to have meaning, the distinctions betwen Alah and the worshiper are neutralized, creating an ecstatic union betwen the supplicant and the One God. Among several Sufi tarikat-s, including the Mevlevi, this ritual is embelished with the performance of instrumental music, usualy Turkish folk music on Turkish folk instruments, and the singing of hymns and odes composed by the great mystic poets, including those of the Mevlana Rumi (se Chapter Five). 19 The term sema has two diferent meanings in the Islamic world. In Arabic sam#? means ?listening? or ?audition? and is used to indicate a concert of music, while in Turkish sema means ?firmament? or ?sky? and refers to the whirling of the Mevlevi dervishes. Sema should not be translated into English as a ?dance,? however, for both spiritual and linguistic reasons; Sufis do not consider the ecstatic turning to be a kind of dance. The Turkish word for ?to dance? is dans etmek, while in Arabic the term raqs is used. 20 Although the turning (deveran) of the sema is most characteristic of the Mevlevi, it is iconic of Sufism in general and is also practiced by many other Turkish Sufi tarikat-s including the Bayrami, Bekta"i, G?l"eni, Halveti, Kadiri, Rufai, and U"aki. 23 Two paralel Mevlevi musical traditions are thus in existence in Turkey: one the officialy sanctioned whirling sema acompanied by the staid strains of the Otoman clasical repertory, the other the zikr ceremony consisting of ritual trance and exuberant folk-inspired hymns. In Mevlevi spiritual praxis, the later repertory may in fact be more common today. Acounts of Mevlevi musical practice, however, rarely mention the zikr or its music, although it is wel documented among other tarikat-s. 21 The use of this music is significant because it broadens the scope of what is normaly meant by Mevlevi music beyond the traditional clasical repertory. In fact, Sufi music in general in Turkey, and especialy elsewhere in the Islamic world, is not easily understood by such Western distinctions as ?clasical? or ?folk,? but rather by the presence of tasavvuf (?mystical spiritual esence?). In an esay entitled ?What is Sufi Music?? Jean During suggests that this term ay have more to do with spiritual intention than anything inherently musical or sonic. Now, without the active participation of the subject who performs or listens to the music, no music is per se mystical. Let us remember that even the most evocative dhikr does not work ?automaticaly?; it is merely a technique employed during sam#? [?spiritual audition?] to activate the intention of the individual and to asist concentration. 2 Consequently, as During argues, ?the true Sufi may interpret the most mundane of melodies as ?music of the spheres?, hearing in it the Divine summons to heed the 21 For a listing, se fotnote no. 4 in this chapter. 2 Jean During, ?What is Sufi Music?? in The Heritage of Sufism, Vol. 2, The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism (150-150), ed. Leonard Lewisohn (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 199): 283. 24 primordial Covenant,? 23 and he proclaims that musical ?form is only secondary to the actual performance.? 24 Yet, During, defining Sufi music broadly as ?music made by, and/or listened to by, Sufis,? nevertheles ultimately sets rather arbitrary restrictions on his ?proposed union of sacred and profane genres of music.? 25 Claiming that ?some forms are more suitable than others to spiritual purposes,? During prizes the traditional clasical forms because they were ?originaly elaborated by Sufis, or else?are in themselves versatile, so that the same tune can be interpreted in both a spiritual and a mundane manner.? 26 He thus categoricaly dismises forms like pop qawwali music from South Asia because they ?difer from the traditional.? 27 When we consider music as a form of devotion, however, we are forced to acept other kinds of music as wel. The Mevlana?s devotes have not limited their spiritual expresion to clasical or folk genres only, and some have recast these traditional forms in the sound world of Turkish or even European and American popular music (se Chapter Six). Likewise, when worshipers and pilgrims from other countries come to visit the major Mevlevi sites and shrines in Turkey, they expres themselves in acordance with their own musical vocabularies, and not necesarily in Turkish idioms (se Chapter Seven). In fact, such musics may sometimes be more ?Mevlevi? in intention and function than those bearing the traditional nomenclature. In an atempt to understand the 23 Ibid., 284. 24 Ibid., 287. 25 Ibid., 284. 26 Ibid., 284. 27 Ibid., 279. 25 full extent to which music is used in a devotional manner and in keeping with the universalism of Sufism, I have cast as wide a net as possible without losing sight of the object of adoration: the Mevlana. Indeed, during my research trips in Turkey when I would explain that I was conducting research on ?Mevlevi music,? many would repeat ?Mevlana,? as if correcting my Turkish. Hence, in this study I focus not only on ?Mevlevi music? as such, but also on musics performed in honor of or inspired by the Mevlana including popular as wel as non-Turkish musical forms. Likewise in this disertation, while centering largely on the Mevlevi, I also follow the activities of the Mevlana?s other devotes in other tarikats-s and those not afiliated with any Sufi sect. Paths Wel Trodden: Previous Scholarship Given their popularity, scholarship and other literature on the Mevlana and his disciples are profuse. Sufi tradition itself encourages an intensive intelectualism resulting in a vast body of writings, largely theological, polemic, and poetic in nature. Soon after the Mevlana?s death in 1271, for instance, his followers established the biographies that would become the bases of his hagiography, as was typical of the Persian Sufi tradition. Sultan Veled, the Mevlana?s son, led the way with his Ebted? n?me, a biography of Celal ed-Din Rumi?s life composed prior to the turn of the fourtenth century. 28 Along with the scant information that can be gleaned from the Mevlana?s own writings, it constitutes the earliest of the countles biographical sketches of the great saint. Also important are Faridun Sepahsalar?s Res?le-ye Sepahs?l?r 29 and 28 Sultan Valad, Masnavi-ye Valadi, ensh??e Bah? al-Din b. Mowl?n? Jal?l al-Din Mohamad b. Hosayn- e Balkhi, mashur be Mowlavi, ed. Jalal al-Din Homa?i (Tehran: Eqb?l, 1316/1937). 29 Faridun b. Ahmad Sepahs?l?r, Res?le-ye Sepahs?l?r, ed. Sa?id Nafisi (Tehran: Eqb?l, 1325/1947). 26 %ams ed-Din al-Aflaki?s Man?qeb al-?arefin 30 both of which date from the first half of the fourtenth century, preserve information from the oral tradition, and provide acounts of the early Mevlevi. Following genre conventions, these early sources are full of legendary and mythological pronouncements that have nevertheles been imitated in the scholarly tradition until the present. Beginning in the twentieth century, however, serious studies of surviving manuscripts from Turkey, Iran, and India provided a more factual acount of the life of the Mevlana. Annemarie Schimel, who has spent a lifetime consulting primary sources, has writen several biographies of the Mevlana al maintaining the poetic nature of her predecesors. 31 The most acurate, extensive, and recent of al Mevlana biographies, however, is Franklin Lewis?s Rumi: Past and Present, East and West, to which many references have already been made. 32 Aside from biographical studies, the great majority of contemporary Mevlana literature consists of commentaries, editions, and translations of the Mevlana?s profuse volumes of writings. Dozens have been undertaken by a legion of scholars and authors, and while even a partial listing is impractical here, 3 those by Coleman Barks 34 deserve 30 Shams al-Din Ahmad al-Afl?ki, Man?qeb al-?arefin, in 2 vols., ed. Tahsin Yaz?c? (Ankara: T?rk Tarih Kurumu Bas?mevi, 1959). 31 Se especialy Anemarie Schimel, The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jal?lodin Rumi (London: Fine Boks, 1978) and I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work of Rumi (Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 192). 32 Lewis, 200. 3 For a thorough sumary se ibid., 528-615. 34 Coleman Barks, The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia (New Lebanon, NY: Omega Publications, 193); The Esential Rumi (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 195); and The Soul of Rumi: A New Colection of Ecstatic Poems (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 202); The Bok of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 203). 27 special mention for their acesibility and poetic spirit, even if the translations are of dubious acuracy and largely based on the work of R. A. Nicholson and A. J. Arbery. 35 Significantly les scholarship exists on the Mevlana?s devotes and their means of worship, despite the fact that the Mevlevi of Turkey remain today the best known of al the Sufi orders. Several early acounts by foreign travelers to Anatolia, though incomplete, introductory, or vague, provide some picture of Mevlevi practice in its first few centuries. Scholars and authors of tourist guidebooks alike have done much to elaborate on the acounts of early pilgrims and visiting dignitaries, with Abd?lbaki G?lp?narl?, 36 Shems Friedlander, 37 and Talat Sait Halman and Metin And 38 providing the most detailed studies of the Mevlevi in the twentieth century. More recently, Jean During has writen a brief description of some recent Mevlevi activities, 39 though only Franklin Lewis has made any serious efort to document contemporary Mevlevi culture in any detail. Lewis focuses particularly on the Mevlevis in the United States and other Western countries. To my knowledge, however, there exists no ethnographic acount of the Mevlevi in contemporary Turkey. 35 Reynold Aleyne Nicholson, ed. and trans., Selected Poems from the D$v#ni Shamsi Tabr$z (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 1898/197; Arthur John Arbery, Tales from the Masnavi (London: George Alen and Unwin, 1961); More Tales from the Masnavi (London: George Alen and Unwin, 1963). 36 Abd?lb?ki G?lp?narl?, Mevl?n? Cel?ledin; hayat?, felsefesi, eserleri, eserlerinden se?meler [Mevlana Celaledin: His Life, Philosophy, and Achievements; Selections from His Works] (Istanbul: Ink?lap, 1951); Mevl?n??dan sonra Mevlevilik [The Mevlevi after Mevlana] (Istanbul: Inkil?p ve Aka Kitabevleri, 1953); Mevlev? Ad?b ve Erk?n? [The Mevlevi Adab and Erkan] (Istanbul: #nk?lap ve Aka, 1963). 37 Shems Friedlander, The Whirling Dervishes: Being an Acount of the Sufi Order, Known as the Mevlevis, and its Founder, the Poet and Mystic, Mevlana Jalalu?din Rumi (New York: Macmilan, 1975). 38 Tal?t Sait Halman and Metin And, Mevlana Celaledin Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes (Istanbul: Dost Yayinlari, 1983). 39 Jean During, ?Sufi Music and Rites in the Era of Mas Reproduction Techniques and Culture,? in Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and Midle East, Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 27-27, 197, ed. Anders Hamarlund, Tord Olson, and Elisabeth ?zdalga (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet; Richmond, England: Curzon, 201). 28 Specific studies of music that are informative for modern Mevlevi devotional practice are likewise few in number and are limited largely to the clasical Mevlevi repertory, though the existing works tend to be excelent. Mevlevi neyzen (?ney player?) and musicologist Rauf Yekta Bey, for instance, compiled a large body of this music, the clasical ayin-s acompanying the sema portion of the zikr, from practice current in the 1930s 40 and his collection was updated in 1979 by Sadetin Heper. 41 Yekta and more recently Karl Signel, Walter Feldman, and Owen Wright have writen extensively on the makam-usul system in which the ayin-s were composed. 42 In their writings, each of these musicologists have advanced understanding of the complex Otoman makam system and have clarified some of the earlier history of this music within a Mevlevi context. Because this music is related to the clasical modal system in use throughout the Islamic world, the writings of John Baily, Alexis Chottin, Hormoz Farhat, Lois al-Faruqi, Scott Marcus, J?zef Pacholczyk, and Ali Jihad Racy are also enlightening. 43 Comparative study is 40 Rauf Yekta, Mevlev? Ay?nleri (Istanbul: Istanbul Belediye Konservatuar?, 1923-39). 41 Sadetin Heper, ed., Mevlev? ?yinleri (Konya: Konya Turizm Derne!i Yay?n?, 1979). 42 Raouf Yekta Bey, ?La musique Turque? in Encyclop?die de la musique et dictionaire du Conservatoire, ed. A. Lavignac (Paris: Delagrave, 192); Karl Signel, ?Esthetics of Improvisation in Turkish Art Music,? Asian Music 5, No. 2 (1974): 45-49; Makam: Model Practice in Turkish Art Music (Seatle: Asian usic Publications, 197); Walter Feldman, ?Otoman Sources on the Development of the Taksim,? Yearbok for Traditional Music 25 (193): 1-28; Music of the Otoman Court: Makam, Composition and Early Otoman Instrumental Repertoire (Berlin: Verlag f?r Wisenschaft und Bildung, 196); ?Structure and Evolution of the Mevlev? Ay?n: The Case of the Third Selam? in Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and Midle East, Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 27-27, 197, ed. Anders Hamarlund, Tord Olson, and Elisabeth ?zdalga (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet; Richmond, England: Curzon, 201); Owen Wright, ?Aspects of Historical Change in the Turkish Clasical Repertoire,? Musica Asiatica 5: 1-108; Demetrius Cantemir: The Colection of Notations, Part 1: Text Transcribed and Anotated, Schol of Oriental and African Studies Musicology Series, Vol. 1 (London: University of London, 192); Demetrius Cantemir: The Colection of Notations, Volume 2: Comentary (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 200). 43 John Baily, Music of Afghanistan: Profesional Musicians in Herat (New York: Cambridge University Pres, 198); Alexis Chotin, Corpus de musique marocane (Paris: Au M?nestrel Heugel, 1931-3; Tableau de la musique marocaine (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1938); Hormoz Farhat, The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music (New York: Cambridge University Pres, 190); Lois Ibsen al-Faruqi, 29 likewise critical in supplementing the dearth of modern descriptions of the Mevlevi zikr and other ritual practices. 4 Regarding the concept of motion at the core of this disertation, I rely heavily on various works in several diferent disciplines, because no scholar discusses it directly as an aesthetic in Sufi music. Only Bente Nikolaisen, in a brief esay on the principle of motion in Turkish culture, asociates it directly with Mevlevi devotional practice. 45 Thus, from scholarship in the field of dance and ethnochoreography, I use Adrienne Kaeppler?s notion of ?structured movement systems? to analyze not only the whirling sema, but the gestures employed in the zikr as wel other important physical movement. 46 ?Ornamentation in Arabian Improvisational Music: A Study of Interelatednes in the Arts,? The World of Music 20, No. 1 (1978): 1-28; Scot L. Marcus, ?Modulation in Arab Music: Documenting Oral Concepts, Performing Rules and Strategies,? Ethnomusicology 36, No. 2 (192): 171-95; J?zef Pacholczyk, Sufyana Musiqi: The Clasical Music of Kashmir (Berlin: Verlag f?r Wisenschaft und Bildung, 196); Ali Jihad Racy, ?Improvisation, Ecstasy, and Performance Dynamics in Arab Music,? in In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation, ed. Bruno Netl and Melinda Rusel (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Pres, 198); ?The Many Faces of Improvisation: The Arab Taqasim as a Musical Symbol,? Ethnomusicology 4, No. 2 (200): 302-20; Ali Jihad Racy, Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 203). 4 Eltigani Gafar Eltahir, ?Comparing the Incomparable: Religion, Chanting, and Healing in the Sudan, the Case of Zar and Zikr? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 203); Walter Feldman, ?Musical Genres and Zikr of the Suni Tarikats of Istanbul,? in The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Otoman Turkey, ed. Raymond Lifchez, trans. M. E. Quigley-P?nar (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Pres, 192): 187-202; Christian Poche, ?Zikr and Musicology,? The World of Music 20, No. 1 (1978): 59-71; Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context, and Meaning in Qawali (New York: Cambridge University Pres, 1986); Catharina Raudvere, The Bok and the Roses: Sufi Women, Visibility, and Zikir in Contemporary Istanbul, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 202 (London: I.B. Tauris, 202); Daniel A. Soneborn, ?Music and Meaning in American Sufism: The Ritual of Dhikr at Sami Mahal, a Chishtiya-Derived Sufi Center? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 195); Ahmet Y?r?r, ?Miraclama in the Liturgy of the Alevi of Turkey? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1989). 45 Bente Nikolaisen, ?Embeded Motion: Sacred Travel among Mevlevi Dervishes,? in Reframing Pilgrimage: Cultures in Motion, ed. Simon Coleman and John Eade (London and New York: Routledge, 204). 46 Adriene Kaepler, ?Structured Movement Systems in Tonga,? in Society and the Dance: The Social Anthropology of Proces and Performance, ed. Paul Spencer (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1985); ?Cultural Analysis, Linguistic Analogies, and the Study of Dance in Anthropological Perspective,? in Explorations in Ethnomusicology: Esays in Honor of David P. McAlester (Detroit: Information Cordinators, 1986). 30 Recent work in anthropology and cultural studies on a variety of social movement provide a broader context for the study of music and dance and reveal how concepts of motion permeate Islamic culture in general, and Mevlevism in particular. Especialy significant are the studies of globalization, diaspora, and migration by such figures as Arjun Appadurai, Stuart Hal, and James Cliford. 47 These writings on social movement in the postmodern world, as wel as Victor and Edith Turner?s landmark study 48 of pilgrimage have led to a serious reappraisal of pilgrimage within the anthropology of religion 49 and other fields. 50 Meanwhile, anthropological studies of tourism have done much to undo its eroneous separation from the study of pilgrimage. 51 Fieldwork in Multiple Field Sites In late spring 2001, when my atentions began to turn to doctoral work in ethnomusicology, I was having dificulties setling on a specific area of specialization; I wanted fieldwork to be esential to my disertation, but I had too many interests to pick just one single field site. After much deliberation one evening?half capriciously, half in 47 Arjun Apadurai, ?Disjuncture and Diference in the Global Cultural Economy,? Public Culture 2, No. 2 (190): 1-24; Stuart Hal, ?Cultural Identity and Diaspora? in Identity: Comunity, Culture, Diference, ed. Jonathan Rutherford (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 190); James Cliford, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Pres, 197). 48 Victor Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives (New York: Columbia University Pres, 1978). 49 Simon Coleman and John Eade, eds., Reframing Pilgrimage: Cultures in Motion (London and New York: Routledge, 204); Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, eds., Muslim Travelers: Pilgrimage, Migration, and the Religious Imagination (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Pres, 190). 50 Maribel Dietz, Wanderings Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediteranean World, A.D. 30-80 (University Park, PA: Pensylvania State University Pres, 205). 51 Elen Badone and Sharon R. Roseman, eds., Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism (Urbana and Chicago: University of Ilinois Pres, 204); Erik Cohen, ?A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences,? Sociology 13, No. 2 (1979): 179-201; John Ury, The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies (New York and London: Routledge, 190). 31 frustration?, I grabbed my globe and gave it a hearty spin. As the world turned counterclockwise, my index finger skimed across its surface and bounced a few times before eventualy landing on the border betwen Turkey and Iran. Having thus made my decision, I began imersing myself in the vast world of scholarship on Middle Eastern music and culture. I did not turn to Sufism or the Mevlana right away, but, as I read, it became increasingly obvious to me that the scarcity of contemporary ethnographic acounts on Sufi traditions in Anatolia, as I described in the previous section, merited serious atention. The Mevlevi in particular were presented only in historical terms and were represented by tropological writings that were, by and large, non-specific in nature. Because academic literature in general poorly described the living and developing Mevlevi tradition in Turkey, I found that an ethnomusicological approach more soundly rooted in anthropology and fieldwork was necesary. In May and June 2002 I conducted the first of two fieldwork trips to Turkey; regretably Iran was not an option owing to political circumstances after September 11, 2001. On this shorter trip, I conducted a general survey of Turkish music and culture, traveling widely throughout Anatolia. During this time, I made my first important contacts with the Mevlevi in Konya as wel as with the Bekta"i in #stanbul. Thanks to the hospitality of my contacts, I was permited to witnes, record, and document a smal but representative number of various private Sufi ceremonies and tourist performances. After a one month trip in July and August 2003 to northern India where I studied local Sufi musical forms, I returned to Turkey in September 2004 to cary out more extensive research on contemporary Mevlana music and culture, staying there through August 2005. Oficialy, I traveled as a tourist because the Turkish Embasy in 32 Washington did not recognize my work on contemporary culture as ?research,? arguing that they ?only grant research visas to those working in libraries.? Turning disadvantage into virtue, I traveled more extensively than on my previous trip as my research led me betwen multiple field sites. I visited mosques and teke-s, shrines and museums, tombs and cemeteries, often finding myself in a state of itinerancy. Tracing the route of Rumi and his devotes, I conducted research in #stanbul, K?thaya, Afyon, Sivas, and Ankara, as wel as in Lefko"a (Nicosia), Cyprus and Cairo, Egypt. I also traveled to Aleppo, Syria, but was unable to make any contacts in the Sufi comunity there during my stay. Despite my travels, my research was concentrated primarily in Konya, to where I commuted often from my residence in #zmir. There I atended dozens of public tourist performances of Mevlevi music as wel as sacred private rituals, which I documented in audio or video format whenever permisible. In addition, I collected data in the form of stil photography, a method that, ironicaly, proved to be rather revealing for the study of moving phenomena. In circumstances where recordings or photography were not possible, I recorded my observations systematicaly in field logs and personal journals in which I documented al of my other findings. The interviews I conducted with a variety of individuals, including both devotes and detractors, were likewise recorded in audio, video, or writen format. Although I have chosen not to identify my interviewes by name in this disertation owing to the technical ilegality of Sufism in Turkey, their particular insights into some of the hidden symbolism of the tradition as wel as into the authenticity debates that surround the Mevlevi today have been invaluable. Whenever possible, I sought also to be a participant observer while in the field. On a limited basis, I took music lesons on the ud in #zmir and the ney in Konya, in order 33 to gain a deeper appreciation for and a more practical understanding of the clasical foundations of traditional Mevlevi music. More frequently and with the encouragement of the Mevlana?s devotes, I participated in zikr ceremonies through chanting and singing of hymns. Though I gathered information continuously throughout the duration of my fieldwork expeditions, my richest single burst of ethnographic data collection occurred during the events of the Mevlana Festival held on December 10-17, 2004, which commemorated the 731 st anniversary of the Mevlana?s death. As the most legitimate public display of Mevlana religiosity in Turkey today, the festival?s cultural and political significance cannot be understated, and I refer to it and to the numerous paralel private ceremonies continuously throughout this study. Itineraries to Enlightenment: Structure of the Disertation The findings of my research are organized into the eight chapters of this disertation. In Chapter Two, I develop the case for understanding Sufi music through broader cultural, religious, and aesthetic values by espousing the ethnomusicological theory of ?music as culture.? My discussion focuses on the place of music and the other arts, including caligraphy, architecture, and miniature painting, in orthodox Islamic and Sufi theology. Specificaly, I trace the religious and cosmological origins of particular aesthetic elements, especialy those related to the concept of motion, in order to explain the devotional nature of the arts in Islamic culture and to establish how music functions as a form of devotion among followers of the Mevlana. 34 In Chapter Thre I provide the necesary theoretical context for understanding the concept of motion in the music discussed in the subsequent chapters. I compare such indigenous concepts of travel and movements as hijra (?migration?), hajj (?pilgrimage?), ziyara (?pilgrimage to saints? shrines?), and rihla (?search for knowledge?) with the Western academic notions of globalization, pilgrimage, tourism, trance, dance, and structured movement systems. My aim in this chapter is to highlight the centrality of the concept of motion in Turkish culture. In chapters Four through Seven, I explore the four major categories of music through which the Mevlana is venerated. I apply the theories I discussed in Chapters Two and Thre and use them as the basis for my analysis of Mevlana-related music, dance, and ritual. Thus, in Chapter Four I investigate the clasical Mevlevi musical tradition developed during the Otoman period and now sponsored by the Turkish state. My discussion draws paralels betwen the historical Mevlevi repertory and that of the Otoman court and examines the modern complexities arising from the fact that the secular state is now the primary sponsor of this music. My focus is on one specific public ceremony featuring the music of the ninetenth-century composer Mustafa Nak"i Dede as performed during the 2004 Mevlana Festival. My analysis of the music of this performance demonstrates that the aesthetic of motion in this tradition occurs most prominently by way of modal modulation. One of my primary goals in Chapter Five is to investigate more deeply a litle documented ceremonial form also used by the Mevlevi and other devotes of the Mevlana, the more secretive zikr trance ritual. After exploring the concept of zikr fully, I 35 compare these rituals with the public ceremonies discussed in the previous chapter and then analyze the aesthetics of motion in one specific zikr gathering. My analysis focuses on particular physical gestures and musical elements as wel as on overal structure of the ritual. In Chapter Six I extend my study beyond the typical limits of scholarship on Mevlevi music by considering the place of the Mevlana in popular music and culture. My discussion covers music of the New Age movement as wel as Western, South Asian, and Turkish popular music. Through analysis of such styles, I make the case for the persistence of Mevlevi and broader Sufi aesthetics, especialy that of motion, outside of more traditional musical forms. My examples are drawn from Western pop, South Asian rock and film usic, and especialy from an aray of Turkish popular music genres, including commercial pop, rock and roll, and ambient techno. Continuing in a somewhat similar vein, I explore non-Turkish musics used in the worship of the Mevlana in Chapter Seven. I concentrate mainly on the music performed during the Mevlana Festival of 2004, especialy that featured at the First Annual International Mystic Music Festival, which was held concurrently with the main events commemorating the Mevlana?s death. My discussion draws on various musical traditions from Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, France, and elsewhere. In the final chapter, I present a survey of some of the major developments taking place in Turkey and across the world at the time of this writing, as UNESCO celebrates the 800 th anniversary of the Mevlana?s birth. In addition, I highlight the main arguments and conclusions I make in this study and give suggestions for future areas of research on the music for the Mevlana. 36 CHAPTER TWO THE GEOMETRIES OF BELIEF: TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE AESTHETICS OF MOTION My goal in this chapter is to explain the religious foundation of Mevlevi Sufi symbols of motion. Movement, as I asert throughout this study, is a fundamental characteristic of Sufism that is made present especialy through symbolic means. Symbolism, at least in part, defines Sufism as wel as the elusive, interconnected concept of tasavvuf (?mystical esence?). For Sufis, symbolism is the cornerstone of devotional practice, and there exists in Sufism an especialy strong and fluid interelationship betwen symbolic thought and religious action that is manifest most directly in sema, zikr, music, and the other arts. The aesthetics of these Sufi expresive forms have in turn profoundly shaped the cultures in which they proliferate. It is this notion of the symbiotic relationship betwen music and culture that constitutes the central theme of this chapter. I begin by providing an ethnographic description of the Mevlana?s shrine, the holy center of the Mevlevi sect in which the symbols of motion are most clearly evident. After exploring the origins of the theory of ?music as culture? in the second section of the chapter, I proced in the subsequent thre sections to place Sufi music within its cultural context, explaining primarily how it relates to belief and worldview. Thus, in the third section of the chapter I discuss the legal status of music in Islamic theology to highlight the importance of music to Sufi adherents. In the fourth and fifth sections I concentrate on the aesthetic features of Sufi music, primarily that of motion, tracing their origins to Sufi cosmology, explaining their manifestation through symbolism, and providing examples of their application in the 37 visual arts. Having established the historical, religious, and aesthetic contexts for Sufi music, I conclude the chapter with an explanation of the specific symbolic and devotional nature of Sufi music, upon which the remainder of the disertation is predicated. At the Shrine of the Mevlana November 14, 2004 Konya This is my second visit to the shrine of the Mevlana. Unfortunately, it is closed for Bayram, the Turkish holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In fact everything in Konya is closed and the strets are completely deserted, except in front of the sealed doors of the Mevlana?s shrine complex where some have come to pray by its wals. A friend and I have just arived from #zmir and are eager to go inside, as much to visit the relics as to find shelter from the biting Anatolian winter. Since 1927 the former Asitane (?great central lodge?) of the Mevlevi Order has been oficialy known as the Mevlana Museum (Figure 3). Figure 3: The Mevlana Museum and the Rear Garden (Konya, July 9, 2005) 38 Locals, however, continue to refer to it by a variety of religious designations including teke (?lodge?), t?rbe (?tomb,? ?shrine?), and dergah (?teke with an atached t?rbe?). Told by a worshiper that it wil open ?later,? I decide in the meantime to give my friend a tour of central Konya. As we wander around the empty city, the shrine?s distinctive turquoise tower, visible from almost anywhere, beckons; it is the only bright color in the grey, dreary sky. After exploring for a couple of hours, we walk back down to the end of Mevlana Caddesi (Mevlana St.), ariving again at the t?rbe, where a smal crowd has formed, demanding entrance into the ?museum.? One of the workers, exclaiming that they too want to celebrate the holiday with their families, claims the museum wil open once the director comes. As we wait, Roma children peddle their trinkets; among the colorful wares are amulets adorned with writings from the Mevlana?s Mesnevi and earings depicting Mevlevi whirling dervishes. Eventualy, the huge gate swings open and we are al funneled into the line for the ticket booth, though there are few tourists among us. Most are local worshipers, and there is a more modest contingent of pilgrims from neighboring Anatolian towns. Tickets in hand, we cross the large, open courtyard past the hexagonal ?wedding night? pool, around which Mevlevi dervishes once performed their whirling sema ceremony and where now the faithful fil their Fanta bottles with the sacred healing waters. Past the lavish ablutions fountain donated by Sultan Selim I, we approach the main entrance to the complex, where we remove our sneakers, while others wrap around their shoes the colorful plastic bags the museum staf provides for protecting the fine carpets inside. 39 Progresing to the right, we enter the first chamber of the Asitane, the Koran reading room where dervishes used to copy and decorate manuscripts. The wals are covered with their work: dozens of specimens of ornate caligraphy, some writen in gold leaf on velum, others carved into wood or delicately cut into tre leaves. Careful not to break Sufi taboo and stand on the threshold, I point out the elaborate geometric paters on the room?s heavy wooden doors to my friend. The finely carved pentagons, flowers, and other designs (Figure 4) draw everyone?s atention, and a bottleneck soon forms before we even enter the complex, giving us only a few hectic moments to admire the artistry. Figure 4: Right Door of the Main Entrance to the Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 18, 2005) The crowds quickly push us on into the main hal, which is lined on either side by more than sixty tombs containing the remains of Mevlevi "eyh-s, the Mevlana?s family, and early devotes. A litle further ahead, beneath the fluted dome covered on the outside by the vibrant turquoise tiles that guided us through the city and decorated on the inside 40 by a golden eight-pointed motif, lay the cofins of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi and his son, Sultan Veled (Figure 5). Figure 5: Tomb of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi, Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 9, 2002) Draped in black silk cloth entirely decorated with gold caligraphy?a gift from Otoman Sultan Abd?lhamid I?and capped with gren turbans, the sarcophagi rest on a raised pedestal, the steps to which are plated in silver and covered by throngs of worshipers who pres their faces to them during prayer. The mausoleum is almost blinding with the natural light coming through the gren and white stained-glas window and reflecting of the gold caligraphy, the sumptuous arabesques, and the flowered depictions of Paradise covering the wals. The adjacent room to the left and opposite the tombs is nearly as impresive. The former semahane where the Mevlevi performed sema now houses a sizable collection of Sel?uk and Otoman era musical instruments in addition to other Mevlevi artifacts and 41 clothing worn by the Mevlana. One glas case contains two enormous tespih-s (?prayer beads,? ?rosaries?) made of ninety-nine beads, which the dervishes, siting in a circle, would slowly rotate during zikr. Painted on the dome above is a hexagon surrounded by intertwined flowers, caligraphed leaves, and six pentagons, each with five spiraling arms, creating a representation of swirling cosmic motion (Figure 6). Also wafting above is the sound of a prerecorded ney taksim, creating a meditative atmosphere that spils over into the mausoleum as wel as into the neighboring room. Figure 6: Interior Dome Decoration, Semahane, Mevlana Museum (Konya, November 14, 2004) Advancing to the left, we step into a now defunct mosque, the last room of the complex open to the public. Like the semahane, it houses a striking collection of manuscripts of the Mesnevi and the Koran as wel as numerous iluminations of exquisite miniature paintings. A smal box supposedly containing a strand of hair from the Prophet Muhamad?s beard is located at the center of the room beneath a dome decorated with a 42 twelve-point studded circle and thre bands spiraling toward the center, again symbolizing the cosmos (Figure 7). Figure 7: Interior Dome Decoration, Mosque, Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 9, 2002) To the left of the mosque entrance and around the many display cases is the mosque?s mihrab (?prayer niche?), which faces Meca and, more imediately, the tomb of the Mevlana. Staring in the direction of Meca, it suddenly dawns on me that, like al visitors to the ?museum,? we have been following a spiraling, counterclockwise route through the complex that leads here to the mihrab and culminates just outside at the garden, which represents Paradise. Music As Culture: Worldview in the Study of Music and Culture The theory of ?music as culture? is unquestionably the single most important intelectual advancement in the field of ethnomusicology since its inception in the mid- 1950s. Postulating a symbiotic interconnection betwen music and culture, the theory 43 treats the two entities as virtualy synonymous and, in esence, argues that music and culture operate equaly on the same level and in the same manner. Acording to the theory, the concepts, paterns, and rules that shape musical systems are the same ones that shape cultural systems. Therefore, music should not be understood simply as a miror of culture, because music in fact shapes culture in the same way that culture shapes music. For the analyst, the theory alows for more holistic understandings of music and culture, since musical data and cultural information are asumed to be mutualy informative. Thus, musical aesthetics, for instance, have direct corollaries in cultural values. Likewise, musical structures can be thought of as being paraleled in social structure, with musical interaction being symbolic of social behavior. Such lines of thinking, now central to ethnomusicology, gained curency at the turn of the 1960s when Alan Lomax hypothesized that musical structures ?correspond to and represent paterns of interpersonal relationship which are fundamental in the various forms of social organization.? 52 Lomax atempted to substantiate such claims with his ambitious cantometrics and choreometrics projects, in which he took salient features of songs and dances as ?symbols for the key institutions of society such as sexual division of labor and the state.? 53 Taking into acount data collected from many diferent world aesthetic systems, Lomax?s pioneering work was as broad in scope as it was in vision. Alan Meriam was among the first important ethnomusicologists to endorse Lomax?s approach, inspiring a legion of ethnomusicologists to further develop what 52 Alan Lomax, ?Song Structure and Social Structure,? Ethnology 1, No. 1 (1962): 49. 53 Alan Lomax, Cantometrics: A Method in Musical Anthropology (Berkeley: The University of California Extension Media Center, 1976): 9. 44 would later be known as the ?music as culture? paradigm. 54 In a cross-cultural discussion of the aesthetics of music in his seminal The Anthropology of Music, Meriam writes, ?music reflects the social and political organization, economic behavior, religious activity, and other structural divisions of society, and in this respect it is, in a sense, symbolic of the formal aspects of the culture.? 5 Meriam was so enamored of the way the theory connected music to other socio-cultural institutions that he even atempted to redefine the field of ethnomusicology as the study of ?music as culture? in the mid- 1970s. 56 As widely as Lomax was heralded, however, he also received heavy criticism for his propensity for overgeneralization and his arbitrary methodologies, as wel as for a host of other problems. 57 Yet few questioned his primary area of focus and basic premise that occupation and thereby social hierarchy are the principal determinants in the formation of an aesthetic system. 58 This asumption has resulted in culturaly 54 For aplications se John Miler Chernof, African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1979); Bruno Netl, The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Isues and Concepts (Chicago: University of Ilinois Pres, 1983); Anthony Seger, Why Suy? Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 1987); John E. Kaemer, Music in Human Life: Anthropological Perspectives on Music (Austin: University of Texas Pres, 193). 5 Alan Meriam, The Anthropology of Music (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Pres, 1964): 248. 56 Alan Meriam, ?Definitions of ?Comparative Musicology? and ?Ethnomusicology?: An Historical-Theoretical Perspective,? Ethnomusicology 21, No. 2 (197): 204. 57 Hewit Pantaleoni, Review of Folk Song Style and Culture, by Alan Lomax, Yearbok of the International Folk Music Council 4 (1972): 158-61; Joan W. Kealinohomoku, Review of Dance in Human History, by Alan Lomax, Ethnomusicology 23, No. 1 (1979): 169-76; David Locke, Review of Cantometrics: An Aproach to the Anthropology of Music, by Alan Lomax, Ethnomusicology 25, No. 3 (1981): 527-29; Jef Tod Titon, ?Cantometrics,? The Journal of American Folklore 95, No. 37 (1982): 370-74; David Locke, Review of Dance in Human History, by Alan Lomax, Ethnomusicology 36, No. 2. (192): 307-1. 58 Se especialy Steven Feld, ?Sound Structure as Social Structure,? Ethnomusicology 28, No. 3 (1984): 383-409; Marina Roseman ?The Social Structuring of Sound: The Temiar of Peninsular Malaysia,? 45 inappropriate and musicaly inacurate interpretations and analyses. In his choreometrics project, for example, Lomax operates under the asumption, perhaps rooted in Western values of labor, that it is the gestures performed during food production that shape the aesthetics of dance. Proceding from this conjecture, he is misled into clasifying Middle Eastern dance forms, including the Mevlevi sema, as circular and two-dimensional, when, as I discuss later in this chapter, lines, curves, and spirals may be more appropriate geometric metaphors. 59 The most serious eror in Lomax?s approach, which is likewise inherent in the ?music as culture? theory as a whole, is that theoretical speculation supercedes actual data; potentialy, deviations from the analyst?s preconceived music- cultural reckoning can be ignored or overlooked, even when they may be of critical importance. Yet despite its dangers, the ?music as culture? paradigm remains the most efective in explaining the symbolic links betwen music and culture, particularly if the center of focus is shifted from social hierarchy to the ontological, religious, and scientific beliefs that comprise worldview. In fact, it is worldview and not social organization, as Lomax asumes, that shapes the aesthetics, musical or otherwise, of any given culture. 60 The preminent Viennese art historian Alois Riegl argued very much along these lines through his concept of the ?wil to art? (Kunstwollen), which is defined by worldview and Ethnomusicology 28, No. 3 (1984): 132-67; Thomas Turino, ?The Coherence of Social Style and Musical Creation Among the Aymara in Southern Peru,? Ethnomusicology 3, No. 1 (1989): 1-30. 59 Dance and Human History, writen and produced by Alan Lomax, distributed by University of California Extension Media Center, Berkeley, CA (video, color, 40 mins., 1974). 60 The German term Weltanschaung was first used by Kant in 1790 in conection to the concept of aesthetics; se Imanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Company, 1987). 46 determines aesthetic style. 61 It follows, therefore, that the aesthetics of a musical system are likewise formed by a shared, cultural worldview, especialy given that ?the closest bond betwen music and any other aspect of life,? as Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod maintain, ?is with religion,? 62 or what I term ore broadly worldview or belief system. Because worldview systematicaly encompases ontology, language, politics, economics, and everything else that also comprises culture in a unified, logical whole, an analysis of music from this perspective naturaly yields more comprehensive and useful results than one made from its more limited constituent parts. Hence, the most convincing applications of the ?music as culture? theory are those that acount for the belief system predominant in a culture. 63 Studies of Indonesian music and culture, for example, have shown how Balinese and Javanese musical styles reflect the Hindu- Buddhist worldview. Specificaly, ethnomusicologists equate large-scale repetition of melody and rhythm with cyclical perceptions of time, cosmology, language, agriculture, and, ultimately, of life and death through cycles of reincarnation. 64 Similar geometric reckonings of worldview, culture, and music can likewise be made of Middle Eastern societies. On the surface, Islamic culture espouses a 61 Significantly, Riegl developed this notion of Kunstwolen from his studies of ancient Near Eastern, Greco-Roman, and Islamic ornamental styles. Se Alois Riegl, Late Roman Art Industry, trans. Rolf Winkes (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider, 1985). 62 Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod, Music as Culture (Pt. Richmond, CA: MRI Pres, 1979): 17. 63 Marina Roseman, Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest: Temiar Music and Medicine (Berkeley: University of California Pres, 191); Katherine J. Hagedorn, Divine Uterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santer?a (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Pres, 201). 64 Judith Becker and Alton Becker, ?A Musical Icon: Power and Meaning in Javanese Gamelan Music? in The Sign in Music and Literature, ed. Wendy Steiner (Austin: University of Texas Pres, 1981). Se also, Judith Becker, ?Time and Tune in Java? in The Imagination of Reality, eds. Alton L. Becker and Aram A. Yengoyan (Nowrwod, NJ: Ablex, 1979); Lisa Gold, Music in Bali: Experiencing Music, Expresing Culture (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Pres, 205). 47 predominantly binary, linear worldview, rooted in the traditions of the ancient Near East and sharing much with neighboring Europe. Both Islamic and European cultures inherited from Zoroastrianism and ancient Grece the binary ways of thinking that denote a particularly linear worldview: beginning and end, past and future, right and wrong. Following a unidirectional model in which time is perceived as linear and causal, progresing from a point of origin to one of termination, Muslims believe that Islam is the endpoint of the prophetic line of Abraham, which moved from Judaism through Christianity and wil culminate with the arival of the mahdi (?guided one?), a mesianic figure who wil come at the time of the world?s end. Defined by its monotheism, Islam also prizes unity, completenes, and the onenes of being (al-taw!$d), in which al submit (islam) and move to the Godhead. This unidirectional worldview is manifest and reinforced in al aspects of society. Islamic political structure, for instance, is hierarchical, much like the kingdoms of the ancient Near East, and based on the succesor (khalife, halife) system in which a leader typicaly claims authority to protect the community (ummah, umma) through his silsila (?lineage?). The two-dimensional representations of gods, wariors, and harpists in the royal tombs of ancient Egypt are another expresion of unidirectional thinking as are the modal suites of Middle Eastern clasical music, in which the listener moves, largely by continuously developing improvisation, through a series of ever-diferent pieces from various genres. The linear model is likewise performed through popular communal dances like the Jewish hora or the Arabo-Turkish dabke, most likely of Turkish or Otoman origin, in which dancers, led by a single ?head? dancer (ba", r#s), closely link 48 arms and move back and forth in a straight line while rhythmicaly stomping up and down (Figure 8). 65 Figure 8: Dabke Dance Performed at a Circumcision Celebration (Konya, July 9, 2005) Although dabke initialy appears to be expresive of an absolutely linear worldview, it is in fact typicaly danced in a slightly curved line that broadly surrounds the zurna (double red) and davul (drum) players, which ultimately suggests that Islam is not a belief system consisting only of unidirectional elements. Clasical Islamic scientists envisioned a geocentric cosmology, while Sufi theologians taught a two- directional nature of worship betwen man and Alah. Moreover, the sura-s (?chapters?) of the Koran do not recount a linear history like the Torah and the Bible do overal, but rather are organized by size and content, with the largest, more significant scriptures coming first. Similarly the pages of Koran are turned from left to right, and as one quickens to the shortest sura-s at the end; the progresion suggests a sort of 65 Regretably, there are very few studies of Midle Eastern dance genres. For a discusion of the genre under consideration here, se Jenifer Le Ladkani, ?Dabke Music and Dance and the Palestinian Refuge Experience: On the Outside Loking In? (Ph.D. Disertation, Florida State University, 201). 49 counterclockwise turning. In addition, Muslim cities and bazars, although usualy built around one principal thoroughfare, are not linear and grid-like as in the West, but comprised of complex, interwoven networks of side strets, aleys, and hidden entrances that likewise require a fair share of turning in order to maneuver. 6 Muslim culture is ultimately an amalgam of multiple worldviews?ancient Grek and Persian, Byzantine and Jewish, Turkic and Indian?and reflects a dual worldview that can be geometricaly represented by both linear and circular models, or perhaps most appropriately by a spiral, which depicts the linear motion of a circle. Sufi beliefs and musical and ritual practices, which bear some Hindu-Buddhist influences, are particularly wel characterized by circles and spirals, as I highlight later in this chapter. Haram as Aesthetic: The Legality of Music and the Arts The use of geometric metaphors and grand theories to describe the dynamic interconnections betwen music, culture, and worldview, however, is problematic in instances when music is excluded from or thought to be contradictory to the belief system. Such is the case with music and the other arts in the Islamic world, where they are regarded as trivial or dangerous forms of human behavior and are sometimes even outlawed by Islamic law (shar$?ah, "ariat). Such atitudes, like Islamic law, are predicated on exegesis of the Koran and interpretations of Hadith (?oral traditions? pertaining to the Prophet Muhamad not writen in the Koran), and they play a critical 6 Sometimes a Muslim city revolves around one main central point as in the case of Trablus, Lebanon where most trafic from Beirut into the city circumambulates, in a counterclockwise direction, a distinctive sign bearing the name of Alah in the center of the Abdel Hamid Karmi roundabout. More indicative of the spherical layout of Muslim cities is Baghdad, also known as the ?Round City? because the Abasids founded it in the eighth century within the confines of fortified circular wals. 50 role in determining some of the aesthetic features of Middle Eastern art and music. A brief review of the legal status of art and music is therefore useful at this point. In the case of visual art, the Koran twice makes injunctions against idolatry. In both instances travel is invoked figuratively and literaly to warn of how the engraved arts divert the believer from the path to God. Verses vi: 71-74 warn against mistaking ?idols for gods? for ?God?s guidance is the only guidance? and ?it is to Him that we shal be gathered together.? 67 With respect to the pilgrimage to Meca, verse xxii: 30 commands, ?Shun the abomination of idols, and shun the word that is false.? In following these decres, Muslims have been more vigilant than many of their Jewish or Christian brethren, even while the Books of Genesis (xx: 4) and Deuteronomy (v: 8) make far stronger and more direct proclamations against engraved images. Following several official proscriptions, Muslim artists have shunned outright depictions of human and animal forms, believing that only Alah is endowed with generative powers. 68 The notable exception to this is the art of miniature painting used in book manuscripts as an aid to storyteling. Such iluminations are by intention smal and highly detailed, yet carefully eschew any sense of realism; figures are deprived of individuality and there is a deliberate avoidance of thre-dimensional representation. More commonly, Muslim artists have cultivated an aesthetic inspired largely by caligraphy, floral paterns, arabesques, and geometric designs. Such embelishments liberaly adorn carpets and textiles, wal interiors, al forms of architecture, and even 67 Al translated Koran quotations used in this disertation are either taken directly from or are based on those in Abdulah Yusuf Ali, The Qur?an: Text, Translation, and Comentary (New York: Tahrike Tarsile Qur?an Inc., 1987). 68 Alexandre Papadopoulo, Islam and Muslim Art, trans. Robert Erich Wolf (New York: Hary N. Abrams, Inc., 1979): 52. 51 copies of the Koran itself. Thus, artists and architects, rather than being frustrated by legal denunciations, have used them as a source of inspiration. 69 The arguments against music and dance have been far les conclusive than those against art, because neither the Koran nor the Hadith makes any clear declaration whatsoever. 70 Polemic arguments for and against performing and even listening to music have occupied Islamic jurists for over a milennium, inciting only temporary prohibitions. Legal scholars have pointed to verse xxxi: 6 of the Koran warning against ?those who purchase idle tales without knowledge to mislead from the Path of God? as justification for the banning of music, while verse xxxix: 18 is typicaly invoked in defense of music: ?Those who listen to the Word (al-qawl), and follow the best in it, those are the ones whom God has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding.? Neither pasage refers to music specificaly, perhaps because in the Islamic world, music, song, and speech are not as strongly distinguished as in European culture. 71 Although no Islamic society today has a full ban on music, 72 already under Abu Bakr (r. 632-34), the first succesor to the Prophet Muhamad, music was considered a 69 The case of figurative caligraphy is an especialy compeling obfuscation of the edicts against the representation of human and animal forms. One famous example is housed in the Hac?bekta" Museum (shrine) in Hac?bekta", Turkey. 70 For a god introduction to the debates se Amnon Shiloah, Music in the Islamic World: A Socio- Cultural Study (Detroit: Wayne State University Pres, 195); Seyed Hosein Nasr, ?Islam and Music: The Legal and the Spiritual Dimensions,? in Enchanting Powers: Music in the World?s Religions, Lawrence E. Sulivan, ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Pres, 197): 219-35. For alternative perspective on the question of music?s legality in Islam, se Dane Kusi(, ?Positivity of Music and Religion in Turkey,? Narodna umjetnost: Hrvatski casopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku 34, No. 1 (197): 147-78. 71 Acording to Shiloah, 195, 32, the term al-qawl also refers to the singing of folk poetry. Similarly, the term qawali in India and Pakistan denotes a genre of devotional and popular music based on the singing of Sufi poetry (se Chapter Six). For a discusion of what constitutes ?music? in the Muslim world se Nasr, 197 and Kristina Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qur?an (Austin: University of Texas Pres, 1985): 32-51. 72 Musical performance is proscribed in Taliban-controled areas of Afghanistan as wel as in certain parts of northern Nigeria, where it is forbiden after sunset under local Islamic law. 52 malahi (?forbidden pleasure?) and, therefore, haram (?ilegal?). 73 Indictments against music, however, are hardly particular to Islam, and are rather endemic to the region as a whole; Jewish and Christian theologians also warned of the ability of music to distract from prayer, while the ancient Greks before them debated the efects of Apollonian and Dionysian music on human behavior. 74 Stil, as with art, Muslims have been more cautious than their felow monotheists. Historicaly, orthodox Muslims tended not to perform usic and dance profesionaly, and cultivated instead an advanced amateur tradition. Profesional paid entertainers were hired from the various minority groups on the margins of society: the blind, homosexuals, women, and most notably non-Muslims. At the Otoman court, for instance, Jewish and Grek and Armenian Christian musicians were especialy prominent. Non-Muslims aside, the Middle East has developed an important, distinctly Muslim usical heritage thanks largely to Sufi mystics, who, even while also comprising a religious minority in the region, have dominated musical life for much of Islamic history. In part because of their intense cultivation of music and dance, Sufi groups retain a precarious place within mainstream Muslim society. Orthodox Muslims have often openly censured Sufis for performing music and dance, especialy during ritual prayer (namaz). 75 In a manner worthy of the binary discourses of the ancient Greks, 73 Henry George Farmer, A History of Arabian Music to the XIIth Century (London: Luzac and Company, 1929/1967): 40. 74 For an extract from Aristotle?s Politics concerning this isue se Thomas J. Mathiesen, ed., Source Readings in Music History, Vol. 1, Grek Views of Music, ed. Oliver Strunk, rev. ed. Leo Treitler (New York and London: W. . Norton and Company, 198): 26-34. 75 Kudsi Erg?ner gives some examples pertaining to the Mevlevi and the Kadari in his Journeys of a Sufi Musician, trans. Anete Courtney Mayers (London: SAQI, 205): 24; likewise Elizabeth Siriyeh cites two similar cases involving the Mevlevi in Lebanon in her Sufis and Anti-Sufis: The Defence, Rethinking, and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World (Richmond, Surey: Curzon Pres, 199): 10, 148. 53 however, Sufis contend that music and dance, rather than distracting from prayer, on the contrary, provide the most direct path to God. Medieval Sufi scholars in particular defended music and their liturgical use of it by describing its cosmological significance, using it to explain the very nature of the universe. Such theological arguments deeply influenced Muslim usical aesthetics and it is to them that we now turn. Motion as Devotion: Motion in Sufi Cosmology The primary concern of pre-modern Sufi scholarship was the establishment of Islamic cosmology within the Helenistic framework inherited from the ancients and prevalent throughout the Mediteranean world. Perhaps the most important acount of Islamic cosmology, produced during one of the most intelectualy active periods in Muslim history, is that of the Ikhwan al-Safa (?The Brotherhood of Purity?), a mysterious collective of Neo-Platonic Sufi scholars active in Basra, Iraq in the tenth century. Their Ras#?il ikhw#n as-"af#? wa khull#n al-waf#? (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and Loyal Friends), in fifty-two tracts and one additional supplemental commentary, serves as a Muslim corollary to the quadrivium. Translated from the original Arabic into Farsi, Turkish, and several other languages, the treatise was widely read by most Muslim scholars, including such Sufi luminaries as al-Ghazali (1058-1111) of Khorasan and Ibn al-?Arabi (1165-1240) of al-Andalus, and presents one the most dominant Muslim conceptions of the universe of the past thousand years. 76 At the heart of the Ikhwan?s ontology and indeed al Sufi theology is the concept of al-taw!$d, the unity of al things in the Divine Presence. Al things generate from 76 Much of the present discusion on Sufi cosmology and theology is based on Seyed Hosein Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines: Conceptions of Nature and Methods Used for its Study by the Ikhwan al-Safa?, al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina, 2 nd ed. (Albany: State University of New York Pres, 193). 54 Alah, the One, the Creator, and movement away from and toward the Universal Onenes defines existence. For the Ikhwan al-Safa, motion is not predicated on cause, but is inherent in the divine being; movement is alive because the universe and being are alive. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr explains, The question of motion is inseparable from the Universal Soul and its faculties inasmuch as al motion is due to this soul. As the Ikhwan state: ?We cal ?souls? certain real substances, living and moving by their esences, and we designate under the name ?movement? the actions of a soul on a body.? And again: ?By its active life the soul models the mater of the body as wel as of the exterior world.? Universal Soul, then, is the cause of motion, while ?movement is a form imposed on a body by the Universal Soul after it has been shaped, and rest is the absence of this form.? 7 The Ikhwan go on to explain that ?Movement is a spiritual and complimentary form (al- "%rat al-r%!an$yah) which traverses al parts of moving bodies and expands within them instantaneously like light in order to terminate abruptly their rest.? 78 Motion is, thus, understood mysticaly as a means of being with Alah and it follows that movement in itself is a devotional act. Although the Ikhwan do not discuss motion in the detail of later philosophers like Ibn Sina (980-1037), 79 they do recognize several diferent forms of motion acording to the objects being moved by the Universal Soul. They divide motion into two broad categories: physical (jism#n$) and spiritual (r%!#n$), the former generaly being the concern of the Peripatetic school of Aristotelian philosophy, while the later remains in the domain of mystical writings, albeit latently. 80 As Nasr points out, the Ikhwan do 7 Ibid., 64-65. 78 Quoted in ibid., 65. 79 Se ibid., 26-31. 80 Se for instance the sumary of Ibn Sina?s metaphysical naratives in ibid., 263-74. 55 draw paralels betwen physical and spiritual motion in an atempt to demonstrate the unity of al things, but their discussion of motion largely follows along Aristotelian lines. 81 Physical motion is further subdivided into six categories: generation (kawn), corruption (fas#d), augmentation from the center of a body (ziy#dah), diminution to the center of a body (nuq"#n), alteration in quality or form (taghy$r), and translation or local movement through time and space from one point to another (naqlah). Naqlah is described as straight (mustaqimah), circular (mustadirah), or a combination of the two (murakkabatun minhum#). 82 Expanding on the Ikhwan al-Safa, Ibn al-?Arabi explains the generative motion of kawn, describing it as the ?movement of love? in which Alah seks being known, as multidirectional and emanating for a single focal point. The centrifugal movement of creation is, therefore, complemented by the centripetal pull toward divine sustenance. ?Abd al-Razaq al-Qashani (d. 1329), the wel-known commentator on Ibn al-?Arabi?s writings, elaborates on this, describing creative movement in thre directions from a central point: downward motion (al-!araka al-mank%sa) as in Alah?s creation of the lower, physical world or the downward growth of a plant?s roots; horizontal motion (al- !araka al-ufuqiya) as with the growth and movement of animals; and ascending movement (al-!araka al-mustaq$ma) characteristic of God?s creation of the divine worlds and souls, human growth, and humanity?s progresion toward enlightenment. Thus, al- Qashani envisioned generative motion as a thre-directional and thre-dimensional cross similar to that used by Ibn al-?Arabi to describe the six movements of the human body 81 Ibid., 65. 82 For a visual representation of this se ibid., 6. 56 (jism): up and down, right and left, front and back. 83 Such a conception of creative and bodily movement is traditionaly asociated with verse i: 115 of the Koran which states, ?To God belong the East and West: wherever you turn, there is the face of God. For God is Al-Pervading, Al-Knowing.? Al motion derives from and moves towards unity (al-taw!$d) with God, and this is the central tenet of the Ikhwan al-Safa, who, in keping with Sufi doctrine, atempted to described the universe as a unified whole. The similarity of the Ikhwan?s cosmology to ancient Grek, Indian, Chinese, and Christian traditions underscores their claims to universality and is in acordance with the unifying tendency of Sufism in general. 84 The Ikhwan?s ontology, however, is more specificaly predicated on Pythagorean-Hermetic doctrines and informed by Sufi gnosis, meaning that everything in the universe is explained and understood through the analogy of numerical symbolism, known as ?ilm al-?adad (?science of number?). Their numerical explanation of existence relies on the asociation of numbers with certain specific cosmological and religious concepts, as wel as with the leters of the Arabic alphabet 85 and geometric shapes. While a complete catalog of this numerology is impractical here due to the existence of multiple, difering systems, I highlight in Figure 9 the more universaly acepted schemes employed by such Sufi scholars as the Ikhwan al-Safa and Ibn Sina as they are the most critical to the present study. 83 Se Samer Akach, Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State University of New York, 205): 84-95. 84 Nasr, 193, 6. 85 The numerological symbolism of leters is known as ?ilm al-jafr (?science of leters?). 57 Numeral Leter Shape Atributes Name of Alah ) (1) A (*) ! | Creator (al-B#r$?), Onenes, Indivisibility, Completion ?Alah? + (2) B (,) ? | Intelect (al-?aql) ?Beneficent? - (3) J (.) ! Soul (al-nafs) ?The Merciful? / (4) D (0) " # $ Mater (hay%l#?), Bodily humors; Nature (al-tab$?ah) ?The King? 1 (5) H (2) % & ? Nature (al-tab$?ah), Senses; Creator in relation to what is below Him (al- B#r$? bi?l-i#fah) ?Most Holy? 3 (6) U, W (4) ( ) * Body (jism), Motion ?Al-Peaceful? 5 (7) Z (6) Sphere, Planet, Active powers ?Grantor? 7 (8) ! (8) + , - Elements, Natures, Musical pitches ?Protector? 9 (9) T (:) Worldly Beings, Bodily levels, The heavens ?Mighty? ); (10) I, Y (<) . The plan of the Creator (al-ibda?) ?Comforter? )+ (12) Zodiac ?Creator? )/ (14) Septentrional and Meridional Zodiac, Half of the alphabet ?Shaper? +5 (27) ?Al-Hearing? +9 (29) = L (>) +A (*) ?Judge? 9/ (94) ?Guide? 9 (99) Names of God ?Patient? Figure 9: Sufi Numerical Symbolism (Based partialy on the Ikhwan al-Safa and Ibn Sina) 86 The Ikhwan al-Safa utilize this numerological system in the conceptualization of their Ras#?il and employ it throughout their writings. Thus, their cosmology is organized in four books, representing the four kinds of mater in existence: mater of artifacts, physical mater, universal mater, and original mater. Book I, containing the first fourten epistles, is dedicated to mathematics and education. It begins with a tract on the properties of numbers and is followed succesively by treatises on geometry, astronomy, 86 There are many discrepancies in the atributes of certain numbers in Islamic cosmological literature, particularly with respect to the hierarchy of beings in the universe. Such variations reflect the fact that there exist, in total, thirten diferent numerological systems, although only six are in comon use. Starting with the number four, Ibn Sina deviates from the Ikhwan as-Safa?s reckoning; I include here only his atributions of the hierarchy of the universe for the numbers four, five, and ten. The chart is adapted from Nasr, 193, 50-52, 96, and 210. 58 geography, and music, their ordering having specific cosmological implications. Evidently, while al numbers have symbolic meanings, some are considered more significant than others due to their religious and cosmological asociations. Among the most important numbers are one, four, five, six, eight, and twelve. The number one is unquestionably the single most important number in Islam. It represents Alah, the One God, who is eternal, indivisible, and unchangeable. The number one is similar in appearance to the first leter of the Arabic alphabet, with which it shares many atributes because both are writen with a downward stroke, evoking Alah?s creation of the world. Thus, a single point or vertical line can be understood as a symbolic, geometric representation of the Creation or al-taw!$d (?unity and onenes of being?). While Alah is One, He is also Al, and so it follows that He is also known by a multitude of other names. Although none supplants that of Alah, the ninety-nine asm#? Alah al-husna (?beautiful names of Alah?) are al found in the Koran, which contains many others as wel. The practice of reciting the divine names aloud perhaps dates back to the eighth century. In medieval times, the ninety-nine names were organized into thre categories, one of which included the ?names of actions? (asm#? al-af?#l), and it is noteworthy that the ninety-fourth name of Alah (al-H&d?, the ?Guide?) is also asociated with motion. Muslim theologians have speculated that the last of the divine names (as- Sab?r, ?Patient?) may suggest yet one more final name, the hundredth, which acording to various traditions may refer to the mahdi yet to come or to the Sufi quest for 59 transcendental sublimation in the One God. 87 Hence, the number one, despite al others, is always being sought after; reflecting Sufi ontology, al numbers ultimately refer back to one and are products of it. 8 While the numbers two and thre are related to the Active Intelect (al-?qal) and the Universal Soul (al-nafs), respectively, taking on significant esoteric meaning among Sufi gnostics, their preminence is eclipsed in many ways by the number four, which is asociated with the very mater (hay%l#?) created by Alah and which is itself of four kinds, as described earlier. Doubtles, the Sufi obsesion with the number four derives from their championing of Platonic texts expounding a worldview in which tetrads are manifest in many aspects of physical being. There are four elements (earth, fire, wind, and water), four cardinal directions and winds (north, south, east, and west), four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter), four bodily fluids (blood, yelow bile, black bile, and phlegm), and four ascending pitches that identify any musical mode (the tetrachord). Fours are so prevalent in the natural world that some scholars like Ibn Sina consider it emblematic not of mater, but of nature proper (al-tab$?ah). In either case, the number is considered perfect and consists of al the simple numerals that equal ten (1 + 2 + 3 + 4), the base root of the decimal system, and generate the other compound numbers (5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). 89 The number four is represented geometricaly by any quadrangular shape, though the perfect square, diamond, and cross are prefered. Fitingly, the fourth name of God, the ?King? (al-Malik), refers to His dominion over His perfectly constructed world. 87 Acording to Ibn Sina, the number one hundred represents ?the asembly of al things in the plan of the Creator? and is identified with the leter (@). Se ibid., 210. For a historicized discusion of the ninety- nine names of God se Akach, 49-53. 8 For an abreviated translation of the Ikhwan?s lengthy derivation of the numbers by the adition of unity (one) se Nasr, 193, 46, fotnote 13. 89 J?zef Pacholczyk, ?Music and Astronomy in the Muslim World,? Leonardo 29, No. 2 (196): 145-46. 60 The number five is perhaps the next most theologicaly symbolic number in Islam after one. Acording to the Ikhwan al-Safa, it is analogous to nature (al-tab$?ah) by way of its five elements (the four elements plus ether) and the five senses (hearing, sight, smel, taste, and touch) that enable perception of it. In addition to these asociations from ancient Grece, the number five is also prominent in Islamic worship. Islam recognizes five principal pilars of faith (ark#n): namely, proclamation of faith (shah#dah, kelime-i "ehadet), ritual worship (sal#h, namaz), almsgiving (zak#h, zekat), fasting (sawm, oru?), and pilgrimage (hajj, hac). Five times each day, the skies of the Muslim world are filed with the cal to prayer (adhan, ezan), imploring the faithful to perform the second of these ark#n, their five daily ritual prayers. Additionaly, the hand has five fingers, which when read right palm up and left palm down spel out the leters of the name of Alah, and the image of an open hand is typicaly used in the Muslim world as a symbol of the religion. The fifth name of God is ?Most Holy? (al-Qudd?s), connoting purity and perfection, and therefore it comes perhaps as no surprise that the numeral is represented in the Arabic script by a full circle and is asociated with al the perfection thereof. The number six shares some of the connotations of the number five, but whereas five is asociated with the principal concepts of orthodox Sunni Islam, the number six is in many ways a more ?Sufic? number, endowed with abundant esoteric meaning. As a product of two and thre, it is related to five, and the Ikhwan consider it a complete (t#m), or perfect, number. Six is imbued with the same sense of circularity as the number five. Indeed, the sixth name of Alah is as-Sal&m (?Al-Peaceful?), which in the oral tradition is used to describe God as fre from imperfection. However, the manifest form of the number six is more mystical than exact. Unlike the number five which is 61 represented in its numeral form as a complete circle, the number six is most often symbolicaly depicted by the spiraling Arabic leter 4. In the Ikhwan?s hierarchy of being, both six and 4 correspond to the body (jism) and its six directions of movement (!arak#t) and, thus, they are symbolic of motion in general. In Sufism, they specificaly reference mankind?s upward, incremental arc of ascent towards spiritual unity with the Universal Onenes?the state of dying while living?and the complementary downward arc of descent from Alah to humanity. 90 There are many examples of spirals in daily ritual and the arts that likewise connote Sufi conceptions of the cosmos and spiritual sublimation with Alah. Spiraling upward movement toward Alah is performed five times daily when a muezin climbs up a mosque?s spiral staircase, typicaly hidden from view ithin the rounded surface of a minaret, to intone the cal to prayer; here the five ezan-s and the singular minaret may also evoke the number six. Alexandre Papadopoulo, in his enlightening study of Muslim art, found the spiral to be one of the most significant and pervasive aesthetics in architecture and painting, embedded even in the art of miniature painting. 91 As evident in Figure 6, spirals and hexagonal shapes, sometimes in conjunction with pentagons, are often used to invoke the circular, swirling movement of the cosmos and ultimately mystical union. In the numerological study of leters (?ilm al-jafr), six and 4 have yet other asociations with motion, sound, and transcendence. In the Arabic alphabet 4 is both a vowel (U) and a consonant (W). There are in total six vowel sounds (thre hard and thre 90 Henry Corbin, Histoire de la Philosophie Islamique, in 2 vols. (Paris: Galimard, 1964). 91 Papadopoulo, 1979, 101-102 and for many reproductions of spirals and arabesques in miniature paintings se figures 569-603. 62 soft) that, as Samer Akkach explains, alow for the activation and enunciation of consonants and are connected to ?the Sufis? patern of cosmic existence, spatial unfolding, and natural growth.? 92 The six vowels move consonants from their state of stilnes (suk%n) through ?phonetic motions? categorized as ?motions of expresion? (!arak#t al-i?r#b) and ?motions of building? (!arak#t al-bin#?). The vowels are al conceived of as active verbs: the leters * and <, for instance, have the properties of ?erecting? (na"b) and ?bringing down? (khaf#), respectively, while significantly 4 is described as ?raising? (raf?). It is also worth mentioning at this point that the leter 4 is the twenty-seventh leter of the Arabic alphabet and is symbolicaly connected to the twenty-seventh name of Alah (as-Sam?, the ?Al-Hearing?). I have observed that in South Asia the expresion ?wah,? deriving from the Arabo-Urdu vowel 4, is often exclaimed during musical performance to indicate a moment of greatnes and even transcendence. It is usualy acompanied by physical gestures also commonly used in the Mevlevi tradition and also related to the Sufi notion of ascent: the head is tilted at a forty-five degre angle, symbolizing severance from the physical world, and the right hand is lifted with palm up to the heavens. The last number I consider here in depth is eight. Its pervasivenes in Islamic culture and significance in Sufism cannot be underestimated. The number eight shares many of the atributes of the numbers two and four, of which it is a product. Following ancient Grek custom, it is used in particular to describe the physical world in its totality, although the Arabic numeral 7 visualy evokes upward movement towards Onenes and it is therefore also connected to the spiritual world. The four primary elements of physical 92 Akach, 106; for a more thorough analysis se pages 95-107. 63 mater are characterized by a second tetrad of properties comprising two sets of contrasting and complementary qualities: cold and warm, wet and dry. Each element has two properties and so, earth is considered cold and dry, water is cold and wet, fire is warm and dry, while air is warm and wet. Two interlocking squares forming an octagon, the geometric design par excelence in the Muslim world, are often used to depict this cosmology. Octagons are also ubiquitous in Islamic architectural structures as wel as in artistic decorations. In verse lxix: 17 of the Koran the Divine Throne of Alah is described as resting on eight pilars, which Ibn al-?Arabi depicts as an octagon within a circle in his Fut%!#t al-makk$yah (The Mecan Revelations). 93 Even though the circle and sphere are the most architecturaly sound geometric shapes, the octagon here is likewise suggestive of strength. Ibn al-?Arabi?s asociation of the octagon with the circle is typical of Sufi tradition and demonstrates the Sufi afinity for esoteric obfuscation; in Sufism, the octagon is known as the shape most similar to a circle without actualy being one. This may wel explain its prevalence. It may wel also be that the eighth name of Alah (al-Muhaymin, ?Protector?) is latently connected to the architectural sturdines of the octagon. Along with the octagon, the cube is also a geometricaly significant shape based on the number eight. The Ikhwan al-Safa point out that eight is the first cubic number. Comprising eight angles and six square faces in thre dimensions, the cube is as potent 93 Se ibid., 125-30. 64 mathematicaly as it is structuraly. Significantly, it is often used in the construction of tombs as a representation of the terestrial plane of existence. 94 Brief mention here should also be made to a few other numbers that, although not as symbolicaly resonant as those described above, nevertheles bear some significance in this disertation. The number twelve indicates the signs of the zodiac and is asociated with Alah as the Creator (al-Kh&liq). 95 Many atempts have been made to organize the musical modes and rhythmic cycles acording to this model of the cosmos, though none succesfully reflects actual musical practice. 96 The number twenty-nine would not normaly be mentioned in a study of Islamic cosmology, except that the character =, a compound of the leters > and *, is sometimes considered by Sufis as the twenty-ninth, non-traditional leter of the Arabic alphabet. The character actualy spels out the word l# (?no?), and its shape is connected to the swaying motions performed during the seated Sufi zikr ritual both for the purposes of not-forgeting the name of God and renouncing the physical world for unity with the Universal Being (se Chapter Five). It is from such numerological reckonings that Sufi authors developed the geometric designs that enabled them to chart out the cosmos, map the world, and graphicaly depict existence itself. 97 In a pasage based on the writings of Ibn al-?Arabi and al-Qashani entitled ?The Geometry of Being,? for instance, Samer Akkach presents 94 Pacholczyk, ?Music and Astronomy in the Muslim World,? 146-47. 95 Similarly, the number fourten, as wel as twenty-eight, is also used to describe the two Septentrional and Meridional halves of the zodiac and the two halves of the Arabic alphabet. The fourtenth name of God, al-usawir (?Shaper? or ?Fashioner of Forms?), is likewise comparable to that of the twelfth. 96 Jean During, ?The Symbolic Universe of Music in Islamic Societies,? in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6, The Midle East, ed. by Virginia Danielson, Scot Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds (New York: Routledge, 202): 184. 97 For several reproductions se Seyed Hosein Nasr, Islamic Science: An Ilustrated Study. [s.l.]: World of Islam Festival Publishing Company, Ltd., 1976): 27-48. 65 the nature of being in the form of a diagram constructed of various geometric shapes. On a white background, symbolizing the Primordial Presence, is a single point, representing Transcendental Unity, contained within a square and sphere, signifying the Divine Presence, and a six-pointed cross, indicating the Human Presence. 98 While such mandalas are extremely popular in Sufi literature, and while Sufi cosmologies are beautifully rendered across the Islamic world in art and architecture, music and dance too are used to describe, physicaly embody, and perform the nature of existence. In the following section I explain not only how music is a manifestation of ontology, but how it is also a devotional act that reinforces and perpetuates the worldview. Music as Devotion: The Music of the Spheres The study of musical performance as an act of devotion proper has been largely contained to the Christian and Hindu-Buddhist traditions. Historical musicologists researching the Medieval and Renaisance eras of Europe typicaly focus on the devotional nature of the extant corpus of liturgical music because much of it survives in abundance usualy without any other discernable contextual information. 9 Ethnomusicologists working in South Asia have likewise infused the strong religious sentiment apparent in the culture into their writings. 10 Rarely, however, has Islamic music been approached from its primary function as a manifestation of piety and 98 Akach, 11. 9 Howard Mayer Brown, ?The Miror of Man?s Salvation: Music in Devotional Life about 150,? Renaisance Quarterly 43, No. 4. (190): 74-73. 10 Tery Jay Elingson, ?The Mandala of Sound: Concepts and Sound Structure in Tibetan Ritual Music? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1979); David Henderson, ?Emotion and Devotion, Lingering and Longing in Some Nepali Songs,? Ethnomusicology 40, No. 3 (196): 40-68; Ana Schultz, ?Hindu Nationalism, Music, and Embodiment in Marathi Rashtriya Kirtan,? Ethnomusicology 46, No. 2 (202): 307-2. 66 religious pasion, except in studies of Muslim usic in South Asia. 101 Rather, studies of music in the Islamic world, especialy that of West Asia, have tended to dwel primarily on the way that music conforms to cultural ideals, especialy those of cosmology. Such an approach implies that musicians perform usic purely from the standpoint of tradition as a celebration of a worldview?an ancient, geocentric one that is no longer totaly in keeping with contemporary understandings of existence, I might add?and not also as an act of religious adoration. While this may be true in some cases, and it is certainly in line with Kemalist elements in the Turkish government, it fails to acount for the most fundamental element of Sufi music: its ecstatic nature. The problem can be traced in part to the habit, even among some early Sufi scholars, of approaching ancient Grek and Muslim usic solely from a theoretical perspective. Sufi authors cast their musical treatises in the mold of the Grek discourse on the music of the spheres, the celestial sounds generated by the movement of the heavenly bodies. Pythagoras was the first to promulgate this doctrine of a universe governed by the mathematical proportions that generate the intervals betwen musical pitches. Sufi cosmologists like the Ikhwan al-Safa, operating within the staunch monotheism of Islam, readily embraced the Pythagorean asociation of a single resonating string with the Universal Soul, and the subdivision of this monochord into ratios that can then be applied to the distance betwen the earth and the heavenly bodies. Like al pre-modern Muslim scholars, the Ikhwan also acepted the ancient Grek 2:1 division of the monochord that can be filed with a rising scale of pitches in two interconnected tetrads forming the octave. Acousticaly speaking, the number eight, then, 101 Se Qureshi, 196 and her ??Muslim Devotional?: Popular Religious Music and Muslim Identity under British, Indian and Pakistani Hegemony,? Asian Music 24, No. 1 (192-93): 11-21. 67 is of the same quality as the number one, 102 and so the Grek custom of asociating the two intervening tetrads with mater, the elements, and so forth was also adopted by Muslims because ultimately they could al be made to relate back to the one. Thus, Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic cosmological doctrines were acepted because they were consonant with Islamic worldview, but what is interesting to note is the manner in which other aspects were Islamicized. For instance, by the advent of Islam, the teaching of music (harmonics) in the Christian world was wel established in the quadrivium, the four mathematical studies of the seven liberal arts that also included arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The Ikhwan al-Safa, however, place their Ris#la f$?l-M%s$q$ (Epistle on Music) fifth after four tracts on the properties of numbers, geometry, astronomy, and geography, thus also imbuing music with the Islamic atributes of the number. 103 In addition, the Ikhwan al-Safa, following al-Kindi and al-Farabi, ilustrate the musical and cosmic proportions using the strings of the ud (Figure 10), describing it as ?the instrument closest to perfection.? 104 102 The Ikhwan describe this proportion as ?that which is equal.? Se Amnon Shiloah, trans., The Epistle on Music of the Ikhwan al-Safa? (Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University Pres, 1978): 34-35. 103 Though the Epistle on Music is traditionaly acepted as the fifth of the Ikhwan?s fifty-two tracts, se Nasr, 193, 42, Shiloah actualy states that is either the fourth or fifth (1978, 5) and elsewhere (195, 50) places it fourth after the Epistle on Astronomy. 104 Quoted in ibid., 32, se also 3-40 and 43-49. 68 Figure 10: Ud, Mevlana Museum (Konya, June 18, 2005). Indeed, the Ikhwan first establish that the pear-shaped lute should be constructed in a ratio of 3:2, the interval of the fifth, then explain how each of its four strings should increase in thicknes and be tuned in proportions of 4:3, i.e., the interval of a fourth. The four strings are then asociated with the elements and humors and to the movements of the celestial spheres. 105 In the end, the Ikhwan cannot escape the ancient pagan predilection for the 4:3 ratio and so adopt it enthusiasticaly, explaining that the Grek philosophers ?wished to imitate the science of the Creator ? great are His praises ? and reproduce the signs of His art in the natural productions.? This musical microcosm of the universe presented by the Ikhwan al-Safa and others is wel known by modern scholars, but what is often forgotten is that the notion of a moving, musical universe was not simply metaphorical, it was an Islamic and Sufic truth. As the Ikhwan insist, 105 For more on the symbolism of musical instruments, se Chapter Four of this disertation. 69 These coordinated movements [of the spheres] produce harmonies, melodies, touching, symmetrical and swet, as we have clearly established in speaking of the movement and melodies produced by the strings of the lute?[and confirm]?a work conceived by a wise Artisan, constructed by a zealous Constructor and composed by a benevolent Composer.? 106 Such a fervent religiosity is evident throughout the Epistle on Music, which commences with the Bismilah, the Koranic proclamation stating the every word and action following is done ?In the name of God, the compasionate, the merciful.? Indeed, as these next key pasages indicate, the Ikhwan?s central aim in discussing music is not simply to state its cosmological significance, but also to expres its ability to engender transcendence. We propose in this Epistle caled ?Music?, to study the art which is constituted at the one and the same time of the corporeal and the spiritual. This is art of harmony (ta?l$f) which can be defined in terms of proportions. ?. The soul of this man [one who seks ascent into the celestial world by means proclaimed in verse xix: 57 of the Koran] wil also follow the example of the soul of Pythagoras the philosopher who heard the music of the spheres after having been cleansed of the defilement of corporeal appetites and raised to the sublime by constant reflection and by the sciences of arithmetic, geometry and music. Apply yourself, therefore, O my brother ? may God asist you and asist us through the spirit (emanating) from Himself ? to deliver it (your soul) from the ocean of mater, the prison of nature and the subjection of the corporeal appetites. 107 Ultimately then, music is at once both a byproduct and source of movement. The universe itself resonates with the music of the celestial bodies in motion, yet at the same time, music compels movement toward spiritual unity with Alah, the One God and Universal Soul. In short, motion is a fundamental aspect of Islamic faith and it is manifest in most, if not al, levels of Muslim culture, as I explore further in the following chapter. It is 106 Quoted in ibid., 56-57. 107 Quoted in ibid., 12 and 57. 70 expresed in art, music, and dance sometimes openly, but more often indirectly and esotericaly through numerical and geometrical symbolism as deliberated on by the Ikwhan al-Safa and discussed in detail in this chapter. But music and dance are not simply analogies for movement, and their symbolism does not serve as mere artifice. Creating, performing, and listening to music embedded with concealed meanings stimulates the proces of symbolic interpretation (ta?w$l) that leads ultimately to ecstatic union with the Creator, for the meanings become clear only through a journey of reflection. Music is then an ongoing action, in a sense, equivalent to religious worship. It is from this cosmological, aesthetic, and devotional perspective that the music and spiraling sema of the Mevlevi rite must be understood. 71 CHAPTER THRE MODES OF MOTION: THE SPIRIT OF OTION IN USICS FOR THE MEVLANA Whereas in the previous chapter I concentrated on movement in the abstract sense of Sufi Muslim cosmology and symbolism, here I discuss it in more concrete terms, focusing especialy on travel as a lived reality. Ultimately, my goal is to explain the broader universe in which music for the Mevlana exists and is most fully understood. Pursuant to these ends, I begin by giving an ethnographic description of the Konya otogar in order to impart a sense of how central the concept of mobility is in Turkish culture. Afterwards, I explore the scholarly literature on various forms of social movement within a Muslim context. Islamic tradition itself recognizes several diferent categories of long-distance travel including hijra (?migration?), hajj (?pilgrimage?), ziyara (?pilgrimage to saints? shrines?), and rihla (?search for knowledge?), to which I refer throughout this chapter. In the second section of this chapter I discuss travel asociated with globalization, focusing especialy on that brought on by world conquest, trade, and misionary eforts. In the following section, I compare religious pilgrimage to tourism, finding the critical distinctions and intersections betwen the two. Subsequently, I turn to spiritual movement, delving into the scholarly approaches to religious trance experience. I conclude the chapter with a consideration of motion more directly connected to music and dance, adopting Adrienne Kaeppler?s notion of structured movement systems. 72 The Konya Otogar, A Modern Caravanserai The city of Konya lies on the central Anatolian plateau at the intersection of two very old, yet stil vital commercial and religious routes. It is here that even today merchants traveling betwen east and west on the Silk Road met pilgrims from the north heading south to Meca and the Biblical holy lands. No mere way station, however, the former capital of the Sel?uk Empire is Turkey?s fifth or sixth most populous city and capital of the country?s largest province. Its booming economy is based largely on agricultural harvests from the vast surrounding steppe and the local textile, wood, and confection industries. Konya also has the reputation of being the most religiously conservative city in Turkey, and, with the shrine of the Mevlana Rumi at its heart, it is the country?s most prominent pilgrimage center. As traders and pilgrims, the originaly nomadic Turks have always been a highly mobile people sensitive to the demands of travel and keen to develop its infrastructure. The Sel?uk and Otoman Turks built and maintained dozens of large han-s (?inns?) around the city of Konya, nearly twenty-five alone on the roads east to Kayseri and north to Sivas. Otherwise known as kervanseray-s (caravanserais; literaly, ?caravan palaces?), these han-s were the best forms of roadside acommodation in the pre-modern Muslim world, most boasting ornately decorated portals along with baths, sleping quarters, storerooms, and a mosque around a large open courtyard (se Chapter One, Figure 1). Some ten kilometers northeast of the city center stands Konya?s yeni otogar (?new bus station?), the modern day version of the old caravanserai (se Figure 11). Like the ancient han-s, Konya?s busy bus station tems with travelers twenty-four hours a day. 73 Figure 11: Front View of the Konya Otogar (Konya, November 14, 2004) Modern Turks have traded the bumpy camel for the comforts of Kamel Ko?, one of hundreds of commercial bus companies that together comprise the world?s most extensive, eficient, and comfortable intercity busing network. 108 Virtualy every bus company provides a minimal amenity of complimentary tea, coffe, and/or soda, though most also offer asorted cakes and crackers, music, movies, climate control, pilows, blankets, and sanitizing toweletes or splashes of refreshing lemon-scented cologne with which travelers wipe their ears, faces, and necks in a manner similar to the ritual ablutions they perform before entering a mosque. Buses make regular stops en route at bus stations and special centers known as tesis-s (?facilities?) normaly housing restrooms, stores, mosques, and sometimes cafeterias and hotels. Al buses have at least 108 For instance, Yeni Konta", one of the more modestly sized bus companies based in Konya provides services to the western part of the country; its logo features a dervish whirling on a gren map of Turkey and the globe. Meanwhile, Sema Turizm, another company with Mevlevi references, travels betwen #stanbul, the Black Sea region, and eastern Anatolia, though curiously it does not have routes to Konya. 74 one steward who asists the driver and pasengers and manages most travel details including ticketing. Though overnight bus trips are by far the most popular form of long-distance travel, buses leave regularly, sometimes every half hour, for the most remote corners of the country as wel as many major destinations in Europe and the Middle East, with large cities seing hundreds if not thousands of departures and arivals daily. Moreover, buses are customarily filed to capacity. Given the great demand, most cities have recently constructed larger bus stations outside their main centers. Konya?s new otogar, for instance, supplants the eski garaj (?old bus station?), which is located one kilometer south of the Mevlana Museum and now provides service only to nearby vilages. Konya?s large yeni otogar is architecturaly quite striking. Intercity buses arive at the back of the station, docking at one of thirty-eight peron-s (?platforms?) curving around the red structure and its distinctive central waiting hal, which resembles the dome of a mosque (Figure 12). Figure 12: Side View Konya Otogar (Konya, November 14, 2004) 75 Inside, shops and bus company booths and offices encircle the large seating area. Two sets of spiral staircases lead down to luggage storage and restrooms?male on the right, female on the left?and up to the ?ay bah?e (literaly, ?tea garden?). Toward the front entrance of the building, the ceiling is decorated with large Sel?uk style squares containing gren tiles forming circle and spiral motifs, which can also be found on the sidewalks in the city center. Meanwhile, the cavernous central dome just ahead depicts a five-pointed star and is lit by natural sunlight (Figure 13). Figure 13: Dome Interior, Konya Otogar (Konya, May 12, 2005) The overal shape of the otogar is that of a crescent moon and star, which, although an overtly nationalist symbol taking after the flag of the Turkish Republic, is unequivocaly a religious symbol, acording to many of my contacts in #stanbul and #zmir, by simple virtue of it being located in Konya. 76 On the way out and on the right, a smal electronic kiosk, also found downtown and similar in appearance to a game in a video arcade, provides city visitors with extensive information on numerous topics including tourism, hotels, local history, economy, and the Mevlana. Outside, shops seling Mevlevi merchandise (Figure 14) and white Konyan candy (sometimes caled Mevlana "ekeri or ?Mevlana sugar?) outline the crescent shape of the otogar, culminating on the right at a smal, busy mosque (mescit). Figure 14: Whirling Dervish Coffe Mug and Other Trinkets, Konya Otogar (Konya, November 14, 2004) As in al Turkish cities, Konya?s major transit hub is the otogar, and not the airport or train station. Half a dozen forms of public transportation?cars, taxis, city buses, dolmu"-s (?minibuses?), servis-s (?bus company shuttles?), and the tramvay (?tram?)? swarm about waiting to connect tourists, pilgrims, and businesmen with ?Mevlana,? their large signs bearing the mystic?s name instead of the usual ?"ehir merkezi? (?city center?). 77 Global Movement and the World of Islam Globalization is a defining feature of modern life, which every day sems to take on a more peripatetic, even nomadic, quality. As a term, however, globalization is not easy to pinpoint as it has a multitude of varying definitions, connotations, and implications that vary by perspective. 109 Moreover, the literature on the subject and its impact is voluminous. 10 I define globalization plainly as a social proces characterized by the worldwide movement of peoples, ideas, values, products, services, and capital. This proces has intensified notably during the twentieth century with increased technological development, particularly in the areas of transportation and mas media, including radio, television, and the Internet. The relative ease and speed of worldwide travel and communication has had profound impact on al social institutions around the globe, especialy on politics and economics, as wel as on how people conceive of themselves and construct their identities. Increased mobility and contact has also initiated greater cultural flow betwen countries, this latest phase of globalization occasionaly diferentiated as internationalism or even transnationalism. Arjun Appadurai identifies the key agents of this cross-national exchange as ?tourists, imigrants, refugees, exiles, guest-workers, and other moving 109 Se for example Akbar S. Ahmed and Hastings Donan, eds., Islam, Globalization, and Postmodernity (London and New York: Routledge, 194); Peter Mandavile Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Uma (London and New York: Routledge, 201). Mandavile (15) finds the term ?analyticaly meaningles? on acount of it having acquired ?so much ideological and sensationalist bagage in recent years.? 10 For some of the most significant sources se John Beynon and David Dunkerley, eds., Globalization: The Reader (New York: Routledge, 200); Mike Featherstone, ed., Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity (London: Sage, 190); Mike Featherstone, Scot Lash, and Roland Robertson eds., Global Modernities (London: Sage, 195); Marshal McLuhan and Bruce R. Powers, The Global Vilage: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century (New York: Oxford University Pres, 1989); Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: Sage, 192); Roland Robertson and J. A. Chirico, ?Humanity, Globalization and Worldwide Religious Resurgence: A Theoretical Exploration,? Sociological Analysis 46, No. 3 (1985): 219-42. 78 groups and persons,? who comprise the ?shifting world? in which we live and who he collectively terms an ethnoscape. 11 Diaspora communities and other ethnoscapes with complex, liminal identities have emerged in al corners of the planet, 12 inviting some to proclaim the iminent demise of the nation-state, a concept exported globaly from Europe beginning in the eightenth century. In tandem with this transnationalism has been the widespread fear that globalization wil ultimately lead to a world order characterized by cultural homogeneity, or ?greyout,? and dominated by Western cultural hegemony and its neo-colonialist interests. 13 Such prognoses, however, may be premature, as the final outcome of globalization remains unpredictable. China, India, and the fundamentalist Islamic movement al have their own global aspirations that are only now beginning to emerge. Furthermore, in Turkey, which is situated on the crossroads of east and west and is one of the more critical areas where Western-influenced globalization is being tested, there are few indications of either a dwindling of nationalism or a desire for total homogenization with a universal global culture. 14 To the contrary, nationalist sentiment is stronger than ever in Turkey and it remains a powerful galvanizing social force (Figure 15). 15 11 Arjun Apadurai, ?Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology,? in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present, ed. Richard Fox, Schol of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, ed. Douglas W. Schwartz (Santa Fe: Schol of American Research Pres, 191): 192. Se also, Apadurai, 190, 1-24. 12 Hal, 190. 13 Se for instance, Eric Gans, The End of Culture: Towards A Generative Anthropology (Berkeley: University of California, 1985); Krister Malm, ?The Music Industry,? in Ethnomusicology: An Introduction, ed. Helen Myers (New York and London: W. . Norton and Company, 192): 349-64; Ziaudin Sardar, Postmodernism and the Other: The New Imperialism of Western Culture (Chicago: Pluto Pres, 198). 14 Se Y?ld?z Atasoy, Turkey, Islamists and Democracy: Transition and Globalization in a Muslim State (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 205); Marvine Howe, Turkey Today: A Nation Divided over Islam?s Revival (Boulder: Westview Pres, 200); Emin Fuat Keyman, Globalization and Turkey: Economy, 79 Figure 15: Turkish Flags Adorn the ?e"me Town Center (?e"me, April 23, 2005) Moreover, a late-2006 poll reported on by the British Broadcasting Corporation showed that Turks have soured to their proposed, and much protracted, entry into the European Union, with only one third of those polled in favor, as opposed to some sixty percent in 2004. 16 Hence, for Turks globalization has paradoxicaly cemented national identity even while providing greater opportunities for mobility and communication both inside Society and Culture (San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy: European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre, 201). 15 Among most segments of Turkish society, national identity far outweighs and is confused with ethnicity. On separate ocasions, two of my informants, despite being of mixed Macedonian/Persian and Tatar stock and teling me that only an estimated 7% of the population is of pure ethnic Turkish origin, proudly aserted their Turkish identity. Such patriotism is fueled by the ubiquitous phrase, ?Ne mutlu T?rk??m diyene? (?How hapy is he who says ?I am a Turk??), which is chanted by schol children every morning and carved onto mountainsides. Similar ultranationalist sentiments have also spawned the DTO movement, which may have originated in #zmir and stands for the phrase ?D?nya T?rk olsun? (?Let the world be Turkish?). 16 Wiliam Horsley, ?Turks Col Towards ?Unfaithful? Europe,? November 6, 206, acesed November 6, 206 . 80 and outside the country. Such cultural, economic, and political complexities are characteristic of globalization everywhere in the world today. 17 Although the isue of globalization has consumed much of modern scholarship over the last few decades, it is an ancient feature of the Muslim world as Islam has been a powerful globalizing force since its foundation. 18 In the year 622, the Prophet Muhamad, faced with opposition from the local political and economic establishment, was forced to fle from Meca to Medina. Known as the hijra (?migration?), this event marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar and the first stage of expansion of the faith. Using military and misionary means, Muhamad united most of the tribes on the Arabian Peninsula, forged the Muslim ummah (?comunity?), and conquered Meca. After his death in 632, Muhamad?s succesors quickly spread Islam into the Levant and beyond. Within a century and a half, the Muslim Arab empires of the Umayyads and Abbasids ruled the vast majority of the known world from the Iberian Peninsula, across North and East Africa, and into India and Central Asia. 17 For a consideration of the globalization?s impact on Turkish music se especialy Chapter Six. Although ethnomusicology has always ben concerned with the study of music in global context, several key monographs are noteworthy, se: George Lipsitz, Dangerous Crosroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism, and the Poetics of Place (London: Verso, 194); Peter Manuel, Casete Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 193); Mark Slobin, Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West (Hanover, NH: University Pres of New England, 193); Timothy Taylor, Global Pop: World Music, World Markets (London and New York: Routledge, 197). 18 Se Thomas W. Simons, Jr., Islam in a Globalizing World (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Pres, 203); Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, 190. For studies of contemporary isues in globalization and Islam se also Ahmed and Donan, 194; Shana Cohen and Larabi Jaidi, Moroco: Globalization and its Consequences (New York: Routledge, 206); Yvone Yazbeck Hadad, ed., Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Pres, 202); Aza Karam, ed., Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology and Power (London and Sterling, VA: Pluto Pres, 204); Mandavile, 201; Johan Meuleman, ed., Islam in the Era of Globalization: Muslim Atitudes towards Modernity and Identity (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 202); Ali ohamadi, ed., Islam Encountering Globalization (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 202); Richard N. Rosecrance and Arthur A. Stein, eds., No More States? Globalization, National Self-determination, and Terorism (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Litlefield, 206); Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Umah (New York: Columbia University Pres, 204); Birgit Schaebler and Leif Stenberg, eds., Globalization and the Muslim World: Culture, Religion, and Modernity (Syracuse: Syracuse University Pres, 204). 81 Indeed, global socio-political systems are nothing new. Even prior to the Islamic Caliphates, large parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa were united several times under vast empires, first in the sixth century B.C.E. by the Persian Emperor Cyrus and later by Alexander the Great, the Romans, and the Byzantines. The Persians and Romans in particular were noteworthy for their extensive road projects, which facilitated imperial governance and encouraged rapid mobility both inside and outside their teritories. These roads complemented the nautical travel that developed naturaly along the Nile River, the Persian Gulf, and the Mediteranean and Red Seas. By the early centuries of the Common Era, as Germanic invaders displaced Roman citizens and Christian preachers took their Mision on the road, long-distance travel was the reality of existence. For the Christians of late antiquity, travel became a metaphor for Christian life, and, as Maribel Dietz explains, they traveled for a great many reasons, including ?escape from hostility, escape from social presures, escape from the mundane, and the urge to commune with holy men and women, both living and dead.? 19 Commerce too was an important motivation for travel, and in this perhaps none were beter suited than the nomadic Arabs and Turks. The Prophet Muhamad himself came from a merchant family, and, as Islam spread, Muslim traders quickly replaced the agoras of the Greks with extensive outdoor suq-s and bazars. Undoubtedly the largest and best known of these is the Kapal? ?ar"?s? (?Covered Bazar?) in #stanbul (Figure 16). Built by Sultan Mehmet I shortly after his conquest of the city in 1453, it comprised some eight hundred shops and was the economic hub of the Otoman Empire. 19 Dietz, 2. 82 Figure 16: The Kapal? ?ar"?s? (?Covered Bazar?) (#stanbul, June 24, 2002) Justin McCarthy summarizes its history and complexity: From the fiftenth century on, the market expanded and the number of shops continued to grow. There were so many shops, indeed, that no one was able to count them acurately. By 1701, there were approximately 3,000 shops?. In addition to shops, the covered bazar contained a communal bath, a mosque and a number of smaler prayer hals (mescids), fountains, a school, a number of warehouses, coffe houses, and restaurants. The market was entered by 18 gates, and it contained 61 strets. Most of the strets were smal and many were very narow. It was a vast waren of litle shops whose goods spiled out into the strets, watched over by thousands of rug-selers, cloth-selers, and other merchants. Losing oneself in the covered market was not unusual. 120 120 Justin McCarthy, The Otoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923 (New York: Adison Wesley Longman Limited, 197): 254. 83 Today, commerce remains one of the most vital features of Islamic culture and continues to serve an important globalizing function. Trade around the Kapal? ?ar"?s? spils out even further, west to the Beyazit I and S?leymaniye k?lliye-s (?mosque complexes?) and northeast as far as the M?s?r ?ar"?s? (?Egyptian Bazar?) and the Golden Horn, encompasing the greater part of the old city and drawing shoppers from al over the world as it did in centuries past. Similar, albeit les extensive, shopping districts, mals, and department stores can be found throughout #stanbul and in every city in the Muslim Near East (Figure 17). Figure 17: Pedestrians Shopping in Kar"?yaka (#zmir, March 26, 2005) Even in the least commercial areas, one is sure to stumble upon a stret vendor from a distant town seling pasersby everything from socks and snacks to cheap radios and bootleg CDs. 121 121 In Turkey, sidewalks canot realy be used by pedestrians as they are normaly ocupied by venders? carts, store displays, and parked cars. Not surprisingly, most people are comfortable walking on the strets and gravitate toward them out of convention, even when sidewalks are clear. 84 The impulse to travel long distances for purposes of trade and work is in part traceable to verse iv: 34 of the Koran, which has ben traditionaly interpreted as placing the onus of a family?s financial stability on the male head of the household. If no work is available to him localy, he is expected to emigrate, without his family if need be. Since the 1950s, economic presures in Turkey and throughout the Middle East have made it necesary for men and even whole families to move from their vilages to larger cities, resulting in untamed urbanization in al of Turkey?s major urban centers, or abroad to Europe or the petroleum-rich states of the Persian Gulf. One is hard-presed to find someone in Turkey today who has not been afected by this economic upheaval, as many have families living and working in Germany and elsewhere or are (or have been) migrant workers themselves. 12 Within this troika of Islamic globalization?conquest, faith, and trade?the role of the Sufi has largely been that of misionary. As roaming mendicants, dervishes quickly spread Islamic principles and the populist Sufi doctrines of tolerance and transcendence to the fringes of the Dar-al-Islam (?abode? or ?world of Islam?), and they continue to gain converts even further afield today; it is perhaps no great surprise that Sufism thrives not so much in Arab West Asia as in Turkey, South and Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the West. Both Franklin Lewis and Bente Nikolaisen have suggested that the sema performance tours the Mevlevi have made in Europe and the U.S. since in the 1970s (se 12 An interesting indicator of this masive migration is the comon custom, particularly evident in Turkish bus stations, of pouring a cup or bucket of water on the ground as a vehicle departs for a distant journey. The gesture, which I sugest may have agrarian origins, is done both to symbolize a clean path before the traveler as wel as to urge their timely return, for the evaporating water wil inevitably come back as rain, like a gift from Alah above. 85 Chapter One) function very much along these lines and have contributed greatly to the transnationalization of the tarikat, a topic I develop further in Chapter Seven. 123 Theoretical Wanderings on Pilgrimage and Tourism In addition to travel that is broadly connected to globalization, both pilgrimage and tourism also play a critical role in understanding the music of the cult of the Mevlana as it exists today. Any consideration of the anthropology or ethnomusicology of either pilgrimage or tourism ust first contend with the pioneering work of Victor and Edith Turner. Their Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, although limited to Christian forms of pilgrimage, provides the earliest comprehensive framework of sacred travel in anthropology and has broad applications for the study of pilgrimage practices worldwide. 124 Regarding it as ?a kinetic ritual? and drawing on van Gennep?s notions of ritual separation, liminality, and reincorporation, the Turners present a theory of pilgrimage that emphasizes transcendence, communitas, and the ?search for roots of ancient, almost vanishing virtues.? 125 Their asertion is that pilgrimage in the modern world functions as a kind of rite of pasage, a critical form of social ritual that they believe the West has otherwise abandoned in its march toward modernity. As they so 123 Lewis, 200; Nikolaisen, 92. 124 Turner and Turner, 1978. Se also Victor Turner, ?Pilgrimages as Social Proceses,? in Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca: Cornel University Pres, 1974). 125 Ibid., xii, 2-3, and 38. On the kinetic features of pilgrimage se also Linda Lehrhaupt, ?Procesional Aspects of Irish Pilgrimage,? The Drama Review 29, No. 3 (1985): 48-64; Kay Kaufman Shelemay, ?Seged: A Falasha Pilgrimage Festival,? Musica Judaica 14 (199): 65-83. 86 neatly summarize, ?If mysticism is an interior pilgrimage, pilgrimage is exteriorized mysticism.? 126 This focus on the holy, transformative, and otherwise extraordinary features of pilgrimage travel, however, has had a number of unintended, adverse consequences in the academic world. Firstly, as Morinis points out, pilgrimage is viewed as exceptional behavior and therefore has been largely overlooked in anthropological literature, which tends instead to document normative, habitual behavior; 127 the case is no les true in ethnomusicology. 128 Secondly, the Turnerian approach, which develops from and perpetuates the Western secular/sacred dialectic, has led to the unfortunate disociation of pilgrimage from tourism, even though the Turners themselves specificaly recognize commerce and tourism as integral components of the total pilgrimage experience. 129 Despite a number of more recent publications in anthropology 130 and ethnomusicology 131 atempting to further bridge the divide, pilgrimage and tourism are stil commonly perceived as contradictory; pilgrimage being sacred, spiritual, and communal, whereas tourism is secular, material, and hedonistic. 126 Turner and Turner, 7. 127 E. Alan Morinis, Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage (Westport, CT: Grenwod Pres, 192): 2. 128 For a few recent exceptions se Philip V. Bohlman, ?Pilgrimage, Politics, and the Musical Remaping of the New Europe,? Ethnomusicology 40, No. 3 (196): 375-412; Paul D. Grene, ?Sound Enginering in a Tamil Vilage: Playing Audio Casetes as Devotional Performance,? Ethnomusicology 43, No. 3 (199): 459-489; ?Ordering a Sacred Terain: Melodic Pathways of Himalayan Flute Pilgrimage,? Ethnomusicology 47, No. 2: 205-27. 129 Turner and Turner, 35-38. 130 Badone and Roseman, 204; Coleman and Eade, 204; 131 Martin Stokes, ?Music, Travel and Tourism: An Afterword,? The World of Music 41, No. 3 (199): 141-5; Jef Tod Titon, ??The Real Thing?: Tourism, Authenticity, and Pilgrimage among the Old Regular Baptists at the 197 Smithsonian Folklife Festival,? The World of Music 41, No. 3 (199): 15-39. 87 Anthropological studies of tourism, for their part, have increased steadily since the international tourism boom of the 1970s, 132 and tourism has become a topic of considerable importance in ethnomusicology since the 1990s. 13 Like their counterparts writing on pilgrimage, scholars of tourism have sought to reconcile the secular with the sacred by describing tourist experiences as no les extraordinary, ritualistic, or even spiritualy rejuvenating and transcendent than pilgrimage. 134 Martin Stokes, proposing the subdiscipline of ?tourism ethnomusicology,? even cals for the nuanced study of ?tourism as pilgrimage? and suggests that tourism ay wel be ?a modern form of mas religion.? 135 Perhaps in light of this interplay betwen tourism and pilgrimage, studies of Islamic pilgrimage, including this disertation, often take an expansive approach that invites comparison with other forms of Muslim travel, both secular and sacred. 136 Such a methodology is not unfounded and emerges both from observations of the Muslim proclivity for mobility and the recognition that distinctions betwen sacred and secular 132 Dean MacCanel, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Clas (New York: Schoken Boks, 1976); Valene L. Smith, ed., Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism (Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Pres, 197); Ury, 190. 13 Timothy J. Coley, ?Folk Festival as Modern Ritual in the Polish Tatra Mountains,? The World of Music 41, No. 3 (199): 31-5; Peter Dunbar-Hal, ?Culture, Tourism, and Cultural Tourism: Boundaries and Frontiers in Performances of Balinese Music and Dance,? Journal of Intercultural Studies 2, No. 2 (201): 173-87; Chris Gibson and John Conel, Music and Tourism: On the Road Again (Bufalo: Chanel View Publications, 205); Katherine J. Hagedorn, Divine Uterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santer?a (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Pres, 201); Margaret Sarkisian, D?Albuquerque?s Children: Performing Tradition in Malaysia?s Portuguese Setlement (Chicago: University of Chicago, 200). 134 Se the sumary by Badone and Roseman, 5-8 as wel as Stokes, 199, 148 and Nelson Graburn, ?Tourism: The Sacred Journey,? in Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism., Valene L. Smith, ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Pres, 197). 135 Stokes, 199, 141 and 148. 136 Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, 190; Ian Richard Neton, ed., Golden Roads: Migration, Pilgrimage, and Travel in Mediaeval and Modern Islam (Richmond, Surey: Curzon Pres, 193); Pnina Werbner, ?Stamping the Earth with the Name of Alah: Zikr and the Sacralizing of Space among British Muslims,? Cultural Anthropology 1, No. 3 (196): 309-38. 88 are not always evident in the Islamic world. Thus, one may conclude that the pilgrimage to Meca is not unconditionaly sacred and that Muslim travelers do not go on pilgrimage with only religious intentions in mind. Such a scenario is best ilustrated by the case of Ibn Batuta who made the pilgrimage to Meca from his native Tangier thre times in the early fourtenth century, each time making ?detours? to such far-flung locales as Constantinople, China, India, and Tanzania for purposes of both sight-seing or work. That Ibn Batuta recorded his journeys in the form of a rihla further demonstrates the conflation of secular and sacred intentions, because the term designates both a general book of travels and the search for sacred knowledge. 137 The Islamic understanding of pilgrimage, however, is rather more complex and nuanced, and it may be more acurate to suggest that other forms of travel have sacred aspects due to the importance placed on pilgrimage to Meca than to say the opposite. Although such elements of tourism, trade, and wanderlust are connected to Muslim pilgrimage, the Islamic notion of hajj is quite strictly defined in sacred terms and should not be confused with the more open concept of pilgrimage espoused by Western scholars. Indeed, the term hajj refers exclusively to the great pilgrimage to Meca and is distinguished even from other forms of Islamic sacred travel like rihla and ziyara, and even umrah. The distinction comes from that fact that the hajj is one of the five principal ark#n-s (?pilars") of the faith and that one entire chapter of the Koran, Sura xxii (al- Hajj), is devoted expresly to it. Al Muslims are compeled to perform the sacred rites at 137 In his study of Ibn Batuta?s travels, Neton explains rihla as comprising four broad forms of travel: the travel for religious reasons (shrine visitation, etc.), the search for knowledge, the search for power or recognition, and wanderlust. Se his Sek Knowledge: Thought and Travel in the House of Islam (London: Curzon Pres, 196): 121. 89 least once in their lifetimes, provided they have the means, and thus travel is connected directly to spiritual devotion as a mater of religious obligation. The Caliph Umar (r. 634-44), second succesor to the Prophet Muhamad, sought to preserve the holines of the hajj further by declaring Meca haram, closed off to al non-Muslims. Despite this, a surprising number of writings on the hajj, some dating back to the sixtenth century, are available to the general reader. 138 The acounts writen by earlier Western travelers, who either by chance or guile made the hajj to Meca, have circulated quite widely and have proven to be particularly insightful. The most famous of these is the tale of Englishman Sir Robert Burton who, impersonating a Kadiri Sufi from Afghanistan, infiltrated both Meca and Medina in 1853. 139 Burton?s acount is keen to highlight the physical aspects of the journey to the holy city, 140 as wel as to describe in great detail the complex series of ritual movements and treks that 138 Se Robert F. Burton?s acount as wel as his reproductions of those by Ludovicus Vertomanus, Joseph Pits, Giovani Finati, and A. Sprenger in his Personal Narative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meca, in 2 vols., ed. Edith Burton (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1893/1964). For Muslim acounts of the haj, se Barbara D. Metcalf, ?The Pilgrimage Remembered: South Asian Acounts of the Haj,? in Eickelman and Piscatori, 190. Other insightful recent studies include: Suraiya Faroqhi, Pilgrims and Sultans: The Haj und the Otomans, 1517-1683 (New York: I.B. Tauris, 190); Francis E. Peters, The Haj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Meca and the Holy Places (Princeton: Princeton University Pres, 194); Gwyn Rowley, ?The Pilgrimage to Meca and the Centrality of Islam,? in Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: The Geography of Pilgrimage, ed. Robert H. Stodard and Alan Morinis (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Geoscience Publications, 197): 141-59. 139 Burton, 1893/1964. 140 Early pilgrims to Meca rarely traveled alone; rather, horse and camel caravans were prefered because they ofered protection from bandits and alowed for a more intensely comunal experience. In 1908, the Otomans built the Hijaz railway from Damascus to Medina in order to expedite the long trip and to further guarante the safety of the pilgrims, though it was in operation only briefly because it was partialy destroyed during the Arab revolt against the Otomans in 1916. Today, haj travel is normaly done by air flight to Jedah and by means of organized pilgrimage tours, the modern day version of the old caravans. The Saudi government, unable to cope with growing influx of pilgrims?an estimated two milion in 206?has recently had to impose quotas by country and requires a pilgrimage visa, for which some nations have loteries. For aditional recent data se Rowley, 197. 90 comprise the sacred rite and to point out the mandala-like layout of the great al-Haram Mosque. 141 The basic hajj itinerary follows a circuitous route over five days. Pilgrims begin on the eighth day of the month of Dhu al-Hijah in Meca, where they don sandals and two pieces of white cloth (ihram) symbolizing a state of purity and equality before traveling to nearby Mina to spend the night. The next morning, pilgrims proced to the Valey of Mount Arafat for a day of prayer and reflection, this les physicaly active period being the central purpose of the hajj. In the evening, they journey back west to Muzdalifah, where they make preparations for the following day and spend the night. The third day of the pilgrimage is marked by the return to Mina and Meca to perform thre key rituals. In Mina, pilgrims throw seven stones at pilars to symbolize their repudiation of evil and then perform an animal sacrifice. Upon their return to Meca in the afternoon, pilgrims visit the al-Haram Mosque to circumambulate counterclockwise seven times around the Kaba, a cube-shaped black structure containing a black meteorite stone, and run back and forth seven times betwen Mounts Safa and Marwah. These two rituals (tawaf and sa?i, respectively) and the casting of stones in Mina are repeated on the fourth and fifth days of the hajj. The pilgrimage oficialy ends at sunset on the fifth day. This series of travels and rituals is refered to as haj (or hajj al-akbar) only during the propitious month of Dhu al-Hijah. Those who perform it at other times of the year do not receive the honorific of hajji and can only claim to have made the umrah (?leser hajj?). 142 In addition, the common practice of extending the pilgrimage to an 141 Se especialy Akach, 179-95. 142 Those who complete the haj journey and rites acquire the title haji or haja (honorable pilgrim), which comands considerable respect and an elevation in social status. 91 optional sixth day for travel to Medina to visit the shrine and mosque of the Prophet Muhamad is technicaly not part of the hajj. This is more appropriately caled ziyara (Turkish ziyaret) a term also used for travels to other historicaly important mosques, to the tombs of saints (pir-s), and to notable living religious figures, such as a sheikh ("eyh). It is this form of ?pilgrimage? and not the haj that I explore in more depth throughout this disertation. Ziyaret-s can be made at any time of the year and are often performed in conjunction with the haj, but those to places and people that are of considerable spiritual significance, such as that to the shrine of the Mevlana Rumi, are most frequently performed as sacred journeys in and of themselves. Such journeys may develop al the acoutrements of tourism travel and even share many characteristics of the hajj. Especialy for Sufis and those who cannot aford to travel al the way to Meca, and even for those who can, a ziyaret is regarded as a fair substitute for the hajj. Like the hajj, a ziyaret is often an intense period of religious transformation marked by similar experiences of communitas and spiritual rejuvenation. As Pnina Werbner explains in her study of Pakistani Sufis, ziyaret-s performed at specific times, such on the anniversary of a saint?s death (%eb-i ?urs), may become occasions for ?joint transnational ritual celebration? and may have the same spiritual impact as the hajj to Meca. 143 She observes of the Sufi procesions and convoys making the ziyaret, the convoy of vehicles?caries people hundreds of miles from their towns, factories and vilages to atend the annual thre-day ritual at the central lodge. In both procesions and convoys disciples chant the zikr as they traverse through space. In doing so they inscribe the earth with the name of Alah. 14 143 Pnina Werbner, Pilgrims of Love: The Anthropology of a Global Sufi Cult (Blomington and Indianapolis: Indian University Pres, 203): 5. 14 Ibid., 13-14. 92 Music, Trance, and the Iner Journey It may sem paradoxical that those seking to abandon the terestrial plane of existence would expend so much time and efort wandering through it, but for Sufis the somatic movements of hajj, ziyaret, and mendicancy are important external reflections of the perpetual internal journey toward Alah. 145 The romantic notion of the itinerant dervish, however, has resulted in an inappropriate overemphasis in the popular imagination on physical forms of Sufi travel. 146 To the contrary, it is the inner journey that defines Sufi gnosis, 147 and dervishes by and large have been living setled, contemplative existences akin to those of Christian monks since the twelfth century, as the increase of Sufi architecture and writing at the time suggests. 148 The exces of flitering, imprecise vocabulary describing spiritual movement in particular bespeaks the Sufi preoccupation with the internal, not external, voyage. Such terms as wajd (?ecstasy,? ?emotion,? ?rapture,? ?trance?), !#l (?state,? ?transience?), waqt (?instant,? 145 This is evident in countles writings on Sufi doctrine that inevitably use metaphors of travel to discus the inefable. This listing is by no means exhaustive: Reshad Feild, The Invisible Way: A Journey into Conscious Loving and Dying (Great Barington, MA: Floris, 203); Fadhlala Haeri, The Journey of the Self: A Sufi Guide to Personality (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989); ?Abd al-Karim ibn Ibrahim Jili ibn al-?Arabi, Journey to the Lord of Power: A Sufi Manual on Retreat, ed. ?Abd al-Karim ibn Ibrahim Jili (New York: Iner Traditions International, 1981); Osho, Journey toward the Heart: Discourses on the Sufi Way (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1976/1979); Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams (London: Octagon Pres, 1968); Husayni Tihrani, Muhamad Husayn, et. al., Kernel of the Kernel: Concerning the Wayfaring and Spiritual Journey of the People of Intelect (Ris#la-yi Lub al-lub#b dar sayr wa sul%k-i ulu?l-alb#b) (Albany: State University of New York Pres, 203). 146 In Turkey, Sufis, particularly the Mevlevi, are intimately conected to physical forms of travel. For instance, in adition to the Sema Turizm bus company I refered to in fotnote 108, I also observed in the Aegean town of Ayval?k, a boat named ?Dervi"? and in the touristy Kale district of Antalya a travel agency named for the Mevlana. 147 Sufis recognize either four or five stages of mystical journey including n#s%t (?human?), malak%t (?psychic substance?), jabar%t (?spiritual existence?), l#h%t (?divinity?), and ?H#? (a mystical term that defies translation, but refers to ?breath,? ?spirit,? and ?Alah?). Se Pacholczyk, Sufyana Musiqi, 30. 148 Ira M. Lapidus, ?Sufism and Otoman Islamic Society,? in The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Otoman Turkey, ed. Raymond Lifchez, trans. M. E. Quigley-P?nar (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Pres, 192): 25-27. 93 ?moment,? ?state?), baka (?sublimation?) and fana (?annihilation?), among many others, are used by Sufi writers to expres the spiritual progresion toward the Divinity and what in Western languages is generaly subsumed under the concepts of trance and/or ecstasy. 149 Even in English, the word ?trance? has its share of ambiguity and controversy. Gilbert Rouget atempts to correct this in his exhaustive monograph on the relationship betwen music and trance. 150 He casts a wide net, approaching trance as a virtualy universal phenomenon and defining it broadly as a state of consciousnes resulting from sensory overstimulation and characterized by physical movement. Following Rouget, the general tendency in modern scholarship is to apply the term to an aray of varying behaviors and states of consciousnes ranging from daydreaming to spirit possesion, and including religious worship, divination, healing, madnes, music making, and dancing. 151 Although music and dance are not always present in such trance experiences, there is the inclination to treat al auditory stimuli and any related trance activity as such and thereby employ musicological and choreometric theories and methodologies to study them. Rouget?s greatest contribution to the ethnography of music and trance, however, is the understanding that although any kind of music can be used to induce a trance state, 149 The word wajd (Turkish vecd) has its origins in the Arabic verb wajada (?to find,? ?discover,? or ?atain?), while !#l can be traced to the rot !wl (?to change,? ?to be transformed,? ?to shift?). For an analysis of some of these terms, se Keneth Avery, A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama?: Listening and Altered States (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 204): 5-79. 150 Gilbert Rouget, Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations betwen Music and Posesion. trans. Brunhilde Biebuyck (Chicago, University of Chicago Pres, 1985): 3-1. 151 Steven M. Friedson, Dancing Prophets: Musical Experience in Tumbuka Healing (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 196); Felicitas D. Godman, Speaking in Tongues: A Cros-Cultural Study of Glosolalia (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1972); Ecstasy, Ritual, and Alternate Reality: Religion in a Pluralistic World, 2 nd ed. (Blomington: Indian University Pres, 192); Marina Roseman, ?The Social Structuring of Sound: The Temiar of Peninsular Malaysia,? Ethnomusicology 28, No. 3 (1984): 132-67; John Sloboda, Exploring the Musical Mind: Cognition, Emotion, Ability, and Function (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Pres, 205). 94 there is nothing intrinsic or sui generis in music that causes trance universaly. He argues convincingly that such musical elements as modality, rhythm, and repetition, which have long been suspected to be catalysts of trance, do not necesarily lead to it, and he suggests, rather, that the triggers are actualy psychophysiological and cultural in nature; in other words, trance is ?wiled.? 152 Esentialy, Rouget?s point is that made by Jean- Jacques Rouseau nearly two hundred years prior in his reflection on the Italian practice of using music to cure tarantula bites. Rousseau, who is generaly regarded as the first modern philosopher to write on the subject of music and trance, argued that it was cultural expectations about music, and not the music itself, that explained the apparent medical succes of tarantela music and elicited the frenzy asociated with it. In an oft- quoted pasage, he writes, Neither absolute sounds nor the same tunes are required to cure al those stung by this insect, for each needs the airs of a melody known to him and phrases that he understands. The Italian must have Italian tunes, the Turk would need Turkish tunes. Each is only afected by acents familiar to him; one?s nerves wil respond only to the degre to which one?s mind prepares them for it: he must understand the language spoken to him before what he is being told sets him in motion. Bernier?s Cantatas are said to have healed a French musician?s fever; they would have caused it in a musician of any other nation. 153 While Rouget?s (and Rousseau?s) observations on the intentionality and cultural specificity of trance open new avenues for the study of musical behavior, they also pose a potential point of conflict betwen what the ethnographer ses and what an informant may believe. Rouget himself highlights that among Sufis the deliberatenes of trance is 152 Ibid., 319. 153 Quoted and translated in Ibid., 167-68. 95 in dispute. 154 Moreover, he argues, through a virtuosic rereading of clasical sources, that the power of music in the Phrygian mode to induced trance was not automatic among the ancient Greks, and he consequently labels this belief, which was widely held throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaisance, as ?aberant.? 15 However, early Sufi writers likewise maintained that musical modality had the ability to alter one?s mental and physical state, since each maqam had specific atributes, though there was often disagrement as to which mode cured which ilnes. 156 Such misconceptions and misappropriations of ancient Grek trance, despite Rouget?s atempt to correct them, remain important in both Western and Sufi understandings of the phenomenon. For instance, the word ?ecstasy,? which Rouget argues is semanticaly contradictory to ?trance,? is nevertheles commonly used as a synonym for it and is the term ost universaly applied to Sufi trance rituals. The Grek word ekstasis, meaning the ?action of moving through space, displacement, [and] deviation,? was in later centuries fused with Plato?s theory of the movements (kineseis) of the soul (psyche), and thus came to describe, instead, the harmonic alignment of the self with the Universe, or in the Sufi context, comunion with Alah. 157 Judith Becker?s approach to trance phenomena, outlined in her recent book, comes the closest of any Western study to approximating Sufi notions of ecstasy. Like Rouget, Becker finds trance to be ?socialy constructed and personaly experienced within a particular religious cosmology which encourages some kinds of felings and 154 Ibid., 309. 15 Ibid., 26 and 236. 156 Pacholczyk, Sufyana Musiqi, 109 and 18. 157 Quoted in Rouget., 7. Se also 202-06. 96 some kinds of bodily atitudes, and constrains others.? 158 However, she replaces the term ?trance? with the concepts of ?trancing? and ?deep listening? and shifts the emphasis to emotion, finding it to be the critical link betwen music and trance behavior; trancing, therefore, is a profound emotional experience brought on by listening to music. This has obvious paralels with sam#?, the ritualized Sufi state of ?audition? in which ecstasy may result from focused listening to the mystical atributes of music. Becker also promotes an approach that is at once biological and cultural, and, above al, active. Borrowing from the fields of cognition, semiotics, psychology, biology, and neurology, she argues that, ?Dep listening and trancing, as proceses, are simultaneously physical and psychological, somatic and cognitive.? 159 She rejects the idea of a trance as a ?state,? prefering instead the terms trancing and deep listening because they are ?always active.? As she explains, Trances are always procesual; one is either entering, continuing, or coming out of a trance. The temporal movement of both trancing and musicking from onset to conclusion can easily be followed. Trances tend to be of rather limited time duration, typicaly lasting from a minute or two to an hour or two; trances may reach a climax followed by collapse. As thinking is a proces, as musicking is a proces, so trancing is a proces and not a ?state.? 160 Significantly, both Becker and Rouget use Muslim usical practices, namely tarab and sam#?, to ilustrate their points, and their approaches to these ecstatic styles support my own observations of devotional music for the Mevlana. Tarab, a term deriving from the verb tariba (?to be moved,? ?agitated?), is simultaneously a genre of 158 Judith Becker, Dep Listeners: Music, Emotion, and Trancing (Blomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Pres, 204): 27. 159 Ibid., 29 and 38. 160 Ibid., 8. 97 music, a synonym for music, and a profound emotion caused by music that may result in such behavior as weping, fainting, and tearing of clothing. 161 Tarab, as Rouget points out, is esentialy equivalent to wajd and typifies the visceral connections Sufis make betwen music, motion, and transcendence, although he also refers to tarab as a form of ?secular trance,? a distinction that I suggested in my previous discussion of pilgrimage and tourism and wil contend again in chapters five and six is unnecesary. Becker, after al-Ghazali and Crow, 162 makes the similar point as Rouget regarding the interconnectivity of music, trancing, and the inner voyage in her discussion of the Sufi sam#?: In the Muslim tradition, hearing is the most highly valued sense, the ear the way to spirituality and gnosis?. 163 Sufis are concerned to bring about a transformation of ordinary consciousnes to make receiving spiritual knowledge possible. Atentive listening is the path. One does not oneself play music that wil aid in this transformation, one listens?. The tunes are vehicles for al the important texts?. Sufis are waiting expectantly for that one verse that speaks to their condition, that afirms the importance of their presence at sama? and that may lead them to a richer, fuller spirituality. The spiritual proces of the listener is inseparable from what he hears and how he hears. 164 In short, the Sufi quest for transcendence seizes upon the moment during trance when music, listening, motion, and emotion coincide, propeling the worshiper spiritualy closer toward Alah. 161 Se Rouget, 281-82; as wel as Becker, 2; Farmer, 51; and especialy Racy, 203. 162 Douglas Karim Crow, ?Sama?: The Art of Listening in Islam,? in Maqam: Music of the Islamic World and Its Influences, ed. Robert Browning (New York: Alternative Museum, Athens Printing Company, 1984): 3. 163 During my research in Turkey, my informants often used physical gestures to diferentiate betwen Christianity and Islam. Whereas tracing a cros in the air or the left palm with the right index finger refered to Christianity, placing both open hands behind the ears in a gesture of ful, atentive listening represented Islam. 164 Becker, 204, 81-82. 98 Dance, Musical Motion, and Structured Movement Systems The last mode of motion I consider in depth in this chapter because of its usefulnes for understanding the devotional musics for the Mevlana is what might generaly be caled ?dance.? Anthropologists of dance, or ethnochoreologists, have long wrestled with this term. 165 As with music, a culture may have no such a concept as dance, or, if it does, it may be quite diferent from what is meant by dance in the West. Moreover, the labeling of something as dance may vary depending on context and function. Most scholars define dance similarly to Anya Peterson Royce as ?the human body making movements in time and space.? 16 Adrienne Kaeppler, however, rejects the analytical value of the term altogether, arguing, ?The concept ?dance? appears to be an unsatisfactory category imposed from a Western point of view because it tends to group together diverse activities that should be culturaly separated.? 167 Indeed, the tendency is to brand any series of physical motions or gestures as ?dance? or ?dance-like,? even when doing so may be culturaly inappropriate. Such is the case of the Mevlevi sema, which is typicaly described as a ?whirling dance,? despite that dervishes consider it more properly a ritual. Other gestures performed during the zikr are similarly not dance. Nevertheles the physical, embodied movements of both sema and zikr are connected directly with music and their analysis remains necesary. 165 For a more thorough consideration of this and other terminology se Judith Lyne Hana, To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Comunication, 2 nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1987). 16 Anya Peterson Royce, The Anthropology of Dance (Blomington: Indiana University Pres, 197): 3. 167 Adriene Kaepler, 1985, 93. 99 Kaeppler proposes that, instead of dance, ethnochoreologists focus on what she terms structured movement systems. Her notion not only eliminates the problems of terminology, but also shifts the emphasis to isues of cultural paterning and order. Specificaly, Kaeppler suggests that scholars observe al the various physical gestures, movements, and positions that constitute a given activity, not only to determine what distinguishes one set of actions from another, but also to ascertain cultural meanings, values, and, ultimately, deep social structure. 168 Thus Kaeppler rearticulates Alan Meriam?s theory, similar to that in ethnomusicology of ?music as culture,? that ?dance is culture and culture is dance,? 169 but she does so in a way that elicits a more specific and detailed ethnography of movement. One of the greatest dilemas of this more comprehensive approach, however, is how to best visualy reproduce the large quantity of motivic data that constitutes a structured movement system for purposes of both analysis and publication. Of the numerous dance notation systems that have arisen since the fiftenth century, perhaps the most suited to met Kaeppler?s cal is Kinetography Laban, or more simply Labanotation, which is named after its creator Rudolf Laban. 170 The Laban method, however, is very complex and time consuming, not to mention that notated examples generaly occupy a substantial amount of space. In this disertation, I adopt the more common and practical method of presenting my analyses by means of writen descriptions and photography. 168 Adriene Kaepler, ?Dance Ethnology and the Anthropology of Dance,? Dance Research Journal 32, No. 1 (200): 17. 169 Alan P. Meriam, ?Anthropology and the Dance,? in New Dimensions in Dance Research: Anthropology and Dance (The American Indian), ed. Tamara Comstock (New York: Comite on Research in Dance, 1974): 17. Se also Theresa J. Buckland, ed., Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods, and Isues in Dance Ethnography (New York: St. Martin?s Pres, 199). 170 An Hutchinson Guest, Labanotation Or Kinetography Laban: The System of Analyzing and Recording Movement, 3 rd ed. (London: Dance Boks, 196). 100 Perhaps owing to such dificulties of theory and methodology, scholarship of Middle Eastern dance and structured movement systems is very much in shortage. 171 Bely dance, perhaps one of the most characteristic genres of the region, tends to receive the lion?s share of scholarly atention. 172 Sema is perhaps the next best documented, though, as far as I am aware, no detailed study of it as either a structured movement system or ?dance? exists. What is writen of the sema does not go much further than the tourist literature published by the Konya Ministry of Culture and Tourism; sema gestures are described within the poetic rhetoric of Sufi spirituality and cosmology almost exclusively as symbols. This pasage by Shems Friedlander is typical, Al the dervishes unfold and whirl as the musicians play and the chorus chants. The turners extend their arms; the right palm faces up and the left down. The energy from above enters through the right palm, pases through the body, which is a visible channel, and, as this grace is universal, it pases through the left palm into the earth. With extended arms, the dervishes embrace God. 173 Richard Burton, though waxing les poeticaly than is typical, summarizes the other basic characterization of the whirling motion, ?Its conjectural significance is an imitation of the procesion of the heavenly bodies, the motions of the spheres, and the dances of the angels.? 174 171 Se Shiloah, 195, 137-53; Isam el-Malah, ?Dance as a Component Part of Music Genres in the Countries of the Arabian Gulf,? Revista de Musicolog?a 16, No. 4: 2043-54. 172 This genre is known by a variety of names including g?bek dans? (Turkish ?bely dance?) raqs sharq$ (?oriental dance?/?eastern dance,? Turkish oryantal dans?), raqs balad$ (?native dance?/?folk dance?, raqs arab$ (?Arabic dance?), raqs ma"r$ (?Egyptian dance?), and the French danse du ventre (?bely dance?). Se Leona Wod, ?Danse du ventre: A Fresh Apraisal,? Dance Research Journal 8, No. 2 (1976): 18-30; Kathlen Fraser, ?Aesthetic Explorations of the Egyptian Oriental Dance among Egyptian Canadians,? UCLA Journal of Dance Ethnology 17 (193): 58-6; Casandra Lorius, ?Oh Boy, You Salt of the Earth?: Outwiting Patriarchy in Raqs Baladi,? Popular Music 15, No. 3 (196): 285-98. 173 Shems Friedlander, Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes (New York: Parabola Boks, 203): 8. 174 Burton, 165. 101 The movement motifs of zikr, with its somewhat more limited vocabulary of gestures, are often described in litle more depth than ?rocking? or ?swaying.? Only occasionaly are references made to clapping and beating of the breast. Many modern day acounts of the zikr do not vary substantialy from that of Bertrandon de la Broqui?re, a diplomatic envoy from Philip the Good of Burgundy to the Otoman Empire, who wrote this brief description in 1433, over half a milennium ago. I sometimes heard them say their prayers in song, at nightfal; and they seated themselves in a circle and shook their bodies and heads and sang wildly in their manner of doing it. 175 The theoretical framework provided by Kaeppler, Meriam, and other anthropologists of dance and kinesics alows for more detailed descriptions and in-depth cultural analyses of these movement systems than has been previously available. What I am particularly interested in is the argument that movement systems are interelated and mutualy influential; how elements of one movement system igrate to or are manifest in another. I have hinted at this occasionaly in this disertation, but in the following chapters, I devote more time to how features specific to the sema, zikr, and other forms of namaz have paralels with, and may have even influenced other common cultural gestures and behaviors. My concern is not limited to only the revolving motions of the sema or the rocking movements of the zikr, but extends also to the positioning and placement of the body during ceremonies, as wel as the physicality of singing and performing musical instruments, what might be termed the ergonomics of performance. In a paper on the performance of the Persian modal complex of dastgah segah, Laudan Nooshin explores this concept of ergonomics in great detail. 176 Through 175 Bertrandon de la Broqui?re, ?Le Voyage d?Outremer,? trans. Robert Martin, Turkish Music Quarterly 2, Nos. 2-3 (1989): 5. 102 considerable analysis of the gushe Zabol (the second main piece in the segah mode), Nooshin was able to draw direct paralels betwen the melodic motifs of the repertory and the physical motifs necesary for playing the tar, a plucked thre-stringed long- necked Persian lute. She discovered that, owing to the morphology of the instrument, the tar repertory is characterized by descending melodic motifs and, therefore, ?a general tendency for movement away from the body.? She compared this with the normaly ascending melodic motifs that characterize the Persian santur (plucked zither) repertory, which are likewise created by motion away from the body. Aserting ?a dynamic relationship betwen aesthetics and ergonomics,? Nooshin extrapolates from her analysis a ?broad aesthetic matrix? that includes ?instrument structure, socio-cultural factors, and aesthetic values.? She suggests that the musical proclivity for limited two-note melodic motifs may stem from the same ?propensity for smal, detailed paterns and the constant exploration of a limited area, producing a visualy ?dense? texture? in the visual arts, although she fails to draw any conclusions regarding motivic and performance directionality and does not arive at the same religious explanations I do in my analysis of the ergonomics of musical instruments in the following chapter. 176 Laudan Noshin, ?Instrument Logic, Body Logic: The Aesthetics of Motivic Structure in Dastgah Segah,? European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (Oxford, 194), April 21, 205, acesed December 19, 206 . 103 CHAPTER FOUR IN PERFECT PROPORTION: THE SACRED SOUNDS OF A SECULAR STATE In this chapter I explore the revitalization of Mevlana culture by focusing on the recent wave of interest in the historical musical repertory of the Mevlevi Order. This thriving scene is set against the backdrop of changing Turkish nationalist politics, the rapid growth of Turkey?s tourist industry, and the increased popularity of ziyaret to Konya during the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs in December. I discuss these trends after giving a short ethnographic description of the Mevlana Cultural Center in Konya, a new state- sponsored edifice designed specificaly for oficial performances of the clasical Mevlevi repertory. In the third section of the chapter, I provide a historical outline of this music, delineating its principal atributes including formal features, instrumentation, and current performance practice. The subsequent section gives a detailed ethnographic acount of a public sema ceremony in which such music is heard. The performance was held at the Mevlana Cultural Center during the 2004 Mevlana Festival, and I use it as a basis for the concluding section of the chapter in which I give an in depth musical analysis of the main composition that was performed, the !edaraban ayin-i "erif by the ninetenth-century Mevlevi composer Mustafa Nak"i Dede. As this chapter reveals, the concept of motion is a defining characteristic of Mevlevi clasical music, evident in the most basic compositional and performative elements of the tradition as wel as in the broader social context. 104 Reviving Rumi: The Mevlana Cultural Center December 10, 2004 Konya The cal to prayer echoes through the air as I explore the area east of the Mevlana Museum, just beyond the edge of my map of central Konya. Past the expansive ??ler Cemetery the city appears fairly dead, but in the near distance a sign depicting the shrine of the Mevlana Rumi proclaims the revitalization of the Mevlana district: ?The tisue of history is being reanimated.? Beneath it is a curious patch of white and purple winter cabbages that the Konya Metropolitan Municipality has neatly aranged into various designs including the national emblem of the star and crescent moon and a whirling dervish (Figure 18). Figure 18: Image of a Whirling Dervish Made of Cabbages (Konya, December 10, 2004) 105 A litle further ahead, about one kilometer from the Mevlana?s shrine, I hear the sound of machinery and clanging stel coming from the nearly completed Mevlana Cultural Center (Figure 19). The 2004 weklong Mevlana Festival begins today and the 731 st anniversary of the Mevlana?s union with Alah is being celebrated with the grand opening of this large new building. I have come to atend the 11:00 a.m. viewing of something ambiguously labeled in my festival program as the ?Mevlana Collection,? but from the sound of it, it sems like things are not quite ready. As I approach, I se bulldozers and dump trucks lumbering about in the parking lot and workers walking around in no particular rush to finish the construction. Figure 19: The Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, June 18, 2005) Stil, the building is almost done and I asume, like with most things in Turkey, that it wil al somehow magicaly come together at the last minute, in this case by the time of tonight?s sold out sema performance. Actualy, the building wil only be 106 officialy inaugurated on Sunday, and most of the work has been caried out at an astonishing rate. Acording to city publications, the entire project, ?with the love of the Mevlana,? has taken a team of only seven hundred and fifty workers a mere ninety days to complete. Once finished, the Mevlana Cultural Center wil serve as a sort of headquarters for the lucrative Mevlana pilgrimage and tourism industry and wil function as the principal venue for nearly al oficialy sanctioned Mevlana-related activities in the city. The tourist literature I have in my backpack already touts it as the premiere place for academic symposia and colloquia on the Mevlana as wel as for exhibitions of traditional and modern art inspired by the Mevlana and his devotes, including caligraphy, miniature painting, and photography. Above al, the center is designed to provide a more proper seting for public performances of Mevlevi music and the whirling sema than was possible in the past in Konya. Up until now, authorized performances have been relegated to the city?s next largest enclosed area, the old basketbal court of the Konya Sports Center with its dismal lighting and abominable acoustics. Though it is somewhat institutional in appearance and while nationalist symbols are present everywhere, the new complex also has a decidedly more mystical, perhaps even sacred, construction. Some of the literature even goes so far as to describe the Mevlana Cultural Center as a modern teke. It has two distinctive mosque-like octagonal domes, one larger than the other, as wel as a mescid and several meditative gardens and courtyards. Moreover, it is comprised of eight main units labeled with leters in a spiraling counterclockwise sequence from A through H (Figure 20). 107 Figure 20: Map of the Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) Crossing the unfinished parking lot, I encounter the first of these, the A Blok, imediately. Built below ground level and sloping down into earth, it is a large open-air amphitheater, circular in shape and with a seating capacity of thre thousand. It is conceived explicitly for outdoor performances of sema and has an open central space for the semazen-s (?whirlers?) and a built-in alcove for the musicians. Curving along the perimeter is an elevated concrete ring bearing one of the Mevlana?s most famous verses 108 in a dozen languages?Arabic, English, Farsi, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish: ?Either sem as you are or be as you sem.? This ring symbolizes the Sufi doctrines of tolerance, inclusion, and universality. Draped from the ring and bilowing in the wind are the flags of the Turkish Republic and the European Union, as wel as of those various countries participating in this year?s new Mystical Music Festival: Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, Iran, and Pakistan (Figure 21). Figure 21: Detail over Open-Air Sema Amphitheater, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) From the amphitheater, I atempt to follow the complex?s spiral layout and make my way diagonaly to the B lok which houses several exhibition rooms and the Sultan Veled Conference Hal where that enigmatic collection of Mevlana artifacts is supposedly on display. That its doors are chained shut, however, is not a good sign. Undetered, I enter the complex from the central H Blok and encounter a frenzied scene clouded thick with powdery white marble dust and filed with the noise of construction 109 workers moving debris and inspectors shouting over blueprints. Public safety apparently not a huge concern, I wander around frely without anyone even taking notice. Despite that the central foyer houses such curiosities as a cafeteria and a post ofice, my atention is drawn to those elements characteristic of Islamic sacred architecture: the smal octagonal dome above, the elegant spiral staircases, and especialy the prominent octagonal water fountain at the heart of the whole complex. After exploring several of the other units of the Mevlana Cultural Center and discovering a library and the administrative offices, I can stil find no trace of that exhibit and, with so much stil unfinished, I begin to doubt that the building wil even open next year, let alone tonight. I return to the central foyer to inquire about the schedule of activities from the workers and learn more about the complex. Although they know nothing about the exhibit, speculating that it may start at noon, they guarante that the doors wil open for the evening sema. Encouraged by their certitude and giving up on the elusive exhibit altogether, I head straight to the D Blok at the far end of the building to explore the hal where tonight?s ceremony wil be held. The semahane, decorated with bright red Turkish flags at even distances al along its curving wals, is a cavernous chamber with seating for around thre thousand, though the light brown seating softens the atmosphere somewhat. The enormous eight-side dome above is likewise made more intimate by concentric festoons of lights that conceal its vastnes while at the same time creating the impresion of the stary firmament. Below, everyone is slowly preparing for the 8:00 p.m. show (se Figure 22). On the circular hardwood floor, where the semazen-s wil turn, a man with a floor waxer 110 plods ahead in a straight line while colorful lights and shapes dance about him; the lighting director is testing his aray of spirals, five-pointed stars, triangles, and quadrangles. The sound engineer is also testing his equipment, filing the air with squawks and cracks and making it hard to hear the group of musicians that is beginning to asemble for the dres rehearsal. I sit for a while listening to an ud player work out a taksim over the hum of the floor waxer. Figure 22: Dres Rehearsal and Preparations for Opening Night, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) Taking in al the sound and activity, I recal the sign above the cabbage patch I found on the way here; this building is not only reanimating history, it is in efect reviving the cult of the Mevlana Rumi, and I find this scene of a staunchly secular government working so hard to bring about the grandiose restoration of a religious tradition it is supposed to outlaw supremely ironic. 111 The Political Economy of the Soul: The Mevlana in Politics, Tourism, and Ziyaret Since the fal of the Otoman Empire, the Mevlevi and their clasical repertory of music have had a capricious, fluctuating, and ultimately ironic role in Turkish nationalist politics. For Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk, father of the Turkish Republic, Turkish nationalism was synonymous with modernization, Westernization, and secularism, and he took severe measures to eliminate everything that did not exhibit these principles and that he perceived to be a political and ideological threat to his fledgling nation. In March 1924 he neutralized the religious authority of the Otoman sultan by abolishing the Caliphate, and in December 1925 he banned al Sufi tarikat-s under Law 677, which went into efect just days before the 652 th anniversary of the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs. 17 Actualy, Atat?rk?s policies had earlier precedents. Sultan Murad IV (r. 1623-40), himself a composer, banned the Mevlevi during his reign, and the orthodox clergy outlawed the ayin, the principal body of Mevlevi liturgical music, during the reign of 17 Turkish Law 67 dated December 13, 1925 is cited in ful by various authors. I reproduce here the translation given in Friedlander, 203, 123: Clause 1. Al the tekes (dervish lodges) and zaviyes (central dervish lodges) in the Turkish Republic, either in the form of wakf (religious foundations) or under the personal property of its sheikh or established in any other way, are closed. The right of property and posesion of their owners continue. Those used as mosques and mescits (smal mosques) may be retained as such. Al of the orders using descriptions as sheikh, dervish, disciple, dedelik (a kind of sheikh of an order) chelebilik (title of the leader of the Mevlevi order), seyitlik (a descendant of the Prophet Muhamad), babalik (elder of Bekta"i order, a kind of sheikh), emirlik (descendant of the Prophet Muhamad), nakiplik (warden of religious order), halifelik (deputy sheikh), faldjilik (fortune teler), buyudjuluk (witchcraft), ufurukchuluk (a person who claims to cure by means of the breath), divining, and giving writen charms in order to make someone reach their desire: service to these titles, and the wearing of dervish costume, are prohibited. The tombs of the sultans, the tombs of the dervish orders are closed, and the profesion of tomb-keping is abolished. Those who open the closed tekes (dervish lodges) or zaviyes (central dervish lodges), or the tombs, and those who re-establish them or those who give temporary places to the orders of people who are caled by any of the mystical names mentioned above or those who serve them, wil be sentenced to at least thre months in prison and wil be fined at least fifty Turkish liras. Clause 2. This law is efective imediately. Clause 3. The cabinet is charged with its implementation. 112 Sultan Mehmet IV (r. 1648-87) from 1666 to 1684. 178 With respect to modernization, many of the Otoman sultans had initiated reforms based on European models long before Atat?rk, beginning especialy with the reign of the Mevlevi sultan Selim II (r. 1789- 1807). 179 The Mevlevi were also important supporters of Westernization in the Tanzimat Era, which Sultan Abd?lmecid I (r. 1839-61) ushered in with his Imperial Rescript (Hat-i %erif) of G?lhane in 1839. 180 Nevertheles, the Mevlevi were outlawed in 1925 along with al other Sufi groups and their teke-s were forcibly shut down; 181 the dramatic closing of the ?sk?dar teke in #stanbul by military police during a sema ceremony, for instance, is poeticaly described by Shems Friedlander. 182 Yet the Mevlevi remained a special case in the early Republican Era. They managed to retain some measure of political influence, at least temporarily, and were able to secure certain concesions. Notably, the Grand ?elebi of the tarikat, Abd?lhalim ?elebi Efendi, served briefly before his death in 1925 as the first vice president of the new parliament. Two years later, Atat?rk made an exemption to his ban and reopened, with state funding, the Asitane in Konya, albeit as a museum. Over the next generation, while the Mevlevi struggled to maintain their traditions covertly, the Mevlana remained popular both publicly as a great poet and privately as a saint, fueling significant changes 178 Ibid., 18 and Walter Feldman, ?Music in Performance: Who Are the Whirling Dervishes?? in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6, The Midle East, ed. Virginia Danielson, Scot Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds (New York: Routledge, 202): 108. 179 For an overview of the turbulent history of Otoman reform se McCarthy, 285-325. 180 Feldman, 202, 108. 181 Although at the center of virtualy every single city, town, and vilage in Turkey has at least one prominent statue to Atat?rk honoring the founding the Republic, conspicuously, there is none in Konya; instead there is a garish abstract monument comemorating the spot where the Mevlana suposedly first met %ams Tabrizi. 182 Friedlander, 203, 18. 113 during the 1950s when Atat?rk?s Republican People?s Party was defeated by the Democrat Party. In 1953, Sadetin Heper, k?dumba"? (?head k?dum player?) of the Mevlevi teke at Yenikap? in Istanbul, and neyzen Halil Can were given permision by the mayor of Konya to give the first public performance of sema since the 1925 ban. Although the event was held in a movie theater and officialy recognized as an ireligious celebration of Mevlana the poet, Heper sought to put on as much of a sacred ceremony as possible, recruiting only dervishes to perform and insisting that the Koran be recited during the presentation. Heper enlisted the great singer and Koran reciter Kani Karaca and formed a smal ensemble comprising himself on k?dum and Halil Can and Ulvi Erg?ner on ney to acompany semazen-s Hulki Amil ?elebi and Abdul Baki, who performed the sema in stret clothing. Annual sema performances were not only permited on December 17 th in the following years, they were promoted by the Ministry of Tourism and were greatly expanded. Within two years, the Sultan Veled Procesion was reintroduced into the ceremony and al participants were authorized to wear appropriate Mevlevi atire. The acompanying ensemble also grew to include a frame drum and rebab, and musicians were brought to Konya from as far as #stanbul, Samsun, Afyon, and Ankara. 183 Even Celaleddin ?elebi, then Grand ?elebi of the tarikat, was alowed to participate in the 1955 ceremony as the semazenba"? (head of the semazen-s), while Resuhi Baykara served as the postni"in (officiating "eyh). The annual commemorations were expanded further in 1956 to include sema performances in both Konya and Ankara, and by 1960 the 183 Anemarie Schimel, who was in atendance at the first advertised performance in 1954, noted this instrumentation. Se her brief acount in I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work of Rumi (Boston: Shambhala, 192): 195-96. 114 performing forces had increased to as many as nine semazen-s and a large musical ensemble comprising multiple players on most Turkish clasical instruments. 184 The Mevlevi had taken full advantage of the opportunity to restablish their sacred rites, even while the government atempted to desacralize the events entirely. There were in fact several exchanges in these early years betwen the Mevlevi and the police in which the dervishes were forced to explain away their obvious religious activity for the sake of continuing the performances. That officials readily acepted rationalizations that were les than compeling suggests their sympathy for the tarikat, so long as it maintained a low profile. 185 As the audiences for the public sema shows grew over the next decade and the Mevlevi atracted a more international following, the performances in Konya were moved from the movie theater to a library and then to a huge gymnasium, further perpetuating the secular/sacred tensions. By 1967 public sema performances had taken the form of large tourist spectacles complete with journalists and paparazi. This development so distresed traditionalists like Resuhi Baykara that a schism in the tarikat emerged that year when the "eyh shouted at one of the photographers who had followed him onto the floor during the ceremony. The Ministry of Tourism bared Baykara from participating in subsequent years for suggesting that the sema presentations might be anything more than tourist shows. Declaring the public sema-s inauthentic, Baykara, with a number of key Mevlevi in tow, broke away from the Konya festival organizers, and later created his 184 For a detailed acount of the 1960 %eb-i ?urs se Helmut Riter, ?Die Mevlanafeier in Konya vom 1.- 17. Dezember 1960,? Oriens 15 (1962): 249-70. 185 On one such ocasion, Heper ensured a police oficer that the up and down motions he had caught an old dervish making with his mouth during sema were not those of prayer but were caused by the fact that the old man had no teth. The Mevlevi also placated police concerns about the inclusion of child whirlers in the performances by explaining they were only teaching them the movements of the dance and not atempting to propagate the religion. Se Friedlander, 203, 19-20. 115 own dervish group in London. Henceforth, the question of authenticity would loom large over al state sponsored Mevlevi performances, especialy as acretions to the %eb-i ?urs continued. 186 The 700 th anniversary of the Mevlana?s death in 1973 was celebrated on December 15 th to 17 th with an International Mevlana Seminar in Konya and Ankara, and ever since then the %eb-i ?urs has been a multi-day festival encompasing numerous atractions and multiple performances of sema. In 2004 and 2005, as wel as in the years prior, the festival took place from December 10 th to 17 th , with the 2004 program including poetry readings, art and photography exhibits, theatrical presentations, symposia on mystic literature, the ney, and the Mevlana, a cross-country race, various concerts and recitals, the new Mystical Music Festival, and twelve official sema performances in the Mevlana Cultural Center. In 2006, the Mevlana Festival grew from eight to ten days in anticipation of the 800 th anniversary of the Mevlana?s birth. Ironicaly, though perhaps not surprisingly given its constant development since the 1950s, the Mevlana Festival has become an important nationalist endeavor in Turkey. Tourism and the practice of ziyaret now further complicate the political rhetoric surrounding the Mevlevi tradition, which in turn fuels debates regarding the authenticity of the public sema performances. The Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs provides the government with the perfect opportunity to promote Turkish heritage, tolerance, and progresivenes to tourists and pilgrims alike, and the resulting asociation of the Mevlevi with Turkishnes has been far-reaching. Images of the Mevlana and the whirling dervishes 186 For brief, though quite subjective, acounts of this incident, se ibid., 120; Metin And, ?The Mevlana Ceremony,? The Drama Review 21, No. 3 (197): 84; and Kudsi Erg?ner, Journeys of a Sufi Musician, trans. Anete Courtney Mayers (London: SAQI, 205): 47-48. 116 have become iconic of the Turkish Republic, appearing almost anywhere in conjunction with the other nationalist symbols (Figure 23). 187 Figure 23: Detail from the Hood of a Tourist Minivan (Near Aksaray, June 05, 2002) The Mevlana and the Mevlevi now also play a substantial role in the debate over Turkey?s admitance into the European Union, with the government frequently and proudly citing the Mevlana tradition as an example of Turkish opennes and moderation (se Chapter Eight). Such increased promotion of Mevlevism has acelerated the rapid growth in the number of both foreign and domestic visitors atending the Mevlana Festival each year and corresponds with an overal boom in tourist and pilgrimage travel in Turkey. Even 187 In 203 the Turkish network agency dDf International (Dream Design Factory) created a series of television advertisements for the Turkish Tourism Promotion Program that circulated widely in Europe, the U.S., and on the Internet via the oficial website of the Turkish Ministry of Tourism. The comercial entitled I Dream of Turkey was released in a number of versions, nearly al of which featured dervishes whirling, and sometimes breathing fire and playing musical instruments, in a variety of iconic Turkish setings including on Mt. Nemrut by the bust of Zeus-Oromasdes, on the ?fairy chimneys? of Kapadokya, on the minaret of the #sak Pa"a Saray in Do!ubeyazit, on a cragy Mediteranean island, on the Byzantine mosaic of Jesus in the Aya Sofia in #stanbul, on the minarets of the Sultan Ahmet Mosque in #stanbul, in Turkish baths, and on the travertine lakes of Pumakale. The sound track varied, but typicaly featured the ney, the emblematic instrument of the Mevlevi order. The comercials won first prize in the category of Best Advertising Film and Advertising Spot at the 6 th Anual International Festival of Tourist Films, which tok place in PoznaA, Poland at the 203 TOUR SALON fair. Se Ana Olszewska-Marcinkiewicz and Ewa Zawitaj, eds., Pozna& Fair Magazine 275 (204): 3, acesed October 15, 206 . 117 with such regional problems as the Second Intifada, the Iraq War, and the intermitent terorist bombings of tourist areas in #stanbul, Ku"adas?, and Antalya, the Middle East as a whole and Turkey in particular have experienced unprecedented growth in tourism betwen 1999 and 2005, surpasing even the most ambitious projections; se Figure 24 for a comparison of Turkey and Egypt, the two most developed tourist markets in the region. Acording to reports from the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Turkey ranks eighth among the world?s most productive tourism arkets and is, overal, the twelfth most popular tourist destination in the world. 18 TOURIST ARIVALS 2001 2005 Turkey 10.4 milion 21.2 milion Egypt 4.6 milion 8.6 milion REVENUE FROM TOURISM 1999 2005 Turkey 5.2 bilion USD 18.2 bilion USD Egypt 3.2 bilion USD 6.8 bilion USD Figure 24: Tourist Arivals and Revenue in Turkey and Egypt, 1999-2005 189 18 ?World Tourism Rankings,? Wikipedia, The Fre Encyclopedia, modified May 15, 207, acesed May 27, 207 . 189 For statistics on Turkey se: ?Tourism in Turkey,? Wikipedia, The Fre Encyclopedia, modified May 27, 207, acesed May 27, 207 ; #stanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau, ?organ Stanley: Turkey?s Tourism Sector Breaks New Records,? ?stanbul Buletin, September 205, acesed May 27, 207 ; ?205 Turizm Geliri 18.2 Milyar Dolar,? H?riyet, January 27, 206, acesed May 27, 207 . For information on Egypt se: ?30 % Rise in Arab Tourism Last Year,? Arabic News.com, January 3, 202, acesed May 27, 207 ; Amira Salah-Ahmed, ?Welcome Back in Egypt: The Ministry of Tourism Kicks Of a Public Awarenes Campaign,? Egypt Today: The Magazine of Egypt, June 206, acesed May 27, 207 ; ?$3.2 Bilion in Egyptian Tourism Last Year,? Arabic News.com, September 17, 199, acesed May 27, 207 . 118 Despite atempts to diversify its tourism industry further, 190 Turkey continues to prioritize cultural tourism, especialy religious-based tourism, caled ?faith tourism? by the Ministry of Tourism and ?eso-tourism? by Mevlevi neyzen Kudsi Erg?ner. 191 This robust segment of the industry focuses on excursions to Turkey?s multitude of early Christian sites and ziyaret pilgrimages to Muslim holy shrines, the most important of which is the tomb of the Mevlana Rumi. Internet websites today claim that a milion visitors come to Konya every year for the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs, a dramatic (and likely exaggerated) rise from the fifty thousand Franklin Lewis cites for the late 1990s. 192 The combined number of year-round domestic and foreign visitors to the Mevlana Museum has also risen exponentialy from nearly six hundred thousand in 1985 to 1.5 milion in 2004 and two milion in 2006. 193 It is worth mentioning that this last figure equals the estimated number of hajj pilgrims to Meca for the same year. The Mevlana tourism boom has been somewhat of a double-edged sword for the tarikat, however. While the Mevlevi once again wield considerable presence in a system that is legaly hostile to them, the explosion of whirling dervish merchandise among other circumstances have led to the perception that they have been completely co-opted by the secular government and posses litle in the way of tasavvuf. In other words, despite considerable advances, the charge of inauthenticity rings as loudly today as it did after the 1967 incident, if not more so. 190 Recent steps have ben taken to expand busines tourism in #stanbul and to develop special activities (adventure) tourism in the Eastern Anatolia. 191 Erg?ner, 50. 192 Lewis, 46. 193 This remarkable increase is al the more significant given an overal 7.2% decrease in tourism for 206, which slumped to 18.8 milion visitors and 16.85 bilion dolars in revenue due to the outbreak of avian influenza and an increase in terorist bombings in the country. 119 This authenticity debate centers on secular/sacred and tourist/pilgrim dichotomies that are evident almost everywhere. An asaulting aray of whirling dervish trinkets, Mevlana postcards, and other Mevlevi knick-knacks are on sale al over Konya and in the bazars of #stanbul (Figure 25). At the shrine of the Mevlana, devout pilgrims typicaly compete for prayer space with camera-clicking tourists. Even the public performances of the sema ceremony are widely refered to as ?whirling shows,? and they are just as regularly performed at such respectable venues as the new Mevlana Cultural Center and the restored Galata Mevlevihane in #stanbul, as they are in restaurants, basketbal courts, museums, caravanserais, castles, and carpet shops; regular performances are even staged in #stanbul?s evocative %irkeci train station, endpoint of the famous Orient Expres. Figure 25: Mevlevi Figurines, Store Window Display (Konya, November 14, 2004) The Mevlana Festival is organized to coincide with the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs on December 17 th , when pilgrimage to the Mevlana?s mausoleum is most intense, though thousands of pilgrims also come to Konya for the purposes of ziyaret throughout the year. Pilgrims usualy begin the ziyaret with a stop at the mosque and shrine of the Mevlana?s 120 spiritual guide %ams Tabrizi, before visiting the tombs of the Mevlana, his family, and the early Mevlevi in the Mevlana Museum. Often the ziyaret includes a side trip to the town of Karaman, some one hundred fifty kilometers east of Konya, for prayer at the tombs of the Mevlana?s mother and Yunus Emre, Turkey?s other celebrated thirtenth century Sufi poet. Witnesing a sema performance in Konya, whether public or private, is usualy the highlight of the pilgrimage. As with the hajj to Meca, the Mevlana ziyaret is typicaly made by way of an organized tour aranged by a travel agency. One Sufi group based in The Hague, for example, offers a one-wek trip to Konya in December for around 450 euros, or a two- wek package deal that includes a stay in #stanbul for a litle more. The itinerary the organizers advertised on the Internet for the 2003 %eb-i ?urs is typical and involves several opportunities for the pilgrim to witnes and perform the sema and zikr rites at the teke-s of various tarikat-s (se Figure 26). However, the organizers are wary of tourists and warn, ?Atention: Pilgrimage is dangerous and strictly forbidden for tourists, beware side-efects!? A number of poems composed by Rumi ?for travelers on the path? are also posted on the website, including one in which the Mevlana criticizes those who have gone al the way to Meca on the hajj but have failed to realize that Alah resides within. Oh you who have gone on pilgrimage - where are you, where, oh where? Here, here is the Beloved! Oh come now, come, oh come! Our friend, he is your neighbour, he is next to your wal - You, ering in the desert [sic] - what air of love is this? If you should se the beloved?s form without any form - You are the house, you are the master, you are the Ka?aba, you!.. Where is a bunch of roses, if you would be this garden? here, one soul?s pearly esence when you are the Sea of God? That is true, and yet your troubles may turn to treasures rich. How sad that you yourself veil the treasure that is your own! 121 Figure 26: ?Pilgrimage to the Konya of Shams & Rumi? 194 Despite such atempts to keep the Mevlana ziyaret from becoming a tourist event, in Konya the line betwen pilgrimage and tourism is quite blurred; as I have argued, the blending of piety and tourism is al too common in the Muslim world (se Chapter 3). Discerning busloads of tourists from busloads of pilgrims or even foreigners from locals 194 ?Pelgrimage nar het Konya van Shams en Rumi,? Sufi-Lab, acesed October 15, 206 . 122 is no easy feat. National, racial, and ethnic diferences go only so far in a globaly difuse religion like Islam and contradict the tenets of tolerance and coexistence so central to Sufism. Moreover, tourist and pilgrim behaviors are not reliable indicators of religious intention. Pilgrims are just as likely to speed through their prayers to take pictures of the Mevlana?s t?rbe on their camera phones as budget backpackers are to sit in contemplation and take no pictures at al. 195 Nor has religious pilgrimage ever been divorced from the practicalities of busines. The last day of the hajj to Meca usualy gives way to an unbridled shopping spre at the local bazars. 196 Along similar lines, the Mevlana and whirling dervish trinkets available at the Konya bus station and elsewhere are not simply tacky souvenirs insinuating the commercial exploitation of yet another world religion. 197 Instead, they are rooted deeply in Islamic tradition in which pilgrims buy such items as tangible proof of their submision to the mandate of Alah for spiritual travel. At home, these souvenirs are displayed on wals or placed next to the Koran as indicators of personal faith and spirituality. 198 These items may even have ritual functions, as I observed in the case of a 195 Even at mosques, the distinction betwen tourist and worshiper is not always evident. On one ocasion at the Afyon Mevlevi Mosque, an historic Mevlevi center built on the grounds of a thirtenth-century Sufi setlement, I observed a rather comic episode in which this was very much the case. I had ben alone in the mosque until two young women came in to pray. After a short time, I left the central prayer hal to explore the main side rom. Thinking I had left the mosque entirely, the women abruptly ended their prayers and scuried about, posing and taking pictures before they ran of. 196 It is perhaps in this vein that a supermarket and shoping mal were constructed beneath the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara, one of the bigest mosques the world; comerce is quite literaly its foundation. 197 Se, for instance, John Hutnyk, Critique of Exotica: Music, Politics, and the Culture Industry (Sterling, VA: Pluto Pres, 200): 94. Hutnyk argues that ?The spiritual souvenir..is just another example of the flexibility of market apropriation and the ongoing subsumption of al things in al corners of the globe?the capacity to find in even the most esoteric aural or spiritual realms for profit, material to enhance the sale of comodities.? 198 Islamic tradition maintains that the Koran be the highest placed item in the house. The practice of puting Sufi knick-knacks, which usualy bear the likenes of a saint, on a par with the Koran, is highly problematic for orthodox Muslims who generaly condemn the adoration of icons. 123 popular frame drum decorated with a kitschy image of a whirling dervish; in one instance the bendir was used to induce ecstasy in a zikr ceremony, while in another it served as the centerpiece in a makeshift altar to the Shiite saint Ali at a concert of mystical music (se Chapter Seven). In general, Mevlana tourism and ziyaret cannot be properly understood from dichotomous expectations of tourists and pilgrims. Just as it is almost entirely pilgrims and not sightsers who buy the souvenirs, tourists atending Mevlana events are not so ignorant of Mevlevi traditions as might be asumed by religious traditionalists or cultural polemists like John Hutnyk who condemns Western religious tourists for being guilty of no les than spiritual theft. 19 On the whole, atendees at the whirling shows are generaly wel informed in the traditions of Sufism by either printed programs available at the performances or their guidebooks. Tourist programs and travel guides such as Fodor?s and the budget backpacker bibles Lonely Planet and Let?s Go explain, sometimes in surprisingly acurate detail, not only Islamic beliefs, history, customs, and etiquete, but also Sufi ritual procedure and symbolism. 20 The Lonely Planet even enters the fray surrounding the authenticity of the whirlers at the shows with an esay that weighs negatively against their spirituality, but endorses their artistic talents. 201 19 Hutnyk, 92-93, describes Western religious tourists sufering from what he labels the ?midle-clas afliction? as being deprived of spirituality in their own lives. 20 Se Pat Yale, et. al., Lonely Planet: Turkey, 8 th ed. (Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 203): 27. 201 Ibid., 485. In a section entitled ?When is a Whirling Dervish Not a Whirling Dervish,? the authors write, ?The question is, are any of these dervishes realy what they sem?? The dervishes you se whirling in Me"ale in #stanbul, those you se perform near G?reme, even those you se in Konya?s Mevlevi Sofras? are al very talented profesional dancers. What they are not is truly religious dervishes. To se dervishes who are whirling out of true religious conviction you ned to visit one of the twice-monthly performances at the Galata Mevlevihanesi in #stanbul?.? 124 Actualy, the Mevlevi sema has been asociated with tourism and public spectacle at least since Otoman times, as several scholars have pointed out. Walter Feldman explains that while sema may be a religious ritual, traditionaly it was not restricted to women and non-Muslims, and many semahane-s were in fact constructed with galeries specialy designed for such non-performing witneses. 202 Feldman also indicates that for European travelers since the sevententh century, atending a sema performance at one of these Mevlevihane-s ?was a touristic must comparable to the pyramids of Egypt or the Acropolis in Athens,? with such figures as Pietro Dela Vale, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Carsten Niebuhr having writen acounts of the ceremony in their travelogues. 203 Metin And further points out that such performances had fixed fes, as they do today, and regarding mas presentations of sema, he cites a wel known sixtenth- century miniature painting depicting a semazen turning at the Hippodrome in #stanbul for the public spectacles celebrating the circumcision of the sons of Sultan S?leyman I (the Magnificent). Of the event And writes, It sems that the Mevlevi dervish did not mind at al performing in the open air before a vast audience of more than ten thousand onlookers, or performing next to a profesional dancing boy, a member of a profesion that was reputed to have unsavory connections and extreme lasciviousnes. 204 These acounts clearly ilustrate that the current tendency to frame sema performance within such binaries as secular and sacred or insider and outsider is not supported by Mevlevi tradition and does not reflect broader Middle Eastern Islamic concepts. Jonathan Shannon, writing on recent whirling show tours given by the Aleppo 202 Feldman, 196, 190-91. 203 Feldman, 202, 107. 204 And, 84. 125 Mevlevis, rightly explains that such distinctions are Western imports; 205 ones I would argue have slowly trickled into the Mevlevi tradition over the long Otoman and Republican Era push to reform Turkish society in a European vein. The politics of Turkish nationalism and secularism have had a long and complicated relationship with the Mevlevi tradition, whereby the sacred sema ceremony has become a thriving emblem of the Turkish state, even while its interpreters are forbidden from promoting it as a living religious tradition. As the secular government strives to improve both its economy and international political standing by atracting pilgrims as wel as tourists to Mevlana-related events, it creates a situation in which it sponsors that which it outlaws and in which tourism in particular ironicaly plays a critical role in the spiritual revitalization of the Mevlevi religion. Such incongruities, however, are byproducts of secularism and ought not be understood as problematic for Mevlevism, which inherently does not recognize such contradictions; they are ironic only from a perspective influenced by Western secularism. The Otoman-Classical Musical Tradition of the Mevlevi The public presentation of the Mevlevi sema ceremony has been one of the principal catalysts of both the Mevlana tourism boom and the overal revitalization of Mevlevism. 206 As Franklin Lewis observes in his appraisal of the %eb-i ?urs festivities, ?The Turkish government?s relaxation of restrictions on the performance of sam?? [have] helped to reinvigorate the Mevlevi order and [have] contributed to its spread around the 205 Jonathan H. Shanon, ?Sultans of Spin: Syrian Sacred Music on the World Stage? in Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, edited by Jenifer C. Post (New York: Routledge, 206). 206 Walter Feldman, for example, twice acknowledges the importance of tourism in maintaining ?the prestige of Mevlev? music and musicians in Turkey in recent decades.? Se Feldman, 202, 109 and 19. 126 world.? 207 Central to these performances is the traditional Mevlevi musical repertory, whose role in the rehabilitation of Mevlevism should also not be underestimated. Of particular importance is the fact that the music is drawn wholly from a now somewhat closed corpus of Mevlevi music dating to Otoman times. The historicity of the music not only contributes to the authenticity of the public sema performances, but it also helps to legitimize the entire Mevlevi renaisance. Meanwhile in the West, where audio recordings and live performances of this music have become increasingly available, the Mevlana movement is as much musical as it is spiritual. The traditional Mevlevi musical repertory is typicaly clasified within the broader typology of so-caled T?rk Tasavvuf M?zi(i (Turkish Sufi music), of which it provides the best-known examples. However, Mevlevi music is also directly related to and is often confused with the secular court music of the Otoman period, alternatively refered to today as Klasik T?rk M?zi(i (clasical Turkish music) or T?rk Sanat M?zi(i (Turkish art music). As Walter Feldman notes, despite some important diferences, the two traditions are so closely connected that both in Turkey and in the West, Otoman court music is sometimes defined as Sufi or Mevlevi. 208 The mariage of the teke and court repertories is evident in their shared history and in their common compositional and performance conventions, as wel as in the fact that most of the great imperial court composers and musicians were either Mevlevis or were trained in the Mevlevi teke-s of #stanbul. The afiliation of Mevlevi musicians with the Otoman court reflects the tendency of the Mevlana?s followers to sek patronage from the royal and aristocratic clases. 207 Lewis, 46. 208 Walter Feldman, 202, 109. 127 With the fal of the Sel?uks and the eventual rise of the Otomans, the hub of Mevlevi musical activity gradualy shifted to #stanbul, even though the Grand ?elebi continued to preside in Konya. By the sixtenth and sevententh centuries, the Mevlevi were wel entrenched within the Otoman ruling system and would continue to dominate court afairs, particularly palace musical life, until the fal of the empire after the First World War. Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk, who believed that music was one the most important vehicles for social change and who was himself a lover of opera and Western music, banned al Turkish clasical music in 1923, the same year he founded the Turkish Republic. The court repertory was reinstated the following year with severe alterations resulting from a proces of ?modernization? (i.e., Europeanization) that would continue for many years to come. Though the Mevlevi repertory was not outlawed until 1925, when al the Sufi tarikat-s were disbanded, it would likewise be reconstituted in the same mold as Turkish clasical music when performances were again permited in 1946. In addition to folowing this general line of historical development, which I wil expand on more fully over the course of this discussion, both Mevlevi and Otoman court repertories also share the same basic theory governing musical composition. This generative system is similar to that used throughout most of the Muslim world, although considerable variation can be found from Morocco to Central Asia. At its core are thre concepts: modality (makam), rhythmic cyclicity (usul), and the unification of various genres of music into a compound structure (fas?l, ayin). 128 The Concept of Makam In the Turkish teke and palace traditions, a piece of music is conceived monophonicaly within a complex modal scheme known as a makam. The term derives from the similar Arab modal practice of maq#m and was evidently also widely adopted by the Turkic peoples of Central Asia; similar melodic modal systems are dubbed mugham in Azerbaijan, maqom in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and muqam by the Uighurs of Xinjiang Province, China. Today the ubiquitous term also generaly connotes the clasical art music of these and other West and Central Asia nations. 209 Of al these clasical modal repertories, that of Turkey has received a more practical rather than speculative treatment in music theory treatises, with some even using musical notation to ilustrate and document actual musical practice. Such acounts, especialy those of Otoman royal captive Prince Dmitri Cantemir of Moldavia (1673-1723) 210 and Mevlevi neyzen Rauf Yekta Bey (1871-1935), 21 have gained widespread currency and have gone a long way to regularize Turkish modal practice. The standardized Turkish makam system consists of scales and melodic formulae which may use microtones. Most makam-s are conceptualized within the range of an eight-note scale comprising of an overlapping tetrachord and pentachord, though the full ambitus can vary significantly as some makam-s extend above and below the octave. Modern theorists clasify makam-s in thre categories: simple or basic (basit), compound 209 Aditionaly, the term maq#m refers more generaly to either a point of rest (?place,? ?spot,? ?domicile,? ?staying,? ?halting,? ?sojourn,? ?dweling,? and ?station?) or to status (?ofice,? ?rank,? ?dignity,? ?estem,? ?consideration,? and ?court,? as in that of a sovereign). In Turkish, the word makam can likewise means ?ofice,? ?post,? or ?position.? 210 Wright, 192. 21 Yekta, 192. 129 (birle"ik or m?rekep), and transposed (g???r?lm?", "ed, or "et). 212 Betwen thirten and seventen simple makam-s are recognized today. These often serve as the basis for the compound makam-s, which are formed by grafting together either two simpler makam-s or an asortment of tetrachords and pentachords. The starting pitch of any basic or compound makam can be moved to any of the other twenty-thre pitches constituting the standard Turkish octave to create new transposed makam-s. With such flexibility, as many as nine hundred makam-s have been posited, though only about a third of this number can be found in the repertory. Every known makam is identified by a distinctive, often evocative name, and in the past many were also ascribed certain symbolic and extramusical asociations that are no longer retained today. 213 The subtleties and nuances of the many Turkish makams-s have given rise to an enormous quantity of music. Virtualy every piece of music created in the Otoman period, whether composed or improvised, vocal or instrumental, was crafted in this modal system. Thus, beyond the courtly fas?l and clasical Sufi repertories (ayin, ilahi, tev"ih, durak, nat), military music (mehter) and so-caled ?mosque music,? including Koran recitation (tecvit) and the cal to prayer (ezan), were also governed by the principles of makam, and the phenomenon remains prominent today. 214 The whole corpus of extant compositions numbers perhaps around twenty-eight thousand, 215 with most of these works titled and organized acording to their initial makam. 212 Se Signel, 197. 213 Se Pacholcyzk, Sufyana Musiqi, 108-09 and 16-18. 214 Feldman, 196, 2. 215 Y?lmaz ?ztuna, B?y?k T?rk Musikisi Ansiklopedisi [The Great Encyclopedia of Turkish Music], 2 nd ed., 2 vols. (Ankara: Ba"bakanl?k Bas?mevi, 190): I, 16. 130 The Concept of Usul In addition to modality, a piece of music, if it is metrical (i.e., composed and not improvised), also comprises at least one rhythmic cycle (usul in Turkey, $q#, wazn, or m$z#n in the Arabic-speaking world, and tala in South Asia). An usul consists of a fixed patern of up to 120 beats per cycle (devr) and is normaly conceptualized in modern Turkish practice within the framework of the Western measure. As many as fifty rhythmic modes are in common use today, each identified by a specific name. Generaly speaking, usul-s in vocal genres tend to be connected to the poetic meter of the text as wel as to the overal structure of the composition; shorter genres employ numerous iterations of short usul-s, longer forms are set to rhythmic cycles that are so long that they may not need to repeat. Beginning as early as the sevententh century, however, the rhythmic modes, melodic modes, and poetic meters al gradualy became disasociated. The most dramatic changes came in the ninetenth century when the usul-s were subjected to a proces of retardation in which their values were doubled, alowing them to be performed at a pace perhaps as much as five times slower than normal. Presumably, this was done so as to alow for greater melodic elaboration. In order to compensate for the slower speed, extra drum strokes caled velvele (?clamor,? ?tumult,? ?noise?) were inserted into the gaps of the ever-expanding usul-s. The result was a four- or five-fold increase in rhythmic density by comparison with sevententh century practice. 216 It is typical of modern performance practice, therefore, not only to retain the quicker tempi of the sevententh century, but also to intensify them with heightened 216 For a more detailed overview se Walter Feldman, ?Otoman Turkish Music: Genre and Form,? in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6, The Midle East, ed. Virginia Danielson, Scot Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds (New York: Routledge, 202): 12-26. Se also Wright, 198. 131 rhythmic activity and movement. Even more striking, however, is the tendency to change the tempo abruptly when moving betwen usul-s. This is especialy obvious in performances of compositions caling for more than one rhythmic mode as wel as in attacca renderings of pieces of diferent usul-s. Such a treatment of the tempo reveals a fundamental diference in approach betwen rhythmic movement and melodic motion. Subtle, discrete transitions betwen usul-s are not deliberately writen out as they are betwen makam-s in the melodic notation; indeed, the rhythmic paterns are rarely notated and usualy appear only by name on the printed page. Yet the performance custom is to interpret these points of change as opportunities to not only vary the tempo, but to do so suddenly rather than incrementaly. The Concept of Suite The third basic feature of the Near Eastern compositional system has to do with broad-scale musical organization. In the clasical maq#m traditions of the Islamic Near East, a musical composition or improvisation is typicaly conceived of and performed as one work within a larger suite or cycle of pieces in the same or related mode. Confusingly, this concept is also known as maq#m, but is refered to by a multitude of diferent names in diferent countries. Such a collection of pieces is caled nuba or nawba in Morocco, "an?ah in Algeria, m#?l%f in Tunisia, wa"lah in Egypt and Syria, fa"l in Iraq, and dastgah in Iran. In Turkey, the term fas?l is used for the secular palace repertory, while ayin refers to the Mevlevi sacred suite. The Turkish fas?l is a flexible collection of courtly pieces drawn from a variety of genres loosely based around a single makam. In the Otoman period, fas?l performances 132 were of thre types: instrumental (fas?l-i sazende), vocal (fas?l-i hanende), or combined (fas?l-i hanende v? sazende ma?an). The shorter instrumental fas?l contained al the main instrumental Otoman genres. These were the taksim, an improvised, non-metrical instrumental solo; the pe"rev, a pre-composed, metered ensemble prelude; and the saz semai, a pre-composed, metered ensemble postlude. The longer and more typical combined fas?l included a series of vocal setings of poetry betwen the pe"rev and the saz semai of the instrumental fas?l, most notably the beste, the k?r, the semai, including its offshoots the a(?r semai and the y?r?k semai, and the "ark? (Figure 27). The Fas?l in the Late 17 th Century The Fas?l in the 18 th Century and After Taksim (instrumental) Taksim (instrumental) Pe"rev Pe"rev (Optional second pe"rev) ? Taksim (vocal) Taksim (vocal) First beste or k?r Beste Second beste Nak" A(?r semai K?r Tak?m (suite of "ark?-s) Semai (vocal) Y?r?k semai Semai (instrumental) Saz semai (instrumental semai) Taksim (vocal) ? Taksim (vocal) Figure 27: Formal Outline of the Otoman Fas?l 217 Feldman suggests that these fas?l sequences may have derived from, or at least developed in conjunction with, the other great cyclic masterwork of the Otoman period: the Mevlevi ayin-i "erif, which operates on a similar level of broad-scale organization but in a liturgical rather than courtly context. Most likely, the two forms began to influence one another in the mid-sevententh century when the ulema (Islamic clergy) started 217 Adapted from Feldman, 196, 180, and 183. 133 merging the secular and sacred musical worlds by supporting secular art music. 218 In kind, the court became more receptive to sacred music, particularly that of the Mevlevi. As the ayin and other Mevlevi musical forms gained wider influence so did Mevlevi musicians, who eventualy came to dominate both secular and secular music in the Otoman world. By the ninetenth century, most court composers were trained in both fas?l and ayin, whether they were Mevlevi or not. Thus, the ayin and fas?l developed concurrently, though evidently the Mevlevi resisted a total fusion of the two suite traditions. 219 Ultimately, the ayin would be the only musical suite form available to the broader populace as the teke-s readily atracted a wide audience for sema, while fas?l concerts were typicaly closed courtly afairs. 20 Like the fas?l, the ayin consists of a series of movements in diferent, though usualy related makam-s and usul-s. Unlike the more flexible court suite, however, the ayin-i "erif in its strictest sense is a closed set of exactly four movements drawn only from the Mevlevi selam (?salutation?) genre. The selam is a combined instrumental and vocal seting of texts taken mainly from the spiritual writings of the Mevlana Rumi. The four selam-s of an ayin are composed as a group and, unlike the movements of the fas?l, are not interchangeable with those of other ayin-s. Each selam, in addition to being conceived of as a series of modal and rhythmic progresions, is also acompanied by the whirling movements of the semazen-s during the sema ceremony and has specific symbolic asociations relating to the mystical journey to Alah (s?luk), making the ayin-i "erif as a whole a musical and spiritual form of travel. 218 Ibid., 196, 23. 219 Ibid., 98. 20 Ibid., 202, 18. 134 The first selam (Birinci Selam or Selam-i Evel) typicaly sets betwen four and eight stanzas of poetry in usul devr-i revan (?walking cycle? in 14/8) or, les often, in usul d?yek (?one-two? in 8/4). Spiritualy, this selam denotes the initial step on the path to enlightenment, the understanding of God as Unitary Being and Creator. The second selam (?kinci Selam or Selam-i Sani) is asociated with the feling of transcendence resulting from witnesing the act of creation. It is short, only one stanza long, and is set in usul evfer (9/4). The third selam (???nc? Selam or Selam-i Salis) is liturgicaly the most important and musicaly the most compeling of the ayin-i "erif. The concept of fana (?annihilation in the One God?) prevails in this movement, as love (a"k) overcomes intelect (ak?l) and the mutrib-s (?musicians?) and semazen-s join in spiritual union. It is the longest of the four selam-s, usualy with more stanzas than the first, and it often features thre diferent usul-s, each performed at an increasingly faster pace. Beginning in usul devr-i kebir (?great cycle? in 28/4) it moves to usul aksak sema?i (10/8) and ends in usul sema?i (6/8). Dervishes interpret the quickening tempo and the increasingly shorter rhythmic cycles as a musical ?spiraling to the end? that helps to intensify the trance experience. The last selam (D?rd?nc? Selam or Selam-i Rabai?) in usul evfer (9/4) functions musicaly and ritualy as a period of atenuation. It is performed abruptly slower than the third selam and is short like the second selam, consisting of a single stanza or perhaps just a couple of lines of poetry, sometimes the same ones as in the second selam. Whereas the third selam represents the ascent to Alah, the fourth signals the conclusion of the divine journey, the descent to the physical world, and the return to a state of subservience. 135 Although the ayin-i "erif is the focal point of the sema ceremony, numerous other genres of music are performed both before and after it as a mater of ritual necesity. This circumstance alows the concept of suite to be extended to the ceremony as a whole. Thus, while the ayin-i "erif alone may not appear to have so much in common with the courtly fas?l, in ritual context the paralels become more evident. In fact, two of the musical acretions, namely the pe"rev and sema?i, are drawn directly from secular, non- Mevlevi sources by way of the fas?l. The usual musical sequence of the full sema ritual used today has remained fairly constant since the late eightenth century (Figure 28). Usul Makam Nat-i "erif non-metrical Rast Taksim non-metrical same as first selam Pe"rev muza?af devr-i kebir (56/4) or devr-i kebir (28/4) same as first selam Ayin-i !erif Selam-i Evel devr-i revan (14/8) or d?yek (8/4) principal makam Selam-i Sani evfer (9/4) varies Selam-i Salis devr-i kebir (28/4), aksak sema?i (10/8), and sema?i (6/8) varies Selam-i Rabai? evfer (9/4) varies Son Pe"rev d?yek (8/4) varies, may be same as last selam Son Y?r?k Semai sema?i (6/8) varies, may be same as son pe"rev Ara taksim non-metrical same as niyaz ilahi Niyaz ilahi varies varies Son taksim non-metrical same as kuran-? kerim Kuran-? kerim non-metrical varies Post duas? non-metrical Figure 28: Formal Outline of the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony The ceremony begins with the nat-i "erif (sometimes nat-i Mevlana), a fre meter chant praising the Mevlana Rumi, the Prophet Muhamad, and %ams Tabrizi. Typicaly, the nat in makam Rast composed by Mustafa Buhurizade Itri (ca. 1640 ? ca. 1711) is 136 used, though usualy not in its entirety. Imediately following, drum strokes on the k?dum ketledrums are played to symbolize the Arabic verb kun (?to be?) and recal chapter xxxvi: verse 82 of the Koran, ?Verily, when He intends a thing, His Command is ?Be,? and it is!? The act of creation is then musicaly represented by a solo non-metrical improvised taksim played on the ney. To the Mevlevi, the red flute and its breathy timbre embody the concept of nefes, the breath and soul of God in act of creation. This segment of the ceremony can sometimes be quite jaring, as the taksim is always rendered in the initial makam of the first selam, and, no mater how remote from the Rast of the nat, often there is no preparatory modulation. On occasions when ney players do transition from Rast to the principal makam of the ayin, the transformative pasages are said to invoke the Archangel Israfil?s trumpet on the day of the Resurrection, again connecting the music to notions of both movement and creation (or rebirth). The ney improvisation slowly gives way to a pe"rev in the same makam. In modern practice, every ayin-i "erif is paired with a specific pe"rev in the makam of the opening selam. Yet, while the modes of these works correspond, often the names of the composers do not, as many ayin-s were not originaly conceived as forming a set with a pe"rev. Apparently, the Mevlevi concept of the musical suite was initialy limited to the four selam-s and perhaps the extemporized taksim. The pe"rev is undoubtedly a later addition to the sema ceremony resulting from Mevlevi exposure to the fas?l; Feldman traces the Mevlevi adoption of the pe"rev to the eightenth century. 21 Despite its probable secular origins, the Mevlevi pe"rev nevertheles plays a rather important role in the sema ritual today; meaning ?come before? in Farsi, the pe"rev signals the beginning of the most active part of the ceremony and acompanies the whirling dervishes as they 21 Ibid., 196, 97. 137 enter the semahane. It also corresponds to another ritual in the sema ceremony caled the devri veledi (?Saint?s Walk? or ?Sultan Veled Procesion?) in which nine semazen-s and the postni"in, representing the solar system, enact a thrice-repeating series of circular movements. Thus, the pe"rev is also asociated with cosmic motion by way of its ritual context. In modern practice, the Mevlevi ayin suite has also been extended to include, in addition to the pe"rev, the son pe"rev and son y?r?k sema?i movements following the fourth selam. As in the case of the pe"rev, the composer of these pieces is often not the same as that of the selams-s; in fact, they may be the work of yet a third composer. Unlike the pe"rev, though, these two short instrumental postludes are not in the principal mode of the ayin. Significantly, the makam that dominates the early portions of the sema ceremony often disappears entirely before the end of the first selam. Rarely do any of the other thre selam-s make use of it, and it is intentionaly never used to conclude either the son y?r?k sema?i or any of the later movements of the ceremony. This indicates the Mevlevi concept of a musical suite is not based on the cyclical return of modality, as the overiding aesthetic for perpetual change of makam akes such a scheme awkward if not impossible. Actualy, unlike some other Near Eastern musical traditions, makam plays only a nominal role in establishing the Mevlevi suite concept. The ending segments of the sema ceremony instead point to other factors like ritual function and genre type as constituting structural cyclicity and unity. For instance, in current practice, the whirling of the semazen-s does not occur only during the selam-s comprising the central core of the sema ritual, as might be expected. Rather, the whirling continues through the son pe"rev and son y?r?k sema?i and concludes only at the end of 138 the succeding taksim, which, unlike the first ney taksim, may be performed on any instrument. This reinforces the modern suite format that includes the instrumental postludes and makes the case also for the addition of yet another movement, the last taksim, as integral to the suite. The activities of the postni"in (?officiating "eyh?) not only confirm this layout, they also suggest a sort of symmetry indicative of the overal structure of the ceremony. Unlike the semazen-s, the postni"in does not whirl during the vocal selam-s of the ayin-i "erif; instead he turns only in the Sultan Veled Procesion during the pe"rev and at the end through the son y?r?k sema?i and final son taksim. In other words, the postni"in is active realy only during the purely instrumental sections of the ceremony and remains esentialy stationary otherwise. With the ara taksim (?interlude improvisation?) and niyaz ilahi (hymn) rarely performed today, the postni"in returns to his position imediately after whirling to conclude the ceremony by reciting from the Koran (Kuran-? kerim) and intoning the litany of praise (post duas?). Ultimately, the entire ceremony, and not only the ayin-i "erif, is governed by the suite concept prevalent in the Turkish fas?l and the other Near Eastern and Central Asian art music forms. The full ceremony as it is currently executed today consists of four broad genre types (chant, taksim, instrumental ensemble music, and selam) performed over the course of seven parts (se Figure 29). The overal structure is that of a perfect palindrome in which the music becomes increasingly more rhythmic, quick, and dense in terms of performing forces, before returning to its initial state. 139 Fre rhythm chant Nat-i "erif Fre rhythm instrumental improvisation Taksim Composed instrumental music Pe"rev Composed vocal and instrumental music Ayin-i !erif Composed instrumental music Son pe"rev and Son y?r?k sema?i Fre rhythm instrumental improvisation Taksim Fre rhythm chant Kuran-? kerim and Post duas? Figure 29: Outline of Genre Types in Use in the Modern Sema Ceremony This standardized sema ceremony represents the public face of the Mevlevi order and is the means by which the Turkish government most wilingly acepts open performances of Mevlevi music. Notably, the genres are mostly al clasical with their ties to the historical past emphasized and the state of their present vitality minimized, though considerable alowances have also been made for the inclusion of such overtly religious forms as the concluding recitation from the Koran and the post duas?. In this more liberal environment, other forms are now also slowly gaining wider aceptance, particularly the ilahi (hymn), which interestingly is not usualy presented in the context of the full sema ceremony, but rather in concert format reminiscent of a sama? (?mystical audition?) recital. These performances feature a series of ilahi-s, anywhere betwen thre and twelve, often in conjunction with taksim-s and other sacred vocal forms, such as the kaside (?ode?) and mersiye, sometimes also in a loose suite-like format. Most commonly, a short program of such works precedes the sema ceremony and is separated from it by an intermision. Despite this development, however, the main emphasis remains on the ayin-i "erif and the surrounding historical genres, which are most readily acesible at whirling shows and on recordings, often without the religious chants. 140 Performing Forces and Performance Practice In addition to the makam, usul, and suite principles, two further points of similarity betwen the clasical Mevlevi repertory and Turkish art music concern the performing forces and the performance practice. Historicaly the music of both the Mevlevi ayin and the Otoman fas?l were performed by a flexible asortment of instruments and voices, and to some extent this remains true today. However, since the musical reforms of the early Republican Era, the performing forces of both traditions have become more regularized. The monophonic Mevlevi compositions are rendered in heterophony now by a sizeable chorus of singers and a standardized instrumental ensemble of comparable proportion made up of many of the instruments also used in secular art music. The most common instrumentation includes the ney, bendir (or tef), halile, k?dum, ud, tanbur, kanun, and kemen?e. Interestingly, Friedlander also lists the sound of the whirling movements of the semazen-s, which he connects to the ancient Grek music of the spheres, as part of the instrumentation of Mevlevi music. 22 With respect to the vocal performing forces, the sema ceremony, as we have sen, consists of several sections that are rendered in a purely vocal manner. These segments are performed as solos by males in a generaly high vocal range with a tense timber typical of most Middle Eastern music. The nat-? "erif is chanted by a vocal soloist siting in the ensemble, while the Koran pasages are recited from the main floor by the postni"in, who also intones the post duas?. Despite the importance of these movements and the privileged position of the voice in Islamic culture, however, Mevlevi tradition, since its inception, has prized both vocal and instrumental music equaly. Thus, the sema ceremony also comprises solo instrumental taksim-s and such orchestral pieces as the 22 Friedlander, 203, 142. 141 pe"rev, the son pe"rev, and the son y?r?k sema?i. The centerpiece of the ceremony, the ayin-i "erif, unites both voices and instruments as the choir of as many as twelve to fiften ayinhan-s (?ayin singers?) is acompanied by the full Mevlevi ensemble. Of al the instruments currently used by the Mevlevi, undoubtedly the most important is the ney. While this end-blown red flute is also used in Turkish art music, it is so iconic of the Mevlevi that its mere presence tends to connote the sacred. The sound of the ney is believed to be the closest to that of the human voice, and the fact that pitches are produced by blowing the mystical syllable ?Hu? (?He?) into it has not left it short of theological and symbolic meaning. Perforated with a number of holes (six in Turkey, five in Iran) asociated with cyclic and spiraling movement, the body of the flute also resembles the alif, the Arabic symbol representing the number one, the first leter of the alphabet, and Alah, the one God. The red is considered dead and imobile until the mystical breath of creation (ruh) is blown through it, and it is a mater of both technical and symbolic significance that the instrument can only produce a tone when it is blown diagonaly at a more or les forty-five degre angle to the right. This diagonal slant represents the position of the head in the state of death, either its lilting lifelesnes or the angle of the motion by which it is severed from the body. The ney player, symbolicaly dead to the physical world, is thus a vesel by which the divine breath of God can be transmited from above. 23 As many as four or even six ney-s may be used in a large ensemble, further contributing to the numerological symbolism of the performance (se Chapter Two). 23 To continue this further, it is also worth noting that the word taksim, which denotes the genre most imediately asociated with the ney, also means ?division? and ?diagonal? in Turkish. 142 Many of the other traditional Mevlevi instruments are likewise endowed with mystical and symbolic atributes. Prime among these, after the ney, are the percussive timekeeping instruments that are al directly asociated with the key mystical shapes of the circle and the spiral. Each is circular in shape and has the main functions of playing the usul rhythmic cycles and controlling the ?spiraling? tempi of the music. The oldest of these instruments is the tef (or daf), a handheld tambourine with five cymbals. The Mevlana himself sems to have had special regard for it, and carved into his shrine in the Mevlana Museum is a pasage from one of his gazel-s reading, ?Do not visit my tomb without a daf.? 24 Therefore, also in the Mevlana Museum is a large display case in the semahane prominently exhibiting a tef as wel as a set of eight ney-s and a number of other Otoman period instruments formerly used by the Mevlevi. The display resembles a sort of altar with the tef and the ney-s occupying a central position (Figure 30). Figure 30: Instruments on Display, Mevlevi Museum (Konya, June 9, 2002) 24 Se ibid., 67. 143 Today the tef has been replaced by the bendir, a circular single-headed frame drum similar in shape to the tef, but instead of having the five cymbals it is ringed along the inside rim with snares. This instrument is common among many Sufi groups and its ubiquity may be part of the reason it has displaced the tef in the Mevlevi tradition. In larger ensembles today, the bendir may be doubled or joined by other traditional Mevlevi percussion instruments to form a subsection of the whole ensemble. Standard in this group is the k?dum, a pair of smal, copper ketledrums with camel or sheepskin heads tuned in fourths and commonly featured also in Turkish art music. As with the ney and bendir, the k?dum is often doubled for numerological reasons, with as many as thre or even four pairs of k?dum being used. The halile, a pair of hand cymbals exclusive to sacred music, are also typical of larger ensembles. The full percussion section, contrary to Western orchestral arangement, is usualy placed in the front row of the ensemble, often in the center, while the ney-s and other instruments are located behind them. Sometimes the ney and percussion sections are placed on opposite ends of the front row with the slanting ney-s almost always on the left so that their sound projects out to the audience. After the voice, ney, and percussion, stringed instruments play the next greatest role in the clasical Mevlevi repertory. The Mevlana himself is said to have played the rebab, a bowed, spiked fiddle common across the Islamic Near East in a number of variants. Acording to %ams ed-Din al-Aflaki?s Man?qeb al-?arefin (Acts of the Gnostics, ca. 1353), an important early source for Mevlevi legends, the Mevlana may himself have helped to create one of these variants when he ordered his disciples, ?to make the rab#b as a six kh#na instrument. Because, the Arabic rab#b consisted heretofore of four kh#na. Mevl&n& said that the purpose 144 of a rab#b with six kh#na is to explain the six sides of the world (?#lam) and the alif like strings show that the spirits are in union with the alif in the name of God. 25 The rebab was commonly used by the Mevlevi prior to the Otoman period. However, its role faded greatly after undergoing further modifications in the early twentieth century, despite the fact that the Mevlana considered it of equal or greater importance to the ney. At isue is the fact that the traditional animal-hair strings have been replaced with metal ones, resulting in a metalic timbre the Mevlevi consider unsuitable for ritual purposes. Such developments and transformations to the rebab are endemic of almost al stringed instruments used by the Mevlevi, with this organological category seing tremendous activity in the past few centuries. The ud, the short-neck pear-shaped lute, for instance, was originaly a four-string instrument popularized in the Muslim world by the early Sufi theorists who saw in it the proportions of the cosmos (se Chapter Two). Over time, the single course of four strings was doubled to the equaly symbolic number of eight. The ud today has an additional large single string, which, although extending the range of the instrument downward, is located at the top of the descending course of strings. The single string is of course symbolic of Alah, while the descending size of the strings corresponds to the arc of descent, and the nine total strings represent the solar system. The ud, however, sems to have been eclipsed by the tanbur for quite some time during the Otoman period. The long-neck plucked lute, with its forty-eight moveable frets and eight strings in four double courses, even replaced the ud as the main instrument 25 Translated in #lker Evrim Binba" ?Music and Sam&? of the Mavlaviya in the Fiftenth and Sixtenth Centuries: Origins, Ritual and Formation,? in Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and Midle East, Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 27-27, 197, ed. Anders Hamarlund, Tord Olson, and Elisabeth ?zdalga (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet; Richmond, England: Curzon, 201): 73. 145 for ilustrating the tenets of makam in music theory treatises. Acording to Cantemir, the eightenth-century Moldavian prince, Otoman music theorist, and tanbur player, ?The instrument caled tanb?r is the most perfect and complete of al instruments which we know or have sen because it performs completely and without fault al the sounds and melodies which appear by means of the breath of man.? 26 Thus, it was the dominant string instrument in the Otoman court and it was also common in the Mevlevi teke-s. When the ud was repopularized at the beginning of the twentieth century, it did not replace the tanbur, and both lutes now enjoy equal status in the Mevlevi ensemble. The history of the other string instruments used for the performance of Mevlevi music is even more complicated. Having been introduced either from the imperial court or Europe, none of them is originaly Mevlevi or even Sufi, so their place in the Mevlevi tradition is often transitory and few have acrued any symbolic meaning. Thus, the kanun, a seventy-four- to eighty-one-string plucked zither, was displaced by the santur during the Otoman period only to make a comeback and eclipse the santur at the turn of the twentieth century. At around the same time, the keman (violin) and the sine keman (viola d?amore), which had been first used in the Otoman court in the eightenth century and were quite popular, were replaced in the Mevlevi tradition by the kemen?e or kemen?e al-Rumi (Grek lira), a short-neck, thre-string bowed lute of Grek origin. Other experiments with European instruments in sema performances include the use of the piano at the Galata Mevlevihane in the early ninetenth century and the violonsel (violoncelo) in Konya in the 1970s. 27 While the piano was deemed unaceptable for the purposes of sema because it could not play the microtones of the makam-s, the celo was 26 Translated in Feldman, 196, 143. 27 Friedlander, 203, 142. 146 quite succesful and the instrument remains standard in the Turkish art music world, though it sems to have disappeared from Mevlevi performances for the time being. Other European influences on Turkish clasical and Mevlevi music have been more in the field of performance practice. The use of large choruses and the expansion of the instrumental ensemble to almost orchestral proportions is one such example, as is the exploitation of multiple instruments of the same type, particularly the ney and k?dum. The occasional use of conductors in ilahi performances is yet another example of the influence of European performance practice. A slew of other Western concert conventions evident at sema whirling shows include the use of printed programs, increased atention to the details of staging, the control of lighting, and the inhibiting of audience reaction. When compared to historical acounts of sema performances and to modern private sema performances held during zikr in teke-s, these changes in performance practice are quite dramatic, even contradictory to the ecstatic sentiment of the ceremony (se Chapter Five). 28 Mevlevi Composers and the History of the Ayin-i !erif As mentioned previously, the similarities betwen Mevlevi teke and Otoman court music in terms of makam, usul, suite, and instrumentation is not simply a mater of shared music culture, but is a direct result of the gradual infiltration of the court by Mevlevi musicians and composers beginning in the sixtenth and sevententh centuries. Especialy by the ninetenth century, Mevlevis dominated palace musical life and oversaw the training of many of the court composers and musicians who were taught their crafts in both the fas?l and ayin repertories. 28 Se also Shanon, 206. 147 Some of the secular repertory has been preserved to the present by the notations of the Polish and Moldavian royal slaves Ali Ufki Bey (ca. 1650) and Dmitri Cantemir (ca. 1700). 29 Other collections were compiled in the 1920s during the period of state musical reform, especialy by the Mevlevi musicologist and neyzen Rauf Yekta Bey. 230 Yekta also published the first collection of Mevlevi ayin-s, which he wrote down from oral tradition in this period when the Mevlevi were most severely restricted. 231 Sadetin Heper, who in 1953 aranged for the first public ayin performance since the 1925 ban, republished Yekta?s anthology with two new ayin-s in 1979. 232 A handful of other ayin-s have been located in a variety of miscelaneous sources. 23 These ayin editions efectively comprise the canon of Mevlevi clasical music, which is now being made available on the Internet. 234 The complete clasical ayin-i "erif repertory comprises of around sixty-five works, though another sixten are known to have existed, but were never notated. 29 Bobowski?s Mecmu?a-i Saz ? S?z (Colection of Instrumental and Vocal Works) survives in two manscript sources at the Biblioth?que Nationale as F-Pn MS Turc 292 and at the British Museum under GB-Lbl MS Sloane 314. The manuscript for Cantemir?s Kitab-i ?ilmu ?lmuziki (Bok on the Science of Music) is housed in the Istanbul University Library as Tr-I? T?rkiyat Enstituts? 2768 and has ben made into a modern edition, se Wright, 192 and 200. 230 Rauf Yekta, D?r?lelh?n K?liy?ti (Istanbul: Belediye Konservatuari, 1924-30). 231 Ibid., 1923-39. 232 Heper, 1979. 23 Se Walter Feldman, ?Structure and Evolution of the Mevlev? Ay?n: The Case of the Third Selam,? in Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and Midle East, Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 27-27, 197, ed. Anders Hamarlund, Tord Olson, and Elisabeth ?zdalga (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet; Richmond, England: Curzon, 201): 50. 234 Se especialy Semazen.NET, Semazen.NET, copyright 205, acesed October 15, 206 . 148 The earliest known pieces of music asociated with the Mevlevi are atributed in the oral tradition to the Mevlana?s son, Sultan Veled. 235 These include an instrumental sema?i in makam Rehavi preserved in the Cantemir collection, with a pencil note reading ?Sultan Veled? in the margin of the manuscript source, 236 and thre anonymous ayin-s collectively known as the ?ancient compositions? (beste-i kadimler). Although the Mevlevi ayin (also refered to as mukabbele) was perhaps established in the fiftenth century by Pir Adil ?elebi (1421-60), 237 these pieces likely date to the sixtenth century at the earliest. 238 Of the thre ayin-s, only the one in makam Pen?gah is complete with al four selam-s. The ayin-i "erif in makam D?gah (i.e., makam U"ak) is mising the last selam, while the one in makam H?seyni survives with only one selam. A fourth anonymous ayin in makam Beyati has been atributed to K??ek Mustafa Dede (d. 1683). 239 Also known as Dervi" Mustafa, he evidently began his carer as a k??ek?e (?dancing boy?) before becoming a Mevlevi mystic. He eventualy rose to the position of dede (?elder?) in the tarikat, the third highest rank in the spiritual hierarchy after the halife and "eyh, upon completing 1001 days of confinement in the cel of a teke. Historical records reveal nothing about him as a composer of sacred music, however, and document only his carer as a court composer of secular vocal music (beste-s) and 235 G?lp?narl?, 1953, 456. 236 Wright, 200, 504. 237 Se Binba", 67-68 and his source Abd?lb?ki G?lp?narl? Mevlev? Ad?b ve Erk?n? [The Mevlevi Adab and Erkan] (Istanbul: #nk?lap ve Aka, 1963). 238 Feldman, 196, 18. 239 Ibid., 18. 149 instrumental works (pe"rev-s), which have been largely forgotten. 240 His ayin, though, remains today the best known in the whole Mevlevi repertory. The next great composer of both the courtly fas?l and the Mevlevi ayin is Mustafa Buhurizade Itri (ca. 1640 - ca. 1711). Much about him is in dispute, though he appears to have been a leading poet as wel as a gardener and caligrapher. He was a student of the important court composer Mehmed ?elebi (ca. 1620-94), a Halveti dervish also known by the name of Hafiz Post. Itri was himself a member of the Yenikap? Mevlevihane in #stanbul, as wel as a teacher at the palace music school. He is said to have composed some one thousand pieces of music, though only around forty are extant today. Among these is the nat-? "erif in makam Rast used to begin the sema ceremony. An early extant ayin-i "erif in makam Segah is atributed to him. 241 By the end of the eightenth century the Mevlevi were not only wel established at the Otoman court, they ruled over it in the figure of Sultan Selim II (1761-1808, r. 1789-1807). The Sultan was a dervish of the Galata Mevlevihane and close to its "eyh, the incomparable Galip (d. 1799) who was also one of the most celebrated poets of the entire Otoman period. Selim II, who compiled his own divan of poetry under the nom de plume of #lhami, surrounded himself with the foremost talents of the Mevlevi teke-s of #stanbul and became an important patron of music and the arts, as wel as a musician and composer in his own right. A ney and tanbur player, he studied with the Mevlevi neyzen Abd?lbaki Nas?r Dede (1765-1821) and the Jewish tanbur player and composer #zak Fresko Romano (ca. 1745-1814), whom he greatly admired. From Abd?lbaki, he 240 Ibid., 50. 241 Ibid., 96. 150 commisioned a treatise on music and he encouraged his teacher and other composers of the court to devise a system for notating Otoman music. An important reformer working toward modernizing Otoman society, Selim II was also interested in Western music and even invited an opera troupe to perform at his court. His reforms, however, would bring about his demise. In atempting to replace the powerful Janisary (Yeni?eri) military establishment with a corps of troops based on European models and faithful only to him, the Sultan invited court intrigue and was stabbed to death by men loyal to his Chief Black Eunuch. Legend holds that Selim went down defending himself from his asailants with his ney. He is survived today by over sixty pieces of music in both the secular and sacred repertories. His best-known work is an ayin in Suzidilara, a makam of his own creation. Selim in fact developed thirten makam-s, some of which became extremely popular in the Otoman teritories and are stil in use today. The ayin was writen down by Abd?lbaki in his new notated system and is dated 1795, making it the first ayin-i "erif in the repertory that can be dated with any certainty. Selim II?s extensive network of relationships with various Mevlevi artists represents only a smal segment of a long chain (silsila) of directly connected composers, musicians, and "eyh-s that stretches back to the early sevententh century and continues unbroken into the twentieth century (se Figure 31). The silsila begins with Nayi Osman Dede (ca. 1652-1730), "eyh and neyzenba"? (?head ney player?) of the Galata Mevlevihane. He was a composer of sacred music and invented an alphabetical system for musical notion, which served as the basis for that of his great-grandson Abd?lbaki. 151 Four ayin-s in makam-s Rast, ?argah, U"ak, and Hicaz are ascribed to him, making them the chronological succesors to the ayin of Mustafa Buhurizade Itri. Nayi Osman Dede (1652-1730) Ali Nutki Dede Abd?lbaki Nas?r Dede Abd?rrahim K?nhi Dede (1762-1804) (1765-1821) (1769-1831) Hamamizade Sultan Selim II #smail Dede Efendi (1761-1808) (1777-1845) Delalzade #smail Efendi (1797-18690 Zekai Dede Efendi (1825-97) Zekai-zade Ahmet Irsoy Subhi Ezgi Rauf Yekta Bey (1869-1943) (1869-1962) (1871-1935) Blood Teacher/Student Relation Relationship Figure 31: Silsila of Mevlevi Musicans and Composers Osman Dede?s two imediate generations of descendents were "eyh-s at both the Galata and Yenikap? Mevlevihane-s, and the succesion of Mevlevi court composers continues with his thre great-grandsons: Ali Nutki Dede, Abd?lbaki Nas?r Dede, and 152 Abd?rrahim K?nhi Dede, al thre of whom were "eyh-s of the Yenikap? teke and ayin composers asociated with Selim?s court. Abd?lbaki, whom we have already met as the principal music teacher of the Sultan, composed an ayin in Acem-Buselik, one of the new makam-s created by Selim. His younger brother Abd?rrahim K?nhi Dede (1769-1831) also added to the expanding Mevlevi repertory with his ayin-i "erif in makam Hicaz, as did the elder Ali Nutki Dede (1762-1804) with his ayin in Selim?s makam !evkutarab. It would be through Ali Nutki that the distinguished silsila of composers would continue, though not by blood relation. His greatest student was Hamamizade #smail Dede Efendi (1777-1845), the son of a bathhouse owner. Dede Efendi learned ney from Ali Nutki at the Yenikap? Mevlevihane, where he became a dede, but he was also very active at the royal court, where he served as Selim II?s oficial companion and was later made m?ezinba"? (?head of the cal to prayer singers?) by Sultan Mahmud I (1785- 1839, r. 1808-39), himself a composer, musician, and caligrapher. Working in al major clasical genres, Dede Efendi would become the most famous and prolific Mevlevi composer of the whole Otoman period. He developed several of his own makam-s and has over two hundred and sixty surviving works, including six of seven known ayin-i "erif-s. He died in Mina during the pilgrimage to Meca, where he is buried. Among his many students were the important Armenian composer and theorist Hamparsum Limonciyan (1768-1839), who developed a widely used notation system; Haci Arif Bey (1831-85), the court composer of secular "ark?-s; and Delalzade #smail Efendi (1797- 1869), the Mevlevi composer who served as a vocalist in the court in a number of posts including hafiz (?Koran recite?r), muezin (?cal to prayer singer?), and hanede (?fas?l singer?). 153 Delalzade #smail Efendi?s own students included the Mevlevi neyzan and composer Haci Faik Bey (d. 1890) and the prolific Mevlevi singer and composer Zekai Dede Efendi (1825-97), who in turn taught two of the founders of modern Turkish musicology: Rauf Yekta Bey (1871-1935) and Subhi Ezgi (1869-1962). Yekta played ney at both the Galata and Yenikap? teke-s and was also a composer, though he left behind only a modest body of thirty sacred and secular works. His numerous theoretical and historical writings on Turkish music, as wel as his compendium of Mevlevi ayin-s, however, make him one of the foremost figures of Turkish music since the fal of the Otoman Empire. Meanwhile Subhi Ezgi, who worked for many years as a medical doctor, was also a very active composer, theorist, and teacher. Ayin-s continued to be composed into the Republican era, even after the ban of 1925, by such figures as Zekai- zade Ahmet Irsoy (1869-1943), son of Zekai Dede. Despite that ayin composition was revitalized in the late 1950s with the succes of the sema performances in Konya, the canonization of the repertory in the 1930s has made the clasical Mevlevi tradition a largely closed system. Ethnography of a Whirling Show December 12, 2004 Konya A loud explosion detonates outside the window of my hotel room. Worried, I rush to se what happened, nearly tripping over a chair. At first I hear only the faint strains of music, but suddenly I am struck by a dazling fireworks display lighting up the night sky over my excelent view of the Mevlana Museum (Figure 32). 154 Figure 32: Fireworks over the Mevlana Museum (December 12, 2004) Actualy the festivities are coming from the Mevlana Cultural Center. Caught up with interviews, I had completely forgotten about the building?s inauguration ceremony and the sema performance imediately following it. I race over to the center just in time to hear the end of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo!an?s speech officialy announcing the grand opening of the new complex and waxing eloquently about the Mevlana and his mesage of tolerance. The atmosphere is almost carnivalesque as people line up to enter the building. Baloons and banners bandy about and the lights dancing in the cascading waterfals around the amphitheater personify the bustling crowd. Prerecorded semi-sacred popular music fils the air and some begin to chant and perform zikr. I am very lucky to have gotten a ticket for tonight. Of the twelve performances being held at the center and the various other official sema-s held elsewhere in the city during the festival, tonight?s 8:00 p.m. ceremony was the most sought after because it marked the official opening of the building and because it was known that Erdo!an 155 would be in atendance; he typicaly only comes to se the sema on the evening of December 17 th . I tried twice to secure a ticket, only to come away with Mevlana Festival posters and hopes that someone might cancel, finaly succeding on the third atempt. After being knocked around a bit by the excited crowd and waiting patiently to get inside, I am disappointed to find that I could only manage a ?nose bled? seat with a poor view of the musicians, but it is a fair trade off for a clear view of the Prime Minister and an outstanding bird?s eye view of the sema floor. Also new to me is that under each seat is an orange bag decorated on one side with elaborate geometrical paterns around a picture of the Mevlana?s sepulcher and on the other with a montage of five semazen-s, a neyzen, and the gren dome over the Mevlana?s tomb. My bag is ful of programs and literature on the new building, and it even has a smal white box of Mevlana "ekeri. The octagonal candy box features a snapshot of the Mevlana Cultural Center and reminds me of a box of Mozartkugeln, the Viennese chocolate marzipan bals named after the composer. I had actualy bought a huge tin of Mevlana "ekeri decorated with a photograph of semazen-s and musicians in the garden of the Mevlana Museum earlier in the day at the supermarket. The candy pieces look a lot like after dinner mints, but they are more chalky than swet; I have come to learn that they taste beter if I let them disolve in the warmth of my mouth, much like how the Mevlana describes melting candles or the soul burning in desire for God in his poetry. My festival program is likewise loaded with Mevlevi symbols. It is folded in such a way as to form a pyramid with five steps, representing the stages of a dervish?s path to enlightenment. The top layer is in a golden color and lists the events for the first day of the festival. The program is turned clockwise to work through the various layers, 156 each step having its own color and dedicated to the events of a single day, adding up to the eight days of the festival. On the back, betwen the fourth and fifth days, is a reproduction on a gren background of an old woodcut image depicting dervishes in various stages of performing sema. The spiraling program returns the festivalgoer back to the top of the golden pyramid on December 17 th . The last event for today is this sema performance, which is virtualy identical to al the other ones presented in the center this year. It consists of musical performances by two diferent groups separated by an intermision. The first half is esentialy a semi-sacred sam#? concert of spiritual music, 242 while the second half presents the Mevlevi sema ceremony in full, this year?s being the seting in makam !edaraban by %eyh Mustafa Nak"i Dede. Despite the occasion, tonight?s program is mercifuly fre of lengthy speeches; the opening night ceremonies I atended on Friday included salutations and extended commentary from a variety of high-ranking officials, including both the governor and the mayor of Konya as wel as the heads of the Konya Council of Tourism and the Music Conservatory of the Sel?uk University. The paparazi are also much reduced from the first night and are contained to the area imediately around the Prime Minister. Once Erdo!an, his wife, and their contingent of security guards and journalists take their seats across from the stage and the speaker?s lectern, al atention is drawn to the circular sema floor on which a single pelt of wool lies saturated in a bright crimson light. The word ?Sufi? is often said to derive from the Arabic word "%f meaning ?wool? and supposedly refers to the clothing worn by ascetics renouncing the physical world. The red woolskin (post) is where the "eyh presiding over the ceremony, the postni"in (?skin siter?), sits. It 242 In oficial rhetoric, Turkish tasavuf m?zi(i is often translated as ?theosophistical music? rather than ?mystical music.? 157 symbolizes his authority, as wel as the sacrifice of Sufism and the Tabrizi sunset; I asume that the post down on the floor is correctly placed in the direction of Meca. Presently, the red spotlight dims and a bright white light shines on two announcers who welcome the Prime Minster and other distinguished guests and invoke an historical mood by quoting from a thirtenth century Sel?uk sultan. In both Turkish and English, they praise the Mevlana as the greatest Sufi thinker and recite a poem incorrectly atributed to him that has become the virtual motto of the Konya Ministry of Tourism: Come, come, whoever you are Wanderer, idolator, 243 worshipper of fire, 24 come Even though you have broken your vows a thousand times, come, and come yet again Ours is not a caravan of despair Musicians from the #stanbul Historical Turkish Music Asembly of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (K?lt?r ve Turizm Bakanl?!? #stanbul Tarih? M?zi!i Toplulu!u) enter the stage, followed by their general director and vocal soloist Ahmet ?zhan, who receives resounding applause from the audience. The performers are al dresed in black tuxedos and are surrounded on stage by an aray of microphones and speakers. ?zhan stands in front of the ensemble, facing the audience, and is himself surrounded by a semicircle of floor speakers, a microphone, and a music stand, which he largely ignores, only occasionaly going to it during the performance to turn pages. ?zhan thanks his adoring audience with raised hands, and a brief ney taksim wails above the applause. The taksim gives way to a sustained drone played chiefly by the tanburi as wel as the bendir player, who produces a sustained tone by slowly rubbing the skin of the frame drum in 243 Here the reference is to pre-Islamic pagans and Christian who used icons and idols in religious worship. 24 I.e., Zoroastrian. 158 smal deliberate circles. After the name of the Mevlana is intoned over the drone, the first of thre ilahi-s begins. Ahmet ?zhan is undoubtedly the star of the performance. He sings these hymns in a grandiloquent quasi-operatic style, using broad animated gestures to emphasize the text, often stretching his arms wide open, raising his hands up in the air, pointing to the audience, and placing his hands on his heart. Perhaps most strikingly, he conducts the ensemble while facing away from it, using expansive motions off to the side of his body. At one point of modulation in the first ilahi, he preses down in the air firmly and dramaticaly so as to quiet the ensemble. Later, he waves about wildly to speed up the tempo to the end, which he signals by thrusting his right hand in the air. Such gesticulations, though intended for the musicians, come off as being directed at the audience and appear a bit odd, even showy. Their aggresivenes contrasts sharply with the smoother, subtler movements of the sema everyone has come to se, and it is more characteristic of European symphonic music than of a Sufi hymn. After welcoming the audience in the name of the Mevlana, ?zhan signals the second ilahi, which he sings with as much gusto and pasion, in what may perhaps be read by skeptics as staged religious fervor. I notice such ambiguity of piety al around me in the audience during the course of this performance. While some are busy taking flash photos or chating, apparently restles, others listen more intently; during the third ilahi, a woman in a prety flowered headscarf siting across from me on the other end of the hal, apparently rather moved, performs zikr motions, bobbing her head and stomping her fet in time with the music. Despite whatever misgivings of religious authenticity 159 may linger in the audience, there is no doubt of ?zhan?s and the ensemble?s superior musicality as evidenced by the eruption of applause at the end of their performance. During the intermision, while I conducted interviews, Erdo!an evidently gives another speech outside, and upon his return to the sema hal, as he walks across the floor with his entourage, the audience claps enthusiasticaly; I was shocked, however, as only the postni"in is supposed to traverse the floor of the semahane in such a linear way. Once most have taken their seats, the emces recite in both Turkish and English another famous poem atributed to the Mevlana, the one most often printed on Konya candy boxes: In generosity and helping others be like a river In compasion and grace be like the sun In concealing the faults of others, be like the night In anger and fury be like the dead In modesty and humility be like the earth In tolerance be like the sea Either sem as you are or be as you sem A short film in Turkish with English subtitles follows to give more background on the Mevlana and his followers, though I suspect it is also being shown to flaunt the building?s new facilities. After the documentary, the lights remain dimed, the festoons of faint lights above forming twelve dark bands representing the cosmos, while below the bright red spotlight shines again on the woolskin on the floor. The announcers proclaim, Today there is sema. There is sema today. Sema. There is light today. Today there is light?. It?s time for the ceremony of sema, but before that we have some warnings. In order to enjoy the ceremony in peace, we kindly request that you please turn off your mobile phones and other recording equipment that might disturb the tranquility of the ceremony. Please do not take photographs with flash until after the first half of the sema. Please do not applaud during the ayin-i "erif ritual, and please do not leave your seats until the ceremony ends. 160 I am struck by how far the secular government has gone to promote the sacrednes of this event. With the lights stil dimed, members of a second official state music ensemble, the Konya Turkish Mystical Music Asembly of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (K?lt?r ve Turizm Bakanl?!? Konya T?rk Tasavvuf M?zi!i Toplulu!u) under the direction of Yusuf Kayya, enter, bow toward the red woolskin (post), and take their seats on the stage. Unlike the previous group, they wear h?rka-s, black shrouds, and sike-s, tal conical felt caps (Figure 33). Figure 33: Musicians of the K?lt?r ve Turizm Bakanl?!? Konya T?rk Tasavvuf M?zi!i Toplulu!u, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) A group of nine similarly clad semazen-s follows suit, stopping at a bright white spotlight in front of the mutrib-s (musicians) at the edge of the circular wooden floor, where a number of white woolskins have been aranged in a semicircle. A frenzy of camera flashes light up the dark semahane as each dervish enters the white spotlight in turn and bows at the post before proceding to the right around the floor toward the sheepskin. 161 Drenched in a red spotlight, the postni"in, the "eyh presiding over the ceremony and representing the Mevlana, makes his reverent entry. He walks slowly in a straight line to the red wool pelt at the other end of the hal in front of the Prime Minister. His path is along the hat? istiva (?line of evennes?), which points toward Meca and divides the semahane into right and left halves, representing the arcs of ascent and descent respectively. He turns counterclockwise around the post, faces the musicians and ultimately Meca, and with semazen-s miicking his actions, bows, and prostrates on the ground fully, before siting in statuesque repose (Figure 34). Figure 34: The Postni"in Siting in Contemplation, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) Suddenly, a white spotlight darts across the hal toward the musicians, and the nat-? "erif is intoned. The postni"in, the dervishes, and the musicians bow their heads at the mention of the name of the Mevlana, as wel as of %ams Tabrizi and Mustafa, an honorific title refering to the Prophet Muhamad as the chosen receiver of the Koran (Figure 35). 162 Figure 35: Performing the Nat-? !erif, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) A ney taksim soon follows, oddly though, the k?dum drum strokes symbolizing the divine act of creation (kun, ?to be?) are not sounded. The ney pierces through the hal as the celebrants continue to sit in sedate religious contemplation. Afterwards, the lights dim even further and al sit briefly in silence awaiting the main portion of the ceremony. The full ensemble soon begins the !edaraban pe"rev composed by Gazi Giray Han, the piece that normaly precedes Mustafa Nak"i Dede?s ayin-i "erif. The pe"rev signals the Sultan Veled Procesion, an elaborate series of movements caried out by the postni"in and the semazen-s. The postni"in stands up in the darknes while the semazen-s cue in line to his left, standing at the edge of the spotlight. The postni"in slowly walks to the right, turns clockwise one hundred and eighty degres and faces the semazenba"? (?head of the semazen-s?). After pausing and standing in the darknes on opposite sides of the red spotlight, they bow to one another; the other semazen-s also bow at this point. The postni"in then very slowly proceds to walk in a semicircular path toward the center of the floor and the last semazen, while the semazenba"? turns clockwise one hundred and eighty degres ending up at the other end of the spotlight. The whole procedure repeats 163 and the semazenba"? bows to the semazen behind him who has by now advanced to where he had been standing. Slowly, the postni"in and the nine semazens form a crescent arch, then a spiral, and finaly, once al the semazen-s have bowed to each other, a complete circle (Figure 36). Figure 36: The Sultan Veled Procesion, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) Following the halile clashes on beats 1, 2, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, and 25 of the 28 beat usul cycle, they step in unison, completing thre ful revolutions around the post before the end of the pe"rev, representing the thre stages of knowledge: knowing, seing, becoming. As each dervish pases directly in front of the post, he bows and is mindful not to step on the hatt? istiva out of respect. Toward the end of the pe"rev, when the ensemble begins to slow down the tempo slightly, the dervishes perform their last circumambulation, slowly break the circle, and line up on the right side of the floor as a second group of semazen-s near the stage prepares to enter. Twenty-five new dervishes, including two child semazen-s, enter following the same sequence of gestures as the first group, which they now quickly join in a curving line along the edge of the floor facing 164 inward. The ensemble repeats the beginning of the pe"rev as they file out and as the postni"in, again in a red spotlight, makes his way back to the post. Once the last semazen and postni"in have arived at their destinations, the pe"rev abruptly ends and a second ney taksim, though very brief, is played before the full ensemble, this time joined by a large choir of over a dozen singers, collectively begins the first selam of the ayin. At this point, al dervishes on the floor bow and remove their black cloaks, revealing their white tunics underneath (Figure 37). Figure 37: Semazen-s in Niyaz Posture, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) This act symbolizes their transition from death and indicates their spiritual purity. Each dervish grabs his shoulders by crossing his arms, right arm over left, shaping his body into single column, symbolizing the conduit by which Alah is manifest in the physical world. This position is known as niyaz (or muhur) and it further represents the number one, the first leter of the alphabet, and the concept of al-taw!$d (?unity of Alah?), which the semazen-s emphasize by squeeze in together and touching shoulders. While the audience erupts in a frenzy of photography, the postni"in and semazen-s remain stationary. By the end of the first line of the first stanza of the first selam, the whilers are 165 ready to commence the sema. They bow on cue at a cadential point in the music in the second stanza and the semazenba"?, stil clad in black, moves toward the post. He bows before the postni"in, who whispers into his ear before he proceds to the center of the floor. At the end of the transitional section betwen the second and third verses of the first stanza the other white-clad dervishes bow together. At the beginning of the third verse, the dervishes line up in turn in front of the postni"in to receive his blesing, and follow the sequence first performed by the semazenba"? (Figure 38). Figure 38: Stages of Sema Whirling, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) As they continue out onto the floor, the semazen-s begin to turn counterclockwise, using the vertical line betwen the left foot and the heart as an axis and the right foot to propel the body in spirals and in perfect concentric circles. Sooner or later they unfold their arms upward and outward in a gesture of embracing Alah; the right hand turns upwards in a gesture of receipt from God, while the left hand faces downward, as if transmiting divine grace to the earth. The head is tilted at a forty-five degre angle to the right, 166 representing death and separation from the physical world, while the tal felt cap symbolizes a tombstone (Figure 39). Figure 39: Semazen-s Performing Sema, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 10, 2004) A whirler?s revolutions are believed to miror the movement of the planets while the gradual spiraling of the whole group connotes the grand motion of the entire universe. The many changing colors and shapes of the lights add to the magnificence of the spectacle (Figures 40 and 41). 167 Figure 40: Semazen-s Performing Sema, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) Figure 41: Semazen-s Performing Sema, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) With so many semazen-s, it is not until the beginning of the third of the four stanzas before al can make it out onto the floor and begin spinning. Soon they begin to 168 cluster, only eventualy spreading out further. Though no semazen-s ever collide, the semazenba"??s main function is to walk amidst them to ensure that everything is in order as they whirl to ecstasy. The postni"in meanwhile remains standing, stationary in the red spotlight. As the final verse of the first selam draws to a close, the music slows down and the semazen-s gradualy stop whirling. The second selam begins imediately, however, without waiting for the dervishes to reposition themselves. It is during the first stanza of the second selam that the semazen-s retract their arms back into the crossed position of niyaz, bow, and back up to the edge of the circular floor, where they form smal groups of two to six. Each group stands at some distance from the next, but the semazen-s within each group stand physicaly touching shoulder, again testifying to al-taw!$d. They al bow together at an internal cadence in the first verse and prepare to repeat the entire selam sequence, which again is led by the semazenba"?, this time starting on the second not third verse. By the time the last semazen begins turning, the selam is nearly finished and so they continue whirling through the terenn?m (?instrumental pasage?), which here functions as a kind of coda. The third and fourth selam-s are performed in the exact same way with only a few variations, most notably in tempo. The pace of the third selam increases incrementaly with each of the four terenn?me-s as wel as during the last verse of the fourth stanza. During the fifth stanza, the hal lights dim yet again leaving only the quickly flashing colored spotlights, which in conjunction with the fact that the musical setings of the fifth and six verses are very similar and repetitive, intensifies the overal perception of velocity. The attacca into the short fourth selam is jaringly slower and the tempo 169 remains stately throughout until the k?dum picks up the speed again slightly at a cadential point on the repeat of the selam, which the ensemble is forced to take on acount of the fact that only half of the semazen-s had begun turning at the end of the final verse; in fact the last semazen barely begins to whirl even at the very end of the repeat. The semazen-s continue turning through the subsequent son pe"rev and son y?r?k, both attacca movements connected by k?dum strokes indicating changes in the usul-s. With eyes closed and basking now in white light, the postni"in joins the semazen-s at the start of the son pe"rev, spiraling very slowly along the hatt? istiva to the center of the semahane where he whirls elegantly and deliberately for some time (Figure 42). Figure 42: The Postni"in and Semazen-s Whirling, Mevlana Cultural Center (Konya, December 12, 2004) He does not remove his black cloak nor spread out his arms, but instead keeps his left arm down at his side and holds onto the right side of his cloak with his right thumb and index finger. Al dervishes, save the semazenba"?, continue to whirl through a final 170 taksim played on tanbur, which despite being nonmetrical is for some reason also introduced by the k?dum. Compared to the slow improvisations and modulations of the tanbur and the stately postni"in?s turning, the semazen-s appear to be whirling quite rapidly in the shifting shades of blue, yelow, and gren light. The instant the postni"in returns to the post, the tanbur taksim ends and a reading from Koran verse i: 115 sounds out across the hal, ?To God belong the East and West: wherever you turn, there is the face of God. For God is Al-Pervading, Al-Knowing.? The postni"in prostrates on the floor and then sits on his post. The semezen-s al eventualy cease whirling and bow. When they return to their stations along the edge of the circular floor, they put their black cloaks back on and wait until the last semazen has done the same, before they too prostrate and sit on their woolskins in contemplation. A second recitation from the Koran, specificaly the first chapter Fatiha, folows. At the end of the Kuran-? kerim, the postni"in followed by the semazen-s, prostrates once again, wipes his hands over his face to receive the blesings of the Koran, and stands up. With his arms lifted up in the air, the postni"in initiates the concluding segment of the ceremony and recites a litany of praises and blesings in the name of the Prophet Muhamad, the Mevlana Rumi, %ams Tabrizi, Sultan Veled, the ?elebis, and a host of other figures of religious import, as wel the Turkish Republic, to which al the semazen-s bow. One of the most striking moments of the ceremony imediately follows: everyone in atendance intones a long, profound, and out of tune ?Hu,? the mystical term often translated as ?He? and refering specificaly to God, the Divine Breath. As he slowly proceses out of the semahane along the hatt? istiva. the postni"in in the crimson spotlight chants a series of salutations, to which a singer in the ensemble 171 responds. When he arives at the white spotlight by the stage, he turns counterclockwise one last time and bows along with semazen-s and musicans at the post. He is followed out first by the semazenba"? and then by the other semazen-s, a sequence that forms an arch as they double back on their egresion. Upon approaching the white spotlight, each dervish turns toward the post, bows, and leaves in silence and peace. With the musicians having also taken their leave in the same manner, the emces thank the audience for spending the evening with them during this ?special time.? While most leave imediately to beat the rush, some stay to ofer faint applause or to mediate on the woolskin in the red spotlight. Musical Movement in Mustafa Nak!i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif In addition to being self evident in the ritual procedings of the Mevlevi sema ceremony, the concept of motion is also fundamental to the aesthetics and compositional proces of the acompanying music. Among Mevlevi musicians, composers, and theorists, musical movement is understood in both rhythmic and melodic terms. I have already writen about the characteristic elements of rhythmic motion?namely, the cyclical repetition of rhythmic paterns and the tendency to change betwen these rhythmic modes by way of abrupt rather than gradual changes in tempo?in my earlier discussion of the usul principle. My focus here, therefore, is on melodic movement, which in Turkey is conceived of in terms of melodic progresion (seyir) and modulation (ge?ki). I have limited my analysis here to the !edaraban ayin-i "erif of Mustafa Nak"i Dede and the surrounding pe"rev, son pe"rev, and son y?r?k sema?i of the ceremony 172 described above, though these concepts are equaly present in al of the ayin-s in the Mevlevi repertory. Mustafa Nak"i Dede (d. 1854), not to be confused with K??ek Mustafa Dede (d. 1683), was "eyh of the Mevlevihane in Egypt. He was originaly born in Edirne presumably in the 1790s; ?ztuna suggests he died at the age of 60 in Cairo where he is buried in the cemetery of the Mevlevi teke. 245 His early training included music, Arabic, Farsi, literature, and caligraphy, and it appears that he had rather strong Mevlevi connections early on in his life, for prior to 1825 he left Edirne for Konya, 246 staying at the Gelibolu (Galipoli) and Afyon Mevlevihane-s along the way. In Konya, he established himself at the dergah of the Mevlana where became a dede and taught Arabic and Farsi to Hemdem ?elebi (d. 1859), Grand ?elebi of the tarikat. In 1825 ?elebi sent him to Egypt to take over as head k?dum player of the Cairo teke and in 1838 he was appointed "eyh of the teke on the death of Fikri Dede. A highly renowned caligrapher and a poet famous especialy for his r?bai-s (?quatrains?), Mustafa Nak"i Dede was also a virtuoso ney player and was considered one of the foremost composers of his era, though only the !edaraban ayin-i "erif, an Araban pe"rev in usul devr-i kebir, and a !evkefza saz semai are extant today. Despite having his own pe"rev in the very closely related makam of Araban, Nak"i Dede?s ayin is today paired with one in !edaraban atributed to Gazi Giray Han, the Tatar Khan of Crimea (r. 1554-1607). Although the khan was one of the most important composers of Otoman music in the sixtenth century, even while he was not 245 ?ztuna, I, 98-9. 246 Ahmed Celaledin Dede claimed Nak"i Dede went to Konya in 1824. Se Heper, 54. 173 an Otoman, this is undoubtedly a later misatribution, 247 for complex makam-s of such microtonal sophistication as that of the pe"rev did not exist before the sevententh century. In fact, !edaraban is a compound makam dating from the eightenth century and it is likely that our pe"rev dates to the early ninetenth century. 248 Its longer usul devr-i kebir, which had doubled from 14/4 to 28/4 at the end of the eightenth century, also indicates that Gazi Giray Han could not have been the composer of this pe"rev. 249 Also atached to Nak"i Dede?s four selam-s are a son pe"rev and son y?r?k sema?i by one Kul Mehmet, apparently a court slave (kul) of the dev"irme (Janisary conscripts often taken from the conquered lands of Southeast Europe). 250 ?ztuna suggests the possible death date of Kul Mehmet A!a to have been around 1650. 251 However, this is also problematic, for Kul Mehmet, in addition to the son pe"rev and son y?r?k sema?i, has also left us with thre pe"rev-s in makam H?seyni. One of these is paired with the incomplete H?seyni ayin-i "erif, one of the thre ancient anonymous Mevlevi ayin-s (beste-i kadimler). As with the !edaraban pe"rev, the H?seyni pe"rev is also set in the longer 28/4 usul devr-i kebir, thus casting doubt on the authorship of anything atributed to Kul Mehmet. Our son pe"rev and son y?r?k sema?i could have been composed by Kul Mehmet in the sevententh century or could date from a considerably later period. While makam !edaraban is not the most popular makam in the Turkish repertory perhaps on acount of its complexity, there are a number of other works in the clasical 247 Se Feldman, 196, 28. 248 Ibid., 515, note 125. 249 Ibid., 202, 123. 250 For more on musicians of the kul se ibid., 196, 63-65. 251 ?ztuna, I, 35. 174 Mevlevi repertory besides Mustafa Nak"i Dede?s ayin in the same mode. Salih Dede (ca. 1818 ? ca. 1880), neyzenba"? at the Be"ikta" Mevlevihane in #stanbul, composed a !edaraban ayin-i "erif in the generation after Nak"i Dede. 252 In the twentieth century, the prolific H?seyin Sadetin Arel (1880-1955) brought the total of !edaraban ayin-s to the impresive number of thre and also wrote a durak (a non-metrical solo vocal work in Turkish used during zikr) and thre ilahi-s in the same mode. 253 Karl Signel describes !edaraban as an example of a compound (birle"ik or m?rekep) makam consisting of the ?incestuous? ?mariage of twin makam-s.? 254 In other words, !edaraban (?transposed Araban?) is comprised of two versions of the same makam: makam Araban combined with its lower octave transposition. Makam Araban, which, as Signel indicates, ?no longer exists outside of compounds,? 25 is itself a variant of makam Hicaz transposed to the pitch neva (d). Thus, makam !edaraban begins on neva (d) and extends upward one octave to tiz neva (d?) and downward one octave to the pitch yegah (D). The full ambitus of !edaraban ocupies two octaves of alternating hicaz pentachords and tetrachords. The basic hicaz subset is characterized by a large half tone (k???k m?cennep) interval betwen the first and second scale degres made up of five Pythagorean commas (koma-s) and an augmented second (art?k ikili) interval betwen the second and third scale degres made up of twelve commas. Often in !edaraban, the intervals betwen the sixth, seventh, and eighth scale degres of each 252 Ibid., I, 202. 253 For a list of other works in this makam, se ibid, I, 272. 254 Signel, 197, 10. 25 Ibid., 109 and 12. 175 Araban scale can be altered, sometimes creating a buselik instead of a hicaz pentachord in the upper range of the makam (Figure 43). Figure 43: !edaraban Scales Figure 43 uses an adapted form of Western notation now standard in Turkey. As the Turkish modal system, especialy makam !edaraban, makes abundant use of microtones based on the Pythagorean comma system, a number of unfamiliar acidentals are required to indicate the proper intervals betwen two pitches. Figure 44 lists al the acidental symbols commonly found in Turkish musical notation. koma diyezi (raises one comma) koma bemol? (lowers one comma) bakiye diyezi (raises four commas) bakiye bemol? (lowers four commas) k??-m?c diyezi (raises five commas) k??-m?c bemol? (lowers five comas) Figure 44: Acidentals Used in Turkish Musical Notation 256 Thus, the Hicaz pentachords and tetrachords of !edaraban require the acidental (koma bemol?) to lower the typical nine commas betwen the d and e of the Western scale by four commas and the (bakiye diyezi) to raise the Western f four commas to create a twelve comma interval with the previous e. Also particular to the notion system used in 256 Adapted from ibid., 24. 176 Figure 43 is the whole note indicating the tonics of the makam, and the half note, which signifies the dominants. Aside from scales and paterns of characteristic intervals, makam-s are also identified by specific melodic formulae and movements caled seyir (?path,? ?progresion?), which Signel cals the ?life-giving force, the forward impetus? of any melody. 257 In esence, melodies are composed and improvised in a linear manner moving from the initial entry (giri"), which is often at or near the tonic of the makam, to the finalis (karar). As Signel explains, ?once the progresion begins, the melody cannot rest until the final cadence,? though it usualy makes a series of temporary pauses at certain unstable tonal centers of the makam, including the dominant (g??l?) and other temporary stopping points (muvakkat kal?"lar), which only compel the melody to move forward. Depending on the makam, the forward momentum of a melody wil occur in a ascending (??k?c?), descending (inici), or ascending-descending (inici-??k?c?) direction. 258 Whatever the direction, however, the seyir imparts an overal ?tendency to create a continuous melody, without any repetition? or imitation, as Feldman points out. 259 Thus, Mustafa Nak"i Dede?s ayin-i "erif opens with a long unremiting melody that slowly descends from the upper tonic to the lower tonic, as is typical of al music in makam !edaraban (Figure 45). 257 Ibid., 48. 258 Ibid., 50. 259 Feldman, 196, 38. 177 Figure 45: Opening of the Fist Selam of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif In addition to movement brought about by the gravitational pull of the tonic of a makam, musical motion is also rendered through modulation. The concept of modulation is understood in Turkish and Arabic music in the same way as in the West; that is, as a form of movement from one modality to another. Modern theorists refer to modulation in Turkish music as ge?ki (from ge?mek, ?to pas?) 260 and describe it as occurring on four levels: on the level of makam itself, as part of the seyir of a makam, in the formal structure of a piece of music, and in the relationship betwen movements of a suite. The first type of modulation applies only to certain types of makam-s that by design are comprised of modulations. 261 Known as compound (birle"ik or m?rekep) makam-s, they consist of two conjoined makam-s and require modulation in order for the two halves to be fully rendered. Makam !edaraban is one such compound makam, though the transition betwen the two Araban makam-s that constitute the mode may be too subtle for Western ears, which may perceive the modulation from the one Araban to the other as a change in tesitura rather than outright modality. In the first selam of his ayin, Nak"i Dede sets the last two lines of the first stanza of text?that is, the pasage 260 Se ?ztuna, I, 302 and Marcus, 192. 261 Signel, 197, 67. 178 imediately following the repeat in Figure 45?in the upper range of !edaraban, creating a modulation in the proces of exploring the full range of the makam (Figure 46). Figure 46: Upper Range of Makam !edaraban, Stanza I, Verses 3-4 of the First Selam of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif The second form of modulation is that which occurs as part of the seyir of the makam. 262 Signel explains that this type of modulation can happen by way of either a ?single note borrowing? or a ?pasing modulation,? perhaps as an expected part of the seyir or simply for purposes of avoiding monotony and adding color. Single note borrowings are generaly made by introducing into the melody a pitch from a related makam. Such an example occurs at the end of the teslim (?refrain?) of the ?Gazi Giray Han? pe"rev in which a B? is introduced into !edaraban from makam Rast (Figure 47). Figure 47: Ending of the Teslim of the !edaraban Pe"rev Atributed to Gazi Giray Han Meanwhile, a pasing modulation may bring in a full tetrachord or pentachord as in the transitional pasage betwen the first and second stanzas of Nak"i Dede?s ayin, where makam !edaraban gives way to the Rast tetrachord (Figure 48). 262 Ibid., 197, 68 and 7-78. 179 Figure 48: Transitional Section betwen Stanzas I and I of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif The third modulation type involves broad-scale changes of makam over the course of an entire composition or improvisation. 263 Such modulations are normaly built into the formal structure of the piece. Signel explains that the patern of modulation in most Turkish music occurs within a generic ABA format. The first A section (zemin, ?ground?) presents the principal makam in the manner of what Signel cals an ?exposition.? The B section (meyan or miyan, ?middle?) serves as a point of contrast in which either the upper range of the initial makam is explored or a new makam is presented. This ?development? section then returns to the A section in a sort of ?recapitulation.? Usualy more complex forms wil have multiple contrasting sections. With the pe"rev, for instance, various hane-s (?sections?) alternate with a teslim (?refrain?) in an A (A) B (A) C (A), etc. format, with (A) representing the teslim. In the case of our !edaraban pe"rev, the shifts betwen makam-s !edaraban and Rast (Figure 49) are rather straightforward (Figure 50). Figure 49: Scale of Makam Rast 263 Ibid., 67 and 82. 180 Figure 50: Formal and Modal Layout of the !edaraban Pe"rev Atributed to Gazi Giray Han The selam of the Mevlevi ayin-i "erif, however, does not follow the typical ABA patern of modulation. It is in a sense more through composed with modulations occurring capriciously one after another, often not even in acordance with the poetic structure. Refering to this as the ?wandering makam phenomenon,? Signel cites Mustafa Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban ayin as a particularly extreme case. 264 Typicaly makam !edaraban modulates to Nihavend, and such is the case in Nak"i Dede?s first selam, but the route by which this occurs is extraordinarily circuitous. The first stanza of the first selam begins in !edaraban but modulates to makam Rast and then makam H?mayun transposed to pitch yegah (D) before the second stanza even begins. The second stanza could be said to be in !edaraban, but there are so many acidentals, borrowed notes, and unusual transposed tetrachords that such a label would not acurately describe the overal instability of the pasage. The third stanza alternates betwen several permutations of two main melodic motives that, as far as I could determine, are not derived from a known makam; the first perhaps outlines a ?argah pentachord on d?gah (A), while the second, with a vacilating third scale degre, is of indeterminate modality (Figure 51). 264 Ibid., 120. Pe!rev Section Makam A First Hane !edaraban (cadence in Rast) (A) Teslim !edaraban B Second Hane Rast (A) Teslim !edaraban C Third Hane !edaraban (higher register with cadence in Rast) (A) Teslim !edaraban 181 Figure 51: Melodic Motives from the Third Stanza of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif Modal stability returns only in the last line of the third stanza, which is clearly set in H?seyni, a makam quite remote to !edaraban. The first thre lines of the final stanza continue in H?seyni, and it is only in the last half of the stanza that the long anticipated makam Nihavend appears, though transposed to pitch a"iran (E). The selam concludes with an instrumental pasage that finaly modulates by way of sequences to Nihavend on d?gah (A). In al at least five makam-s are used in this single movement of the sema ceremony (se Figure 52 for an overview of major modulations and the Appendix for a corresponding list of the makam scales). The final type of modulation is that taking place over the course of an entire suite of pieces. 265 In the past, the concept of suite in Turkey and the Near East was limited to a collection of works al in the same mode. Modern Turkish performance practice, however, demonstrates a strong predilection for modal variety with suite performances consisting of an asortment of movements in many diferent makam-s. In the standard fas?l program, for instance, it is customary to begin with several movements in one makam and then move by way of connecting taksim-s to groups of pieces in other makam-s using up to four diferent makam-s in one concert. In other large-scale forms, modal changes are even more frequent, though none is more extreme or eratic than the 265 Ibid., 13-15. 182 Mevlevi ayin. 26 With many sections beginning in contrasting makam-s, the whole of the sema ceremony is a context for extensive modal exploration, involving as many as six to eight or more principal makam-s throughout. Modulation betwen these many makam-s also tends to be abrupt, for although many movements begin in one makam and end in another, they do not necesarily function like the connecting taksim-s of the fas?l. The complete modal blueprint of the sema ceremony performed at the 2004 Mevlana Festival is given in Figure 52. Nat-? !erif Rast Taksim Rast, !edaraban Pe"rev !edaraban, Rast First Selam Stanza I !edaraban, Rast, H?mayun on yegah (D) I ? (perhaps !edaraban) II ?, H?seyni IV H?seyni, Nihavend on a"iran (E) Coda Nihavend on d?gah (A) Second Selam Stanza I Nihavend on h?seyni (e) and d?gah (A) to Rast Third Selam Stanza I U"ak I Nihavend on h?seyni (e)/ a"iran (E) II Nihavend on d?gah (A) IV Nihavend on h?seyni (e), a"iran (E), and d?gah (A) V Nihavend on a"iran (E) VI Nihavend on a"iran (E) Fourth Selam Stanza I Nihavend on a"iran (E) Son Pe"rev H?seyni Son Y?r?k Sema?i K?rdi on a"iran (E), Nihavend on a"iran (E) Figure 52: Modal Layout of Nak"i Dede?s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif in Ritual Context 26 Kusi( demonstrates that in the overal sequence of movements of the namaz, there is ?rather a [more] meaningful and deliberate choice of makam-s and modulations? than in the Mevlevi ayin. Se Kusic, 196, 315 and 329f. On modulation over the course of the Mevlevi ayin se also Signel, 15-18. 183 As can be sen, the music moves through a total of six diferent principal initial makam-s. When this grand-scale modal activity is combined with the flury of modulations taking place within individual movements as wel as on the level of makam and seyir, the result is a sonic environment characterized by perpetual modal and melodic motion. Thus, movement plays a vital and integral role in every dimension of the Mevlevi clasical tradition. It is a fundamental precept of the faith that permeates even the most minute details of musical composition and performance. It is manifest also in specific ritual gestures, which as we have sen further help to create cohesion by uniting sundry pieces of music into a complete whole. Ultimately it inspires an elaborate semiotic system that influences everything from the ergonomics of instrument performance to the whirling of the semazen-s, and draws together tourists and heads of state, skeptics and pilgrims alike. 184 CHAPTER FIVE ARCS OF ASCENT AND ESCENT: MUSIC AND TRANCE IN Z#KR CEREMONY The revitalization of Mevlana culture I described in the previous chapter, marked by public festivities organized by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the increasing prominence of the Mevlevi clasical musical repertory, has occurred in tandem with a significant renaisance of private ceremonial life in the underground Sufi world of Anatolia. As waves of both tourists and pilgrims inundate the officialy sanctioned events, an appreciable spilover flows into hidden teke-s and the private homes of Sufi adherents, especialy since the question of spiritual authenticity hovering over the public whirling shows leads the more intrepid to sek out more personal, furtive alternatives. What the seker invariably finds at such clandestine gatherings are ecstatic trance ceremonies known as zikr-s, characterized by a wholly diferent repertory of music and structured movements. My primary focus in this chapter is on the zikr ceremonies performed in honor of the Mevlana Rumi during the wek of his %eb-i ?urs. While respect for the secrecy of the events prevents me from discussing the subject in too great a detail, my descriptions and analyses of music, trance, and movement nevertheles remain comprehensive. I present first a series of short ethnographic vignetes that explore the broader Sufi concept of zikr, which I define and analyze more systematicaly in the following section. Subsequently, I explain the interconnections betwen zikr, trance, and music and then give an ethnographic acount of a zikr ceremony in the fourth section of the chapter. I conclude with a detailed analysis of this ceremony, exploring specificaly the Sufi notion of the 185 arcs of ascent and descent by focusing on the intensification of volume, rhythm, and tempo over the course of the gathering. ?Always Remember God? October 4, 2004 Damascus Even after a long, ful day of exploring, I am stil too excited about being in this very ancient yet vibrant city to just sit around tonight. With the feling of wanderlust coursing through my veins, I decide to acompany some new friends on an evening stroll. As we make our way down a busy stret not too far from where I am staying, a dull white reflection at the corner of my eye draws my atention. Curious, I make us double back to investigate. What we first take to be a water fountain, on closer inspection turns out to be rather more novel. Apparently there on the side of the road to relieve weary travelers, a simple public sink adorned with a marble slab reading in both Arabic and English ?Zikr Alah, ALWAYS REMEMBER GOD? beckons (Figure 53). Figure 53: Public Sink (Damascus, October 04, 2004) 186 Against my beter judgment, but unable to resist the opportunity to re-hydrate after a hot, strenuous day, I fil the atached stainles stel cup with water from the tap and take a big gulp before we continue on our way. October 5, 2004 Damascus I wake up a bit late this morning not feling very wel at al. Stil, this is my last day in Damascus and I have a full agenda ahead of me that includes morning visits to the famous Hijaz Railway Station in the heart of downtown and the nearby Taqiyya al- Suleimaniyya Mosque built by the prolific Otoman architect Mimar Sinan. While trying to figure out how to get into the closed mosque, my stomach begins to stage a revolution and after a while, I can stand it no longer. Fortunately my hostel is not too far away and there are plenty of couches there on which I can rest. The hours slip by as I try to recover and figure out how I got sick. Catching up on writing my field notes, I suddenly recal the sink from last night and realize that the water must not have agred with me. Doubled over in pain, I would come to remember God, and that sink, al day long?. July 22, 2005 K?tahya The D?nenler Cami (Turner?s Mosque) in K?tahya?s city center is always completely packed during Friday prayer. None too eager to be swept up in the crowds though, I sit and take in the old fourtenth-century Mevlevihane as the worshipers slowly trickle out. The mosque is completely dominated by its circular prayer hal, where once sema was regularly performed. Studded al around the hal are columns decorated with paintings of Mevlevi sike-s (?conical felt caps?). The smal mutribhane (?musician?s 187 balcony?) overlooking the semahane and opposite an alcove filed with Mevlevi tombs houses the electronic equipment used to broadcast the ezan (?cal to prayer?) into the neighboring aleys and squares. As the last of the congregants leave, the custodians hurriedly strip back the thick gren carpet at the center of the hal and open a trap door to a wel hidden underneath the floor. A few congregants rush in to fil up empty water bottles and basins with the sacred waters. One of them offers me a drink before a custodian closes the mosque. Acording to local belief, those who drink from the wel are headed for Paradise. Prefering to take my time geting there and recaling my experience with fre dingy water sources in Damascus, I politely decline. With a few hours to kil before catching the bus to back to #zmir, I decide to wander through the city one last time. Though distinguished by its long history of faience tile manufacturing and several strets of newly restored Otoman houses, K?tahya is nevertheles a fairly typical Western Anatolian city in its proclivity toward modernization and Europeanization. In the raging debate over Turkey?s ?ascension? into the European Union, I find places like K?tahya reminiscent of many towns in Europe. Stil, there are moments when I am reminded that Turkey remains very much a distinctive entity. On my walk back to the otogar, I encounter a conspicuous farm tractor parked on the side of the road right there in the middle of the city. Atracted by the incongruity, I approach it and se on the side of the engine a simple bumper sticker that reads ?Alah biliyor? (?God knows?). I am instantly reminded of several similar encounters I had on my travels throughout the Middle East and smile at the Muslim penchant for decorating virtualy anything on wheels with religious symbols and the name of Alah. 188 June 2, 2005 Bornova, #zmir Excited to be taking a day off and go to the beach with a group of friends, I arive at our meting point, the Bornova metro station, only to sit around for a while breathing in the exhaust fumes coming from the neighboring bus stop and busy highway; as usual, the gang is running late. By the time we are al finaly gathered together, we realize that we are too far behind schedule to follow our original plan and devise an alternate, more flexible sequence of rides to get out to the waters of the Aegean Sea. Within moments, a dolmu" heading in our direction comes bareling down the road. Even before it has come to a full stop, pasengers have already hopped off and a tenaged boy leans half way out the side door yeling out the various stops on the route. I shout ?otogar? and he nods his head and waves us in. Basicaly a minibus operating on a predetermined route, the dolmu" is the quintesentialy Turkish mode of public transportation. Derived from the Turkish verb dolmak (?to become ful?), dolmu"-s are almost always full and I am not at al surprised that there is no open seat when I get on, my friends having taken up the last ones. Actualy, there is one seat available next to a middle-aged woman, but, as proper etiquete does not permit unrelated men and women to sit together in public, I am forced to stand. Fortunately, I do not have to suffer the bumpy ride for long standing up as the dolmu" stops frequently whenever and wherever someone wants out. I take an open seat next to an elderly gentleman wearing a skullcap and pay my fare by pasing a tatered and taped one milion Lira bil up to the front. My money travels from hand to hand against the blaring torent of a pop song heavily influenced by Turkish folk music, which the driver has just turned up even louder as he races down the highway. My neighbor, 189 turning his tespih (?string of prayer beads?) in his right hand one bead at a time, sits with his head crooked to the right and stares blankly out the window. Suddenly, he draws a deep breath and blurts out ?Alah Alah? as if he has just come to some realization or awoken from a daydream. December 16, 2004 Konya Having stood up for over an hour with my video camera glued to my face, my legs and right arm are starting to cramp up, but I am eager to record every second of this zikr, as I am not alowed to document similar ceremonies at the nearby lodge. Given the sacrednes of these ritual gatherings and with the laws being as they are, the congregants? apprehensivenes towards being filmed is quite understandable. My special dispensation comes from the fact that tonight?s zikr is being held in a carpet shop. This venue, with piles of carpets and faux-Otoman paraphernalia lining the wals, is not particularly traditional, especialy considering that this is the evening before the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs, but it is fiting given that most of the congregants are foreign pilgrims and some are even tourists. This does not mean, however, that tonight?s ceremony is somehow inauthentic or lacking in tasavvuf. On the contrary, the zikr, performed by many of the same congregants atending the private zikr-s at the dergah this wek, has actualy been rather intense. With several ilahi-s played on the ba!lama lute, the favorite instrument of Turkish folk music, about a dozen diferent sema whirlers, and over an hour of characteristic rhythmic chanting of the name of Alah, the conditions have been ideal for every devote to achieve a state of ecstasy. 190 Presently, as the celebrants conclude the ceremony with g?r?"mek (?to met? or ?to converse?), a ritualized greting in which worshipers aranged in a circular formation exchange a mystical sequence of gestures involving hand kising and the touching of temples, they begin to engage in religious conversations and merymaking. One worshiper, eager to try out the k?dum, bangs out a quick rhythmic patern while a few others, parodying the zikr, start chanting the word ?ay (?tea?) in a quick, breathy manner. Soon, cups of tea and trays of dates, fruits, lokum (?Turkish delight?), and other swets are pased around. Another congregant, turning a teaspoon in a large glas, comes up to me and says to the camera, ?Now is the tea ceremony ? tea zikr.? As he melts his sugar cubes in the rose tea he lifts his glas up and jokes, This color of Turkish tea, it?s red. It is the color of love. Hot and red like love. You must come here to drink this tea in order to understand. Appreciating his blending of enlightenment and tourism propaganda, we both intone the mystical syllable ?Hu? and break into a fit of laughter. Modes of Remembrance: On the Various Types of Zikr The five field experiences I describe above, while at first semingly unconnected, are al united by the practice of zikr Alah. A multifaceted concept, zikr (Arabic dhikr) is usualy translated into English as ?remembrance? though it refers more precisely to the act of being in continuous awarenes of the presence of God. Muhamad Isa Waley?s translation of the term as ?anamnesis? or ?unforgeting? 267 is preferable, therefore, not only because it is more precise, but also because it is consistent with Sufi practice in 267 Muhamad Isa Waley, ?Contemplative Disciplines in Early Persian Sufism? in The Heritage of Sufism, Vol. 1, Clasical Persian Sufism: From its Origins to Rumi, ed. Leonard Lewisohn (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 199): 507. 191 Turkey, which, as Dane Kusi( points out, makes a clear distinction betwen unutmamak (?to not forget?) and the more general hat?rlamak (?to remember?) when defining zikr. 268 In addition to denoting memory and active consciousnes, the concept of zikr also encompases the verbalization of the name of Alah and thus it is also sometimes translated as ?invocation? or ?pronouncement.? Given the polysemy of the term, it is perhaps not surprising that the anamnesis and invocation of Alah are perpetuated in the Muslim world through a large aray of means ranging from signs and bumper stickers to spoken expresions and more formalized rituals, as the ethnographic pasages I provided earlier convey. While some scholars suggest earlier Christian traditions as possible points of origin for the practice of zikr, 269 numerous injunctions from both the Koran and Hadith establish it as undeniably Islamic. The Koran in chapter xxi, verse 50 in fact refers to itself as a type of zikr (?And this is a blesed mesage [zikr] which We have sent down?) and it devotes many of its pages to stresing the importance of zikr in Muslim worship. Sura xvii, verse 44 describes the whole universe as alive with the anamnesis of Alah (?The seven heavens and the earth, and al beings therein, declare His glory: there is not a thing but celebrates His praise?) and just as chapter xv, al-Hijr, describes al the angels in perpetual praise of Alah through zikr, so too does chapter xxxii, verses 41-42 command the same of mankind, ?Celebrate the praises of God, and do this often; and 268 Dane Kusi(, ?Discourse on Thre Teravih Namazi-s in Istanbul? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 196): 53-54. 269 Trimingham puts forth a posible conection betwen the Sufi zikr and early Syriac Christianity while Neton draws paralels betwen Benedictine monasticism and certain rites of the Ni?matul&h? and Naqshband? tarikat-s. Se J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders of Islam (New York: Oxford University Pres, 1971): 194 and Ian Richard Neton, $%f$ Ritual: The Paralel Universe (London: Curzon Pres, 200), respectively. 192 glorify Him orning and evening.? Thus, zikr is an obligatory act of Muslim worship and devotion that involves both the reading of the Koran 270 and the praising of God. There are two major types of zikr practiced in the Islamic world: zikr khafi, performed silently or in a low voice, and zikr jali, which is performed aloud. Zikr khafi, the ?hidden? zikr of the heart, involves the silent recitation of pasages from the Koran, Hadith, or writings by the one of the master Sufi poets such as the Mevlana, as wel as the ninety-nine names of God, or some other recitational formula based on the word ?Alah.? This common zikr type can be performed at any time and in any context; during prayer, while waiting for a bus, while having a conversation with a friend at a caf?, or even while listening to or performing music. Zikr khafi is typicaly facilitated by the use of tespih, a circular string of ninety-nine (or one hundred) prayer beads common everywhere in Turkey and the Middle East and especialy popular with middle aged and elderly men. Often, zikr khafi takes a more contemplative tone through the form of meditation (murakaba). The meditative zikr entails the mental or whispered pronouncement, perhaps as many as thre times per breath, of a recitational formula and is usualy performed, either with or without tespih, by means of tense physical motions: eyes firmly shut, mouth closed, and tongue presed against the roof of the mouth. Zikr jali, or zikr proclaimed ?vocaly? with the tongue, includes the same features, gestures, and recitations as zikr khafi, but it is usualy more active and is distinguished by the fact that it is performed aloud and comprises al vocal and sonic articulations of the anamnesis of Alah. The simplest and most common form of zikr jali includes the vocal exclamations used in common daily speech that invoke the name of Alah to expres joy, 270 Indicative of the dep conection betwen zikr and the Koran is the tradition maintained by some Muslims in which the entire Koran is comited to and recited from emory. Caled a hafiz (?guardian? or ?protector?), such an individual acording to Hadith is considered among the greatest of the umah. 193 surprise, or disbelief. Such typical exclamations in Arabic include simply ?Alah? as wel as other common phrases and formulas used in zikr khafi: ?subhhana ?lah? (?holines be to God?), ?alhamdu li-?lah (?praise be to God?), and ?Alhu akbar? (?God is great?). In Turkish this practice may be even more frequent as everyday speech not only makes use of some of these Arabic expresions, but is also replete with a multitude of local idioms including ?Alah?m? (?my God?), ?tanr?m? (?my God?), ?eyvalah? (?thanks to God?), and the ubiquitous ?Alah Alah? with its strong emphasis on the ?h? liaison. The more elaborate forms of zikr jali are the full ceremonies and rituals developed especialy by the various Sufi tarikat-s. It is these communal forms of zikr jali that I concentrate on most deeply in the rest of this chapter. The zikr ceremony, with its origins traced by Sufi adherents to the time of the Prophet Muhamad and the Hadith-s, has a long, complex history borne out by its changing etymology. Once known as sama? (?audition?), the ceremony came to be termed hadra (?presence?) in the ninetenth century and is now more simply and universaly named zikr after the most distinctive portion of the ceremony in which supplicants incesantly repeat either the name of God or a variety of other mystical syllables and textual formulae while swaying or rocking in a seated position. 271 Some of these rhythmic iterations include ?Alahu,? ?Hu,? ?Alah hayy? (?God lives?), and most distinctively ?L& il&ha ila Al&h? (?There is no god but God?), the tahlil (?chant?) of al-taw!$d (?unity?) drawn from first line of the shah#dah (Islamic ?cred? or ?atestation of faith?). Although zikr ceremonies can vary substantialy from one Sufi tarikat to another, and sometimes even betwen teke-s of the same tarikat, most are organized into two 271 Trimingham, 204. 194 general sections. 272 The first part involves the recitation of the office (wird, !izb, wa%$fa) of the tarikat and various prayers, while the second, refered to as the zikr proper, commences with an opening prayer, known as fatiha or the istiftah, and is followed by the rhythmic chanting of the mystical syllables and phrases. Instrumental music, especialy for percussion, and hymns and other vocal works may be performed throughout both parts of the zikr ceremony by specialists as wel as by the worshipers present. The congregation, which performs the zikr either in a seated or standing position and may be asembled in a circle or crescent, comprises both men and women who are often segregated by gender, but are sometimes intermingled, particularly on special occasions when the gathering hal is overcrowded. The zikr ceremony is performed by dervishes of virtualy al Sufi tarikat-s, save for the Nak"ibendi who normaly favor zikr khafi, and is the primary form of worship for most Sufi adherents. However, not al tarikat-s celebrate zikr in the same way, with some groups gravitating towards certain methods and techniques over others, thereby further extending the already lengthy list of zikr types. Some orders are even identified by their idiosyncratic approaches. The Yasawi of Kazakhstan, for instance, are known for their so-caled ?sawing? or ?raspy? zikr (zikr arra), which is characterized by deep expirations on the syllable ?ha? and low aspirations on ?hi.? 273 The Rifai and Cerahi tarikat-s are commonly refered to as the ?howling dervishes? on acount of their exuberant zikr ceremonies featuring loud shouting and other strident interjections, while the Mevlevi are caled the ?whirling dervishes? because of the characteristic turning of their sema. 272 Ibid., 204-05. 273 Alexander Djumaev, ?Sacred Music and Chant in Islamic Central Asia? in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6, The Midle East, ed. by Virginia Danielson, Scot Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds (New York: Routledge, 202): 943 and Trimingham, 197. 195 Such diferences in ritual practice not withstanding, and despite the panoply of zikr types I outline above, zikr ceremonies performed in the many teke-s and private homes of Turkey today exhibit a melding of styles and approaches. This development is perhaps atributable in part to the Sufi doctrine of union (al-taw!$d), but undoubtedly the hostile political climate of the twentieth century and the increasing influence from Sufi groups abroad have had their efects. For instance, many groups have adopted the sema whirling of the Mevlevi, just as the Mevlevi now also engage in the rhythmic chanting more typical of the ceremonies of other tarikat-s. Yet the blending of zikr forms is not necesarily a recent or exceptional phenomenon. In the traditional Mevlevi zikr, the semazen-s customarily utter the tahlil silently while turning and listening to music. Such merging of zikr jali and zikr khafi is a common feature of most zikr ceremonies, which although distinguished by the vocal and musical anamnesis of Alah also incorporate periods of silent prayer and reflection. Music, Ecstasy, and the Zikr Ceremony Understanding the exact role of music in the ecstatic Sufi zikr ceremony has always been a complicated mater. Early writings on the music of zikr lack specificity and are generaly limited to the perennial debate over music?s lawfulnes. 274 Moreover, while Sufi intelectuals have been the greatest exponents of music as a form of worship, among many circles of Islamic mysticism usic asumes a rather low station in the zikr hierarchy, with the silent zikr khafi considered the noble vehicle of the advanced dervish 274 Ibid. 195. 196 and the musical zikr jali regarded as the leser form of the les disciplined community. 275 The preminence of the Mevlevi tarikat and its engrossing whirling sema ceremony too has obscured full comprehension of the Sufi zikr ceremony and has likewise generated a rather imperfect view of what actualy constitutes Mevlevi music and worship. While my primary focus in this and the following chapters is not limited strictly to the devotional practices of the Mevlevi brotherhood, but rather extends to those of al devotes of the Mevlana Rumi, including followers of other Sufi tarikat-s and belief systems, my consideration here of the music and movement systems used in zikr ceremonies commemorating the Mevlana require some discussion and reasesment of the Mevlevi zikr practice. General consensus among scholars is that the Mevlevi do not practice zikr in the same communal manner as other tarikat-s. 276 Traditionaly, the Mevlevi zikr is celebrated by means of the sema ceremony, which as described in the previous chapter does not entail the swaying motions and verbal iterations of the more typical Sufi zikr ceremony. In addition to afecting the repertory of performed ritual movements and gestures, the question of what constitutes the Mevlevi zikr also has many important implications for understanding the Mevlevi musical repertory. As we shal se, Mevlevi musical praxis extends far beyond the ayin-i "erif and the corpus of compositions used in the sema ceremony that are described in academic literature and other forms of oficial culture as being akin to Turkish clasical music. Jean During, in an atempt to correct the general impresion that al Sufi music is similar to that of the clasical Mevlevi repertory, writes in a short esay entitled ?What is 275 Se for instance Neton, 200, 37-39 for his sumary of the Ni?matul&h? reckoning as wel as for a concise discusion of al-Ghazali?s primacy of fikr (?contemplation?) over zikr. 276 Se for example Binba" 71-72. 197 Sufi Music?? that just as there are multiple forms of Sufi poetry, so too is there a broad aray of Sufi musical styles. 27 During makes his exploration of Sufi music largely by contrasting the clasical music of the Mevlevi sema with both the main Sufi zikr ceremony and qawwali from South Asia. Although his comparison is methodologicaly problematic, it is nonetheles revealing of some of the basic misconceptions commonly held about Mevlevi music. During?s main focus is on the zikr ceremony, which he aserts is the ?Sufi mode of expresion par excelence, the exclusive domain of Sufism and the Islamic mystical experience.? 278 Stipulating that the zikr ?lies at the border betwen speech and music,? he nevertheles describes the ceremony itself as esentialy musical: ?the dhikr, which posseses both rhythm and pulse but lacks melody[,]?is typified by 1) a repetitive formula; 2) a pulsed or rhythmic articulation; 3) a specific vocal utterance (acentuated breathing, sound produced while breathing, non-articulated sounds, etc.).? 279 Working from the misconception that qawwali is more firmly rooted in the zikr ceremony than Mevlevi music because it bears many of these features and is not premised on secular clasical music, During suggests that the later has a les obvious ?Sufi character? and is les of an ?original creation,? thereby implying, regretably, that it is also les spiritualy genuine. 280 Putting aside the fact that qawwali is just as wel established in the clasical Hindustani musical tradition of North India and Pakistan as Mevlevi music is in the 27 During, 199. 278 Ibid., 281. 279 Ibid., 281. 280 Ibid., 281. 198 Turkish courtly repertory, 281 During?s critical mistake is the disasociation of the two ceremonial types. It is a common eroneous notion that the Mevlevi sema is not equivalent in concept to the ceremonial zikr tradition practiced by the broader Sufi community; in fact, the sema ceremony is quite simply the Mevlevi variant of the Sufi zikr ceremony and is not antithetical to it. The specious partitioning of the sema ceremony from the zikr not only frequently creates such red herings as the question of authenticity, but it has also given rise to the problem of genre clasification, a peculiar isue in Middle Eastern music given that emic distinctions are typicaly quite fluid and Western categories are often inappropriate (se Chapter Six for a more thorough discussion). Although al Sufi music, including that of the two ceremonial zikr practices, is clasified in Turkey as T?rk Tasavvuf M?zi(i (Turkish Sufi music), despite any stylistic diferences, that of the Mevlevi is universaly described as solely clasical in origin and aesthetic. Kusi(, in his disertation, explains the broader typology, but perpetuates the limited understanding of Mevlevi musical practice. Turkish tasavvuf music pertains to and embraces al Sufi musical forms without regard to their ?folk? or ?clasical? music provenance. This means that under the umbrela of tasavvuf comes al music performed in any Sufi tarikat, be it !i or S?nni. Thus the music performed in the Bekta"i ritual, as wel as the music performed in the Mevlev? derg?h, are both caled the [sic] tasavvuf music, although the diference betwen the two is great: Bekta"i music is based on Turkish folk music, with ba(lama as a musical symbol of the order: Mevlev? with ney as its symbol, is based on the same structural features as Turkish clasical music. 282 This pasage exemplifies one of the greatest lacunae in the study of the Mevlevi order and its music: their common portrayal as urban and courtly rather than also rooted 281 Qureshi, 1986, 46. 282 Kusi(, 154. 199 in folk culture and traditions. While the Mevlevi were wel ensconced in the elite structures of the Otoman Empire for much of its reign, the same is not true for the periods both before and after. As Victoria Holbrook explains, Some modern generalizing characterizations of the Mevlev? Order clasify it as primarily urban and elitist or as catering to an elite. It has been recognized to a limited extent that this was not the Order?s primary character during the period of its widest difusion (late thirtenth through early sixtenth centuries), and recognized to a leser extent that clasification of Turkish culture of Otoman times as elite vs. popular or ?high? vs. ?low? has been a function of turn-of-the-century politics, and not always as acurate or productive as once was hoped. 283 Here music helps to advance this argument considerably for even prior to the twentieth century, when the Mevlevi were forced underground with al the other Sufi tarikat-s and began to adopt the zikr ceremony more regularly, they mixed frely with Sufis of other orders and were not only wel aware of their more folk-based music and rituals, but even contributed to their repertory. This broader body of Sufi music for the zikr ceremony is one largely shared by most of Turkey?s Sunni tarikat-s, including also the Mevlevi. It comprises a wealth of musical forms extending beyond the ayin-i "erif, taksim, and other genres of the official Mevlevi sema ceremony and features mainly vocal works bearing some degre of influence from Anatolian folk music, though drumming is also common. In addition to such musical or music-like items as recitations from the Koran, readings of Sufi poetry, chanted dua-s (prayers), and other responsorial chants and formulas, the general Sufi zikr ceremony includes non-metrical vocal types such as the pre-composed durak and miraciye (ascension poem) and the largely extemporized gazel (lyric poem) and kaside 283 Victoria Holbrok, ?Diverse Tastes in the Spiritual Life: Textual Play in the Difusion of Rumi?s Order? in The Heritage of Sufism, Vol. 2, The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism (150-150), ed. Leonard Lewisohn (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 199): 107. 200 (ode). These pieces, though in fre meter, are often sung, either communaly or as solos, over a rhythmic framework set by the k?dum, bendir, or other percussion. 284 Melodic instruments like the ney, ud, keman, and ba!lama may also be played in heterophony. More commonly featured in the zikr ceremony than this asortment of ametrical vocal works are metered ilahi-s (hymns), which are set to specific usul-s and constitute the most popular devotional genre in Turkish Sufism. Sharing the same linguistic root as the Arabic word for God, the ilahi is often translated as ?divine? and the practice of hymn singing is itself considered an act of zikr. The term actualy has several meanings and is rather loosely applied today, though usualy not to the other fre meter works, even if their texts fit the typology; this is suggestive of how deeply connected the concept of the divine (ilahi) is to rhythm and the rhythmic cycles. Technicaly, the term ilahi denotes a literary form as wel as a musical genre, though as Walter Feldman explains the two are not necesarily the same. 285 With respect to the musical ilahi, Feldman notes that it is of two types: ?the ilahis that were sung while the motions of the zikr were being performed, zikr-ilahis (in Turkish no special term exists); and ilahis sung at al other occasions, including the other sections of the zikr ceremony.? The later category, the so-caled ?non-zikr ilahi-s,? comprises hymns sung on special religious occasions, namely tev"ih (?ornamentation?) ilahi-s sung on the birthday of the Prophet Muhamad and cumhur (?crowd? or ?mas?) ilahi-s sung communaly in chorus, either in unison or in heterophony, by profesional singers and connected with the hajj, Mevlit (the Prophet?s nativity), and Ramazan (fast) celebrations. The ?zikr ilahi-s,? with devotional texts by such Sufi master poets as Yunus Emre and Hafiz, praise Alah, 284 Feldman, 196, 281. 285 Ibid., 192, 192. 201 the Prophet Muhamad, and the other prophets and saints and are the archetypical genre of the zikr ceremony. Unlike the non-zikr ilahi-s, which are frequently set to long, complex usul paterns, zikr ilahi-s are usualy composed in one of two short, binary rhythmic cycles: the common Otoman usul d?yek (?one-two? in 8/8; Figure 54) or the simpler and perhaps more ancient usul sofiyan (?Sufis? in 4/4; Figure 55). 286 Figure 54: Usul D?yek Figure 55: Usul Sofiyan Although zikr ilahi-s in longer, more complex usul-s are known to have had some limited appeal in the past, as far as I could determine they have falen completely out of use today. The ilahi-s and other fre meter zikr vocal works, while not folk music per se and technicaly clasified as religious music, have their origins in popular folk forms and are otherwise performed in a folk-like manner. Many of the most common ilahi-s in particular exhibit elements typical of Anatolian folk song, including a simple strophic structure, les complicated melodies, and a narower melodic range than is used in clasical music. The hymns developed this folk-like character as early as the late eightenth century when ilahi texts began to be set to melodies similar in character to the 286 Feldman 192, 192. 202 t?rk? and "ark?, both folk and popular genres. 287 Today, this style is evident also in the fre meter vocal works, especialy the extemporized odes and lyric poems. The general characterization of the Mevlevi as urban, elite, and quite removed from these ritual and musical practices of the other Sufi orders not only sequesters the ayin tradition to a spiritual and musical cul-de-sac, it also belies the vitality and expresive dynamism enjoyed by the order both historicaly and at present. In fact, the Mevlevi have always been fre to atend and take part in the ceremonies of other tarikat-s and they have always been key participants in the great musical exchange betwen the various Sunni brotherhoods that gave birth to the zikr musical repertory discussed above. In the ninetenth century, the traditional asociation of specific ilahi and zikr types with certain tarikat-s began to disappear and diferent forms of zikr began to be performed succesively within a single ceremony. Yet even prior to this era of consolidation, musical collaboration betwen the Sufi orders was quite common, with the Mevlevi being among the most active. As Sadetin N?zhet Ergun describes so wel, A musician atached to the Mevlevi tarikat would compose a piece for a verse Halveti poet, a Sa?di could hear a Celveti work, a Bayrami could hear a Kadiri?s ilahi with its own tune in the tekke to which he belonged. Fundamentaly the words, because they were created with an eye for the type of ceremony, were distinguished not acording to tarikat but only acording to the type of zikir. There was no tradition that ?this ilahi is sung in the Rufai tekkes; it is not sung in the Kadiri tekkes.? 28 The Mevlevi musician Ergun refers to at the beginning of this pasage is Nayi Osman Dede (1652-1730), the patriarch of the great silsila of Mevlevi composers (se Chapter 287 Ibid., 192. 28 Translated in Feldman, 192, 189. For the original se Sadetin Nuzhet Ergun, T?rk Musikisi Antolojisi, vol. 1 (Istanbul, 1943): 124. 203 Four), and the piece in question is his miraciye, described by Feldman as a sort of oratorio on Muhamad?s ascension into Paradise. 289 Regarded as one of the most elaborate works of the whole Otoman period, the fre meter miraciye was commonly performed by the Halveti and was also preserved by the Mevlevi. In reality Mevlevi ritual and musical praxis was considerably more flexible and varied than it is usualy described. Although clasical art music genres are typical of the standard Mevlevi sema ceremony, some measure of folk influence is evident in the son y?r?k sema?i genre that concludes the ayin suite. 290 Moreover, the Mevlevi did sometimes celebrate zikr with the singing of ilahi-s, even though it was not their usual custom, as Ergun atests. If it is suitable for the %ikr, it was possible to sing some parts of the Mavlav? ?y?n (?y?n-i "er?f), in other &ar$?at ?y?n. In fact, Mavlav? did not sing il?h? (hymns). This was not because they despised the il?h?s, but because of the requirements of their ?y?n. Moreover, on the special days when mevl?d or mir?ciye was sung, they might invite members of other "ar?#ats and after Mavlav? sam??, they might leave the conduct of the meting to the oldest "eyh (head of a tarikat) who is present in that meting; and they might be alowed to sing hymns and to perform %ikr-i ??y#m$ (%ikr performed standing) or zikr-i ?u?ud? (zikr performed siting). 291 More revealing stil is the fact that some later Mevlevi were prolific composers in the song forms of the zikr ceremony; Zekai Dede Efendi (1825-97) alone composed eighty ilahi-s and also left behind four durak-s. Perhaps more routinely than they ever did historicaly, Mevlevi dervishes today continue to atend as wel as host ceremonies in which congregants gather around 289 Feldman 196, 95. 290 Se Feldman., 196, 460-63 and 491 for his theory on this. 291 Translated in Binba", 71. For the original se Ergun, 1, 124. 204 whirling semazen-s to sing ilahi-s and kaside-s and rhythmicaly intone the zikr formulas. Although these zikr-s and genres inexplicably fal outside of the general scope of what is deemed ?Mevlevi music,? they have nevertheles esentialy replaced the traditional sema ceremony as the main vehicle for Mevlevi comunal worship. These hybrid zikr afairs are held wekly in the teke-s of Konya and at other Mevlevi centers al over Turkey, but are especialy popular and more frequent during the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs when public sema ceremonies are also most prevalent. In efect, two concurrent ceremonial forms are in existence in Turkey today in which devotes can remember and honor both Alah and the Mevlana Rumi. Though paralel in many ways, the zikr ceremonies and Mevlevi whirling shows are also quite disimilar. The cardinal diferences al stem from the fact that the official sema ceremonies are more standardized and restricted than the private zikr-s. Performed by profesional, usualy conservatory trained, musicians and semazen-s, today?s public sema-s feature a fixed program of music, a tightly choreographed series of movements, and a rigidly limited window for expresing ecstasy. Zikr ceremonies on the other hand are unrestricted trance s?ances in which both musicians and congregants are fre to talk, sing, clap, play music, sit, stand, bow, prostrate, whirl, and move about virtualy unfetered. Practicaly any form of music, including taksim-s, pe"rev-s, ayin movements, and folk songs, may be performed at a zikr ceremony, though ilahi-s, kaside-s, dua-s, and recitations from the Koran tend to predominate. Both amateur musicians and trained specialists frely intermix during the zikr rite and play whatever instruments are at hand acording to their ability. Thus, while the ?public? sema-s are ironicaly quite confined 205 events offering litle opportunity for communal interaction, the ?private? zikr-s are paradoxicaly more open and welcoming. The more liberal zikr atmosphere, though, does not mean that the rites do not have their own proscribed formats, however loose they may be. For instance, the gatherings held at the dergah of Nuri Baba in downtown Konya, which I describe in more detail in the following sections of this chapter, abide to the general binary layout described earlier. The first part includes the recitation of the office of the order and perhaps also a few prayers, Koran recitations, blesing, or invocations, either spoken or rendered in heightened speech. This part of the zikr gathering can last up to an hour and is usualy dominated by the canonical Islamic prayer ritual (namaz) and its complex series of bows and prostrations, collectively termed rekat-s. 292 While the namaz ritual, performed five times daily, is more frequently asociated with the mosque, Muslims may execute it anywhere clean and several of my informants explained to me that they prefered to perform it at the dergah as opposed to a mosque because it is coupled with the succeding collective zikr experience. The second half of the zikr ceremony, then, comprises the shared zikr rite. It usualy begins with the communal intonation of the opening prayer (fatiha), though sometimes the current presiding "eyh forgoes this and does not perform it. What ensues after a short pause is an ever-changing succesion of ilahi-s, kaside-s, and other vocal works acompanied always by the k?dum, and perhaps also a bendir and other instruments. The exact sequence of pieces is selected by the musicians present and is sometimes determined by the religious occasion. For instance, during the wek of the Mevlana Festival texts by Rumi may be recited or sung. Once a vocal piece begins, the 292 Se Kusi(, 191-96 for a more thorough description. 206 worshipers gathered, usualy seated in a kneeling or cross-legged position, slowly begin to enact the zikr movements, rocking up and down or swaying from right to left. Those who know the hymns may opt to sing along instead of chant. Vocal iterations of ?Alah? or the other zikr formulas begin shortly thereafter; rarely have I ever witnesed a zikr ceremony in which the rhythmic chanting either precedes or is done without the music. The acompanying percussion usualy continues to play wel after the piece has concluded and only ceases once either the congregants have achieved a fevered pitch in their chanting or the "eyh or another singer intones a prayer or other song. At this point, the congregation setles briefly before the proces is repeated. This music, in addition to praising Alah, the Prophet Muhamad, or the various saints, also has the core function of facilitating an ecstatic state. Theophony in the zikr ceremony is achieved principaly either through the counterclockwise turning of the sema or by the rhythmic inhalations and movements of the chanted zikr. The ecstatic state experienced by semazen-s generaly tends to be more tranquil in nature, though whirlers often describe the episode as emotionaly very painful or overwhelming and sometimes break down in tears afterward. Zikr trancing, meanwhile, may result in the worshiper faling to the side in a frenzied fit, shaking and convulsing; resembling what in other traditions across the world is refered to as spirit possesion. Although Sufi scholars as wel as the trancers I interviewed claim that ecstasy is always involuntary, worshipers do sek it out and actively participate in zikr and sema in order to achieve it. This not withstanding, Shems Friedlander?s acount of the proces is similar to those described to me by informants. 207 As one turns, orientation is lost; one loses one?s grip on things. Intelect and action become one and existence is without boundaries. 293 More revealing, though likewise dificult to reconcile with ethnomusicological scholarship on trance, is that a few of my European informants pointed to the repetitive nature of the underlying drumming as the potential trigger of their ecstatic states. This corresponds with Judith Becker?s recent observations on the phenomenon. The asumption that druming can claim a particularly potent role in triggering trancing has not abated in spite of Rouget?s atempts to refute it (Rouget 1985: 172-76). The sheer frequency with which drumming is asociated with trancing contributes to the persistence of the belief in a causal connection betwen the two. 294 The end of the zikr sesion is signaled by the "eyh, who may recite a verse from the Koran or a simple chant glorifying Alah and the Prophet Muhamad before he narates a litany of praises to the various other saints and holy men of Sufi Islam. The congregants punctuate this lengthy string of names with drawn out ?Hu-s? and collective ?amin-s.? Curiously, the ceremony officialy concludes with the communal singing of the fatiha, a formula that by definition is actualy an opening chant. After a period of contemplation and meditation, congregants normaly partake in sohbet (?spiritual discourse?) and are often ofered tea and snacks; on occasion light vegetarian meals may be served and sometimes tea and swets are also provided before the zikr even begins. 295 293 Friedlander, 203, 89. 294 Becker, 204, 37. Se also Avery, 204. 295 The conections betwen fod, music, and tasavuf are numerous. In the Mevlevi tarikat, adepts normaly served for an extended period in the kitchen of a teke while learning sema and repeating zikr. This practice coresponds to a famous verse by the Mevlana regarding spiritual development: ?I was raw, then coked, and now I am burnt.? Se Friedlander, 203, 15. In adition, as Feldman, 192, 191 explains, music and sema are often described as fod for the soul and the word neva not only denotes fod, but also is the name of a popular makam. However, the curent convention of comunal fod sharing after zikr runs contrary to the practice described by al-Ghazali in the eleventh century: ?After audition some of them dispense with fod for days on acount of the nourishment of their spirits and hearts with 208 In the atmosphere of boisterous conviviality after the last fatiha, musicians often play taksim-s or sing more ilahi-s or folk songs on the ba!lama. No mere divertimenti, however, congregants often spontaneously turn these into short zikr s?ances that then require another formal conclusion involving a recitation from the Koran or the fatiha. Though the zikr rite usualy lasts around an hour, a full gathering occupies the whole evening and on occasions such as that of the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs it may go on past 11:00 p.m. or even until midnight. Ethnography of a Zikr Gathering December 16, 2004 Konya Closing the gate behind me and quickly making my way across the courtyard, I can hear that the congregants gathered inside the building at the far end have already begun the zikr ceremony. The rhythmic chanting of their faint voices and the mufled thunder of the kud?m fil the air as I pas the smal structure containing the tomb of Haci Abdullah Horasani, a thirtenth century devote of the Mevlana. I enter the adjacent main building, eager to escape the biter evening cold, and am imediately enveloped by the din of the ceremony and the comforting warm, moist air of the dergah of Nuri Baba. Knowing how hot it gets in the ceremony hal over the course of the zikr, I find a fre spot on the long coat rack in the foyer and hang up four of my five layers of clothing. I have a hard time, however, finding space for my old beat up shoes as the floor underneath is strewn with hundreds of sundry pieces of footwear. Most people spend lengthy portions of the day outside traveling to and fro on dirty sidewalks and strets, and unsen mystical experiences (w#rid#t).? Se James Robson, Tracts on Listening to Music (London, 1938): 12-13. 209 as prayer and eating are usualy done on the floor, it is no minor custom in Islamic culture to remove shoes before entering a home or holy place; rather it is an important act of respect and hygiene. I cast my shoes in the pile, not too concerned about finding them later, and enter the rectangular room to the left, where a sea of Mevlana devotes on the rich, deep blue carpet slowly begins to ebb and flow in communal movement. With wel over a hundred congregants gathered in the smal room this evening, it is dificult to find a seat, but I eventualy manage a spot at the front, on the left near the door. Located in the maze of strets behind the shrine of the Mevlana in central Konya, the dergah is particularly popular with foreign visitors, especialy Sufi pilgrims from Mevlevi and other international tarikat-s like the Nak"ibendi and Chishti who come to Konya in December for the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs. In addition, a few tourists and other transients, alternatively refered to as either ?spiritual window shoppers? or ?cosmic wanderers? by some of my more cynical non-Sufi informants, invariably find their way here, usualy as guests of one of the many friends of the dergah. This year, large numbers of Persian and Latvian pilgrims have joined the usual Turkish, European, and North American crowds. A few Israelis, an Australian backpacker or two, a couple of international frelance journalists, and a French anthropologist fil out the rest. During zikr gatherings, the room is often divided into two unequal halves by a white curtain located next to a stove furnace of to my right. Drawing the curtain across the room alows for the creation of a smaler, private space in which women can perform ritual worship in the back. Although unsen by the men, their presence is usualy heard through their very active participation in the zikr, which involves not only exuberant chanting and singing, but also instrument playing. With so many participants tonight, 210 however, gender segregation is impractical and women and men are frely intermixed throughout. On the far wal, no longer shrouded by the curtain, a bookcase loaded with Korans, prayer books, sheet music, and musical instruments?bendir-s, tef-s, and a kud?m set?normaly used by the women is visible. A long-neck ba!lama, also known as the saz, hangs next to the shelves, and lined al along the wals are dozens of picture frames containing posters of Meca and Arabic caligraphy. From the ceiling above, two spiraling florescent light bulbs covered by circular white plates decorated with flowers light up the room. In the corner opposite me, a smal table bearing a portrait of the Mevlana Rumi and various other religious items functions as a sort of altar. Seated on cushions on either side is a contingent of high-level male Turkish dervishes, including Ali Baba, succesor to the beloved Haci Nuri Baba Efendi who served as "eyh of the dergah until he pased away in 1998. Bowing respectfully to Ali Baba, I take my seat next to the musicians who line the wal to the right of the makeshift altar, below two windows opening out into the courtyard. The number of instrumentalists and singers performing during a zikr changes from one evening to the next and is dependent on whoever is wiling and able. Anyone in the congregation wishing to sing or play is also always welcome to sit with the mutrib-s if they choose. Tonight, an exceptionaly large ensemble of various singers and instrumentalists has formed, including thre ney players, thre keman (violin) players, and thre percussionist-singers playing tef, bendir, and kud?m. The singers often sing into a microphone, which despite the local tendency toward secrecy, is usualy put on the 211 echo seting, making the vocal timbre reminiscent of the cal to prayer that travels and reverberates through the city strets. Performing from emory and a combination of shet music and published books of poetry and prayers, the musicians and "eyh lead a ceremony consisting of various recitations from the Koran, prayers, poetry readings, responsorial chants, instrumental solos, and sung hymns, the order of which is only sometimes loosely predetermined. Ritual gatherings at the dergah are normaly held on Saturdays beginning at 7:00 p.m., though with this being Mevlana wek, zikr-s are being hosted every evening. Like most of the other foreign and non-Muslim congregants, I chose to come to the dergah a bit later this evening as other scheduled festival events have kept me otherwise occupied, and normaly the first hour is reserved for contemplation and standard namaz (?Islamic ritual worship?). Stil, I am rather surprised to find so many celebrants here before 8:00 p.m. and the zikr already under way. Many more arive at the dergah over the course of the evening, with perhaps as many as one hundred and fifty to two hundred people packing into the smal, hot hal at the height of the ceremony. Presently, only the kud?m and bendir are playing at the end of what began as a comunaly sung ilahi. Moving their heads vigorously from side to side and repeating the word ?Alah? and such variants as ?Halah Halah,? ?Ya-lah,? ?Hu,? ?Ho,? and ?Hey,? the seated congregants with closed eyes eagerly work themselves into a fit of ecstasy. Within a few moments, however, the kud?m player pounds out a few steady repeated strokes, signaling al to slow down and cease, though the bendir player ignores this and continues playing a highly charged, galoping rhythm until al the congregants have joined in a long, sustained ?Hu? drone. 212 After a brief pause for contemplation, one of the singers begins to recite a pasage from the Koran, which blares out of the speakers located at the back of the hal by the stove. A few of the worshipers have taken up a posture of serenity after touching their foreheads to the ground, kneeling with eyes closed, their heads drooping to the right as their right hands hover over their hearts. Most, however, continue to blurt out ?Hu? and ?Alah? or talk with their neighbors. By the end of the Koran recitation, nearly al have calmed down and returned to a more sober state, joining the "eyh for a communal response based on the fatiha. After a couple of minutes of coughing, contemplation, and prayer, the musicians begin another hymn, acompanied heterophonicaly by the ney and rhythmicaly by the kud?m, bendir, and tef. Ready for more, the congregants familiar with the hymn sing along until the text setles into a flowing ?Alahu? and one excited celebrant screams out a quick ?Alahu,? prompting al to engage in the zikr more forcefully and coalesce into a steady chanting of the name of Alah. Over the course of the performance, the enthusiastic bendir player has increased the speed of the hymn slowly so that now at the purely rhythmic pasage following the ilahi, the tempo of the percussion acompanying the chanting congregants is noticeably quicker than it was at the beginning. After a few moments of this heavy trance section, the bendir and kud?m fade out weakly, though most worshipers continue steadily into a third hymn. The new hymn commences as a vocal solo in fre rhythm, with the ?Alah-s? uttered by the congregants betwen the verses of the plaintive melody blending in seamlesly with the timbre of the singer?s voice echoing from the speakers. Shortly after the worshipers have calmed down again, however, the kud?m lightly beats out a four- 213 beat patern and suddenly the entire congregation joins in, acompanied by the ney, several bendir-s, and a tef. The percussion and chanting celebrants continue in communal ecstasy uninterupted for quite some time, even as the hymn eventualy gives way to an ode in praise of Alah sung by a diferent singer. As the rhythms and tempi quicken and intensify, the congregants become ever more agitated and involved, and at one point a lengthy cal and response pasage based on the mystical phrase ?L& il&ha ila Al&h? (?There is no god but God?) ensues among the worshipers. One of the female dervishes is even moved to stand up and perform sema, though there is litle room on the floor for al those dresed in full white tunics and felt conical hats to do the same; at les crowded zikr-s as many as eight or twelve semazen-s wil take to the floor. This lengthy and intense rhythmic segment continues unbroken for almost fiften minutes, long after the ode has come and gone. Normaly, such stretches of drumming and chanting are alowed to go on for even longer, with the zikr reaching a fevered pitch before the worshipers are returned to a more pasive state. However, as there are so many people present and there has already been an incident in which one the Iranian pilgrims fainted tonight, the "eyh and musicians are careful to keep things under some restraint. The zikr concludes with a reading from the Koran and a very long recited litany of praises to Alah, Haci Nuri Baba, and the many other saints and holy figures important to various tarikat-s, including Haci Bekta" Veli and %ams Tabrizi, al of whom receive a bow and short ?Hu? as a show of respect. The Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi, however, receives the deepest bow and the longest and most low-pitched and profound ?Hu? of al. A few celebrants maintain a continuous ?Hu? droning throughout the whole of the litany. 214 After a short communal respond in which Alah and Muhamad are praised, the congregation gives way to solemn contemplation and then unabated chater and communal sharing of food. As usual, tea and fruits are served on circular plastic floral print tablecloths spread out on the floor. A faint ney improvisation floats through the air as celebrants eat and engage in religious discussions. Suddenly, an emphatic, prolonged zikr based on the tahlil emerges from the ney taksim; evidently, the congregants were not satisfied with the short, half hour zikr and are keen to extend communal worship wel into the evening. After only a few minutes, however, profound ?Hu-s,? ?amin-s,? and the fatiha bring the gathering to an early end as the elderly "eyh is tired and must prepare for the commemorations of the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs the next day. Most linger a bit longer, finishing up their discussions and waiting for the crowds to disperse. I am invited by several of the congregants to another zikr gathering that wil shortly be held at a carpet shop; clearly many are not ready to cal it an early night. On the way out, I ironicaly locate my shoes right away, but have more dificulty finding my coat and sweaters. Arcs of Ascent and Descent: Analysis of a Zikr Ceremony As evident in the acount above, the concept of motion permeates throughout the Sufi zikr ceremony. Participants are impeled by their devotional convictions and desires for ecstatic onenes to be in constant movement, even as various structural conventions and other ritual forces require periods of relative stasis. Ultimately, therefore, the zikr aesthetic of motion is not so much one of perpetual progresion, as in a straight line, but one of incremental forward and backward and up and down movement, best 215 conceptualized and represented by thre curved geometric shapes each loaded with deep theological and semiotic meaning: the circle, the spiral, and especialy the arc or crescent. These designs are manifest in the conceptualization and enactment of the most rudimentary performative elements of the zikr, such as in physical gestures, vocal iterations, volume, rhythm, and tempo, as wel as in the overal structure of the whole gathering. On both the microscopic and macroscopic levels, the movement aesthetics of the zikr ceremony are les tied to melodic modulation than in the sema ceremony (se Chapter Four). Though change of makam does occur betwen the various vocal works sung in the zikr, it is neither as extensive nor as elaborate as in the sema ritual; nor is this form of musical motion as symbolicaly meaningful or consistently performed in the zikr gatherings. The distinction is atributable in part to the spontaneous nature of the zikr sesions as wel as to the limited technical training and amateur status of the musicians, who place greater emphasis on rhythmic movement and the intensification of tempo and volume. My analysis therefore focuses on these elements and not on melody and mode. It is in such elemental features as wel as in the general overal ebb and flow of sung pieces that the geometrical curves and arches of the zikr ceremony are most apparent. While Pacholczyk raises some important reservations about interpreting such shapes and mandalas in music, pointing out that there is rarely any hard, direct evidence that can corroborate such analyses, 296 both he and Y?r?r, nevertheles, have made convincing arguments for their application to musical structure and tempo. 297 Indeed, such interpretations often come from Sufis themselves; Sufi literature on music is replete 296 Pacholczyk, ?Music and Astronomy in the Muslim World,? 150. 297 Se Ibid., Sufyana Musiqi and Y?r?r, 1989. 216 with metaphorical interpolations based on geometry, numerology, and other forms of symbolism, as mystics tend to find or impose meaning on everything. In his writings on the movements of the zikr ceremony, for instance, al-Ghazali, the foremost Sufi scholar of the eleventh century, describes thre main physical forms of worship?dancing, whirling, and jumping?in figurative terms. The dancing is a reference to the circling of the spirit round the cycle of existing things?. The whirling is a reference to the spirit?s standing with Alah in its inner nature (sir) and being (wuj%d)?. And his leaping up is a reference to his being drawn from the human station to the unitive station. 298 In esence, the thre movements are correlated to the circle, the spiral, and the arc of ascent. Modern scholars vary somewhat from al-Ghazali in their taxonomies of the positions and movements used during the zikr ritual. Walter Feldman, without drawing paralels to the sacred geometries, likewise identifies thre main types of zikr postures, but his list includes standing, whirling, and siting or kneeling as the primary methods of worship. 29 Traditionaly, a zikr gathering would normaly feature just one of theses zikr forms, as determined by the customs of the hosting tarikat. Today, however, a greater degre of variety and blending is more common. In the zikr ceremonies held at the dergah of Nuri Baba, for instance, al thre of Feldman?s primary zikr postures are possible, though some are more frequently featured than others. The whirling zikr, performed by way of the circling and spiraling sema, has special significance in the dergah and is the ideal method of zikr performance. Its frequency, however, is limited both by the size of the gathering hal and by the 298 Se Robson, 9-10. 29 Feldman, 192, 196-97. 217 availability of whirlers, as not al dervishes learn to perform sema. In the ceremony described in the previous section, the hal was full to capacity and there was only enough room for a few hirlers to take turns and briefly perform sema, even though many had dresed in the traditional Mevlevi semazen tunic. On more regular occasions, up to a dozen congregants wil perform the whirling zikr, usualy one at a time and dresed in stret clothes, though al permutations are possible. A zikr gathering without sema is considered lacking, and at those times when there are no expert whirlers in atendance, even the most poorly trained adept is alowed to take the floor or, baring that, it may be that one of the musicians wil temporarily have to stop playing or singing in order to render the sema, the physical movement taking precedence over the music. Of Feldman?s tripartite listing, the standing zikr is the least common at the dergah because it is the least active, and it is performed by some only out of necesity, such as on occasions when the prayer hal is overcrowded and there is not enough room for al those in atendance to asume the other two postures. The standing zikr is normaly performed in an erect, stationary position and is more appropriate for individual, meditative worship than for the communal gatherings usualy held at the dergah. In the ceremony I described earlier, those congregants who were forced to stand along the wals or by the entrance to the gathering hal were never imobile for long and instead swayed about rhythmicaly and enacted a repetitive sequence of bows, in efect performing a more upright variant of the kneeling or siting zikr. This third zikr posture is the one most commonly performed at the dergah and is the one I concentrate on in this section. Although the seated zikr is les overtly symbolic than the circling and spiraling sema, a more thorough analysis of the specific movement 218 motives reveals a wealth of symbolism not explored by Feldman in his taxonomy. The typical posture asumed by the Turkish and other Asian congregants and musicians is that of kneeling, with the hands resting on the legs; Westerners, finding this position uncomfortable after a few minutes, usualy sit with their legs crossed. Only the elderly "eyh ever sits leaning against the wal with one knee up, as this gesture is otherwise considered improper. The kneeling position is regarded as the most appropriate for zikr because it is also part of the sequence of movements of the canonical namaz and is thereby connected to the important Islamic act of prostration. Although prostration is not an element of the siting or kneeling zikr, congregants do bow repeated as they rhythmicaly chant the standard zikr formulas, and this simple act of bowing is endowed with the most complex layers of Sufi mystical symbolism. By bowing downward, supplicants not only humble themselves before God, they also enact the sacred geometrical shape of the arc of descent. This arc represents the divine act of creation and the means by which God reveals Himself to mankind and the physical world. The complementary upward motion, by contrast, represents the arc of ascent, the path on which humanity travels in its ultimate quest for unity with Alah. The upward return to the seated position is also highly symbolic in that it has the added meaning of resisting or even defying the physical world and is further connected to the concept of negation in other ways. In Turkey and the Middle East, as wel as in Bulgaria, ?no? is conceived of as a word that must move in an upward direction, as indicated by a variety of common gestures: a deliberate lifting of the chin, a quick raising of the eyebrows, an up and down nod, or a shucking sound created by raising and presing the tongue against the roof of the mouth and clicking. Any combination of these 219 can be used, with or without a verbal declaration of the word for ?no? (hay?r in Turkish, l# in Arabic). Such negation is also implicit in the motions of the seated zikr, which is performed so that an upward movement of the torso or head is tied directly to either the ?-lah? of ?Alah? or the first syllable of the tahlil, the ?L& il&ha ila Al&h? (?There is no god but God?) formula. In addition, the up and down motions of the seated zikr taken together correspond to the compound Arabic leter = (> + *), pronounced l#, and thus the gesture is interpreted as 1) a physical defiance of terestrial existence, 2) an embodiment of the concept of not-forgeting, and 3) an active reafirmation of al-taw!$d, the unity and monotheism of the One God. The circle and spiral too are important geometrical symbols manifest in the physical gestures of the seated zikr. The union of the arcs of descent and ascent naturaly generates a complete circle and inspires the repetitive up and down nature of the zikr, making it ultimately a ritual of cyclical gestures. In addition, circularity is also obvious in the way that congregants usualy sit on the floor of the prayer hal in a large circle (halka) and sometimes move their heads in circular motions while their torsos continue to bow repeatedly. In fact, a careful study of the physical gestures made by congregants, especialy during the most intense periods of the zikr, additionaly reveals a variety of spiraling movements formed by the head, limbs, and torso. Heavy trancers in particular often vary their up and down motions with front to back and side to side movements, embodying the Sufi doctrine of the six directions of human motion as they swing, twist, and thrash about widely and sometimes violently. The concept of motion and the sacred geometries, in addition to being enacted physicaly through the postures and gestures of the seated zikr, are also evident in the way 220 that vocal utterances undergo a general proces of contraction over the course of a vocal piece and in the way that such other elements as volume, tempo, and rhythm become incrementaly more intense. For the vocalized facets of the zikr, Jean During identifies an overal patern in which spoken, chanted, and sung material becomes progresively shorter in length as the ceremony advances; a proces he describes as circular and mandalic in nature. The unfolding of most dhikr can be represented by a series of concentric circles starting with the largest and culminating with the smalest, that is, the center. The dhikr begins as long, articulated, sung phrases (wird), but these are followed by shorter and shorter phrases. The final dhikr is no longer articulated and no longer has contrasting diferentiated parts. It is reduced to a unity?a breath?as a circle can ultimately be reduced to a point. Thus it is no longer a rhythmic cycle of six, four, or two periods but a simple, pulsating point. Dervishes can be said to have reached the center when they no longer need the material asistance of the dhikr but are submerged in an empowering supernatural force. 30 Although During?s interpretation is more suggestive of a spiral rather than a circle and while what he describes does not agre fully with the ceremonies I studied? for instance, ilahi-s and other vocal pieces of more or les equal length are sung throughout, creating very clearly diferentiated sections in the ceremony?his principal is useful and applicable in a general way. It is on the more microscopic level that During?s notion of cyclicism is most evident in the zikr ceremonies I studied and it is especialy clear in the repeated iterations of the vocal phrases pronounced by the congregants. Even the chanting of the tahlil, the longest and most complex of al the formulas, folows this principle, as it is recited repeatedly al in one breath. Here, a circular patern consisting of the arcs of ascent and descent emerges as the negative first half of the formula (?L& il&ha?) is exhaled in an 30 During, 202, 185. 221 upward motion, while the positive afirmation of the One God (?ila Al&h?) is inhaled and pulled forcefully downward. Yet this circular concept goes only so far, as the spiral design ultimately prevails, particularly when the practice of vocal contraction is taken into acount. Over the course of the ceremony, it is common for congregants, especialy as they move deeper and deeper into an ecstatic state, for the chanted phrases they recite to shorten in length. The common ?Alahu,? for instance, reduces to ?Hu,? ?Alah hayy? becomes either ?Alah? or ?hayy,? and the tahlil moves from ?L& il&ha ila Al&h? to simply ?Alah.? This patern of verbal contraction occurs in conjunction with a gradual intensification of volume, rhythm, and tempo both over the course of an individual song as wel as throughout a whole ceremony. In the ceremony I described in the previous section, each of the vocal pieces is initialy acompanied by the chanted formulas in a low whisper and by soft to moderately loud percussion. The extemporized ode, for instance, though in fre meter, is acompanied in the beginning by faint, tentative strokes on the kud?m and, eventualy, by the light murmurs of the ?Alah hayy? formula. By the middle and most clearly at the end of the ode and during the succeding long drumming pasage, when the zikr formulas no longer compete with the sung text, the whispers give way to emphatic chanting as wel as to shouts and screams, while the k?dum, now joined by the batery of bendir-s, thunders away in a vigorous fortisimo. This patern of dynamics is typical not only of al kaside-s, ilahi-s, and other individual sung forms, but of the gathering overal, which begins with quiet, introspective namaz, moves into the recitation of the office and other prayers, and culminates in the boisterous zikr before atenuating in a period of contemplation and then social 222 conviviality. This general outline, however, reveals neither a spiral, nor even a circle, but ultimately a series of arcs or crescents. Thus, while each vocal work may increase in volume as it segues into its extended percussive coda, suggesting perhaps a linear or spiraling trajectory, the obligatory cadence into a quieter period for contemplation afterwards indicates instead the sacred geometrical shape of the arc, by which the supplicant not only rises toward God but also descends to the physical world. Even in the case of the zikr formulas, it is not uncommon for congregants, once they have spiraled through enough of one formula, to begin reciting another and thereby initiate a new proces of contraction, creating in efect a series of smaler arcs within the larger arc of the vocal piece. This concept of the arc is borne out in yet other elements of the ritual as wel. With respect to rhythm, for instance, although the aspirated or chanted zikr formulas and underlying rhythmic framework of the zikr ceremony are invariably described by scholars as performed simply by means of a repeating ostinato or rhythmic mode, 301 common zikr praxis reveals that the aesthetic is more complicated and is not based on literal or strict cyclicism. Considerable rhythmic variety is evident not only over the course of an entire ceremony, but even in the performance of a single vocal piece, as the proces of contracting the zikr formulas results in the iteration of various paterns that can difer greatly from the shifting rhythmic cycles performed by the acompanying percussionists. During the intense kaside discussed previously, for example, the rhythms of the contracting ?Alah hayy? performed by the congregants are not the same as the cycles 301 Se for instance Ali Jihad Racy, ?Overview of Music in the Mashriq,? in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6, The Midle East, ed. by Virginia Danielson, Scot Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds (New York: Routledge, 202): 543. 223 performed by the kud?m player, who likewise sems to prefer rhythmic variety (compare Figures 56 and 57). Figure 56: Rhythmic Contraction of the ?Alah Hayy? Formula Figure 57: Changes in Kud?m Rhythmic Cycles Thus, while the rhythmic paterns may be cyclicaly reiterated, the overal sensibility reveals that the cycle or circle is les of an al-pervading concept than is usualy asumed. In fact, when the rhythmic aspects of the zikr are studied in conjunction with tempo, their natural counterpart, the overiding importance of the arc once again predominates. The gradual aceleration of rhythms over the course of a vocal piece can often be quite dramatic, particularly as they are embodied through the motions of ritual worship. The greatest fluctuations in speed are usualy exhibited in the vocal works at the beginning of a zikr ceremony, with tempo doublings from ! = 60 to ! = 120 being not uncommon. Les dramatic, though stil quite perceptible, are tempo variations occurring in works sung later, when the rate of intensification is already high. In the case of our later fre meter ode, the kud?m player, urged on by the pulsations of the chanting congregants, gradualy acelerates from ! = 116 to ! = 120, then to ! = 132, culminating in ! = 138 before very quickly decelerating to the end. As the tempo quickens, the rhythmic paterns, dynamics, vocal iterations, and physical gestures al intensify, creating 224 what is perceived as an ascendant trajectory that must then descend and atenuate. As Feldman articulates, In the zikr?time is continualy emphasized by changes of tempo, both aceleration and deceleration. The zikr must always give the impresion of organic life?moving, flowing, and even reversing itself. Although the il#h$ler of some parts of the zikr may have certain fixed sequences, the ideal is never cyclical (as it is in the fas?l or ay$n). Rather, the z#kirba"? and the shaykh continualy alter the order and constitution of the particular hymns in acordance with the perception of the spiritual moment (#n). 302 In esence, the whole of the zikr ceremony is comprised of a series of rising and faling arcs within which the other sacred geometrical designs, the circle and spiral, are also embedded. The overal arching scheme is made al the more prominent by the alternation of vocal pieces like the kaside, the ilahi, and other works generaly connected with the arc of ascent with prayers and recitations from the Koran, which are asociated with the arc of descent. As Feldman again observes, In terms of musical semantics, the zikr may be sen as the opposite of the Qur?&nic tecvit (Arabic, tajw$d), which represents the word of Alah descending to man. The tecvit conveys timelesnes, represented by the nonmetrical flowing rhythm?. The zikr, by contrast, is mankind?s response to Alah: mankind seks to imitate the worship of the angels by continualy afirming the existence of Alah both through words and through circumambulation of his throne (?ars)?. 303 Thus, as this chapter demonstrated, it is through the undulating ebbs and flows of the zikr ceremony that faithful celebrants both praise Alah and commemorate the Mevlana Rumi. As careful analysis demonstrates, this ritual of communal anamnesis is based on the fundamental doctrine and aesthetic of motion, which is manifest through the sacred geometric shapes of the circle, the spiral, and most significantly the arcs of ascent 302 Feldman, 202, 192. 303 Ibid., 192. 225 and descent at al levels from the most broad scale aspect of overal form to the most minute details of music and ritual gesture. What this chapter further reveals is that devotional worship of the Mevlana is neither restricted ritualy or musicaly to the archetypical forms preserved today by the Turkish state, nor limited only to afiliates of the Mevlevi order. Rather, even the most private of ceremonies is celebrated by initiates of diverse tarikat-s as wel as by followers of virtualy every faith in the world. The music, which serves as the main vehicle of communal worship, is also more variegated than is usualy acknowledged, and even draws from repertories previously thought to be unrelated. To fully understand the current renewal of Mevlana culture, therefore, old paradigms of what constitutes the music of the cult of the Mevlana need to be reconsidered and expanded. Thus, in the folowing two chapters my focus becomes increasingly les centered on ?Mevlevi music? per se than on music for the Mevlana. My more comprehensive approach alows for the inclusion and evaluation of other forms of music that normaly fal outside the scope of traditional scholarship and uncovers an even richer world of musical and devotional expresion than I have described until now. Before turning to the great variety of non-Turkish musics used in devotional contexts in Chapter Seven, I explore at length in the following chapter a wide range of popular musical forms that too set out to honor the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi. 226 CHAPTER SIX SOUNDS LIKE SUFI SPIRIT: THE MEVLANA IN POPULAR MUSIC AND CULTURE This chapter, divided into eight sections, traces the religious and musical events that have given rise to various Sufi popular music scenes now emergent in Turkey and elsewhere across the world. It describes the way in which specificaly the Mevlana and the religious practices of his devotes have been absorbed into popular music and culture both localy in Turkey and globaly in places like the United States, Western Europe, India, and Pakistan. I put forward the premise that the development of Sufi popular musical forms has in part helped to promote Sufism in Turkey and has stimulated its growth there despite the official law that prohibits its existence as a living religion. To this end, I begin with a short anecdote ilustrating the fact that popular musical expresions of Sufism can be found even in the least likely of places in Turkey, in this instance at a supermarket where I purchased a CD of music I analyze a litle later in the chapter. In the second section, I step back a bit so as to both outline the development of popular music in general in Turkey and to consider some of the major isues surrounding the establishment of a specificaly Sufi meta-genre of popular music. Having laid out this foundation, I concentrate in the rest of the chapter on various popular styles that have been rather receptive to Sufi themes. My discussion delves first into thre non-Turkish popular forms that have been mutualy influential and have also served as precursors of and catalysts for the genesis of Turkish forms of Sufi popular music, which I analyze in detail at the end of the chapter. 227 Thus, in the third section, I explore the rise in popularity of the New Age spiritual movement and explain how Sufi, particularly Mevlevi, doctrines and practices have been incorporated into New Age religious tenets and music. Subsequently, I discuss the case of Madonna, who brought greater exposure of both Sufi and New Age themes to Western popular culture through her music. In the fifth section, I survey the development of Sufi popular music in South Asia as yet a third forerunner to the nascent Sufi popular scene in Turkey, which I explore in terms of Turkish rock music in the sixth section and Turkish techno electronica in the seventh section. In the eighth and final section of this chapter, I addres the principal questions of authenticity, legitimacy, and intentionality that al of these popular forms engender in Turkey. Sufi Spirituality at the Supermarket January 18, 2005 Bornova, #zmir Geting off the crowded city bus, I notice that it is a crisp, but sunny winter afternoon as I walk briskly along the edge of the Ege (Aegean) University campus to the nearby Kipa, the Turkish equivalent of the American retail giant Wal-Mart. I have been invited to have dinner with a college-aged friend and his roommates at their place tonight and am picking up a few things before I head over there. My backpack is already full of CDs and recordings I have collected during my travels throughout Turkey and the Levant, but as such dinners often turn into late night music sharing parties, I decide to se if there is anything new I can buy at the music store just beyond the Kipa checkout lines. I spend some time flipping through recordings of Turkish and international pop, finding the prices here more off-putting than those at the bootleg CD stals close to the 228 Bornova city center. In the unmarked religious music section, though, next to recordings of Otoman-era Mevlevi music and among the images of the Mevlana, whirling dervishes, and neyzan-s al wrapped in pre-shrunk plastic, I find a peculiar CD entitled Mevlev?-Sufi Relaxation: Mental Journey. On the cover, amid the mural-art imagery of colorful tropical birds, waterfals, and rainforests, the white italic script reads: ?Authentic sound recordings from the naturel [sic] world and a Mevlev?-Sufi Tradition music composed on this background.? Not knowing what to expect, I buy it along with several other commercial recordings of Mevlevi music and make my way to my friend?s apartment just after sunset. As expected, dinner eventualy gives way to a night of talking and listening to music on my friend?s laptop computer. His roommates are especialy interested in the VCDs of Arabic pop music I had bought in Syria, finding the blending of traditional Arabic and ?modern? Western elements particularly viable and intriguing. The New Age elements on Mevlev?-Sufi Relaxation, however, raise a number of disapproving eyebrows. They scoff at the thought of undertaking any sort of ?mental journey? with the ney improvisations and electronic samples of natural sounds on this recording and instead praise the more ?authentic? ney taksim-s on my new clasical Mevlevi CDs. As we sit on the floor having this conversation, eating sunflower seds and downloading mp3 files from the Internet wel into the night, I am reminded in an odd sort of way of some of the sohbet discussions about spirituality, music, and authenticity I have just recently had with devotes of the Mevlana at the zikr gatherings in Konya. 229 Towards a Sufi Popular Music in Turkey This chapter is among only a very few Western academic works that has to date dealt with Turkish popular music in any extended way. 304 Given the scope of this study, however, my focus here must necesarily be limited to manifestations of Sufism and the Mevlana Rumi in Turkish popular music and culture and cannot hope to document even a fraction of the enormous development that has occurred in the Turkish commercial music industry since the 1990s. In addition, while this study is the first to investigate Sufi popular music cross-culturaly as a specific typology or meta-genre, its focus is likewise concentrated on those elements pertinent to the disertation and those broached in the anecdote above; namely to traditional aesthetics such as motion and to isues of authenticity and intentionality. This chapter is limited yet further by the fact that, unlike in South Asia where the synthesis of traditional qawwali music with Bollywood film usic, international pop, and rock and roll in the past few decades has given birth to several new musical styles, a distinct genre of Sufi popular music has yet to form in Turkey. 305 What I describe as Turkish Sufi popular music encompases that of only a few artists who work neither in one distinct style nor in collaboration with one another. Sometimes, an artist may produce only a single piece of music that could be considered part of this typology. 304 Se Martin Stokes, The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey (Oxford: Clarendon Pres, 192); Alev Cinar, ?Cartel: Travels of German-Turkish Rap usic,? Midle East Report 21 (199): 43-4; Feza Tansu!, ?Turkish Popular Music: The Political Economy of Change? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of Maryland, 199). 305 The bard-like a"?k-s of the Anatolian countryside, whose music has strong afinities to Alevi Sufism, both sonicaly and moraly, would be likely contenders, but this tradition is generaly subsumed within the broader category of folk music, and, inded at present, it bears litle influence from those comercial forces that govern international popular music-culture. Se Yildiray Erdener, The Song Contests of Turkish Minstrels: Improvised Poetry Sung to Traditional Music (New York: Garland, 195) for a more detailed discusion of this tradition. 230 Furthermore, the artists discussed in this chapter may not necesarily subscribe to Sufi Islam, nor do the Sufi communities of Turkey embrace them as their own or legitimate such music. Another important factor to consider is that the Western categorization of music into such groupings as clasical, folk, or popular is a concept foreign to West Asia. 306 Even when such distinctions are recognized, artists generaly do not neatly fit under them. Moreover, they routinely violate the market-generated definitions by performing in several diferent styles or combining multiple genres in a single song. Yet, because of Turkey?s extensive program of Westernization in the 1920s, such clasifications have not only been adopted, they proliferate in great multitudes. One reckoning includes no fewer than thirty genres of Turkish music including such ?popular? styles as ?popular Turkish art music? (Hafif T?rk Sanat M?zi(i), ?Turkish kanto? (T?rk?e Kantolar), ?tavern music? (Fantazi-Taverna M?zi(i), ?arabesque? (T?rk Arabesk M?zik), ?pop-arabesque? (T?rk Pop-Arabesk M?zik), ?tango T?rk? (Tango T?rk), ?Turkish jaz-blues? (T?rk?e Jazz- Blues), ?Turkish hip hop? (T?rk?e Rap M?zik), ?Turkish pop music? (T?rk Pop M?zi(i), ?Turkish rock music? (T?rk Rock M?zi(i), ?Turkish pop-rock? (T?rk Pop-Rock M?zi(i), ?Anatolian rock music? (Anadolu Rock M?zi(i), ?Turkish independent music? (?zg?n M?zik), and ?Turkish alternative music? (T?rk Alternatif M?zikleri). 307 Mising from this listing are the many varieties of electronic dance music (collectively refered to as Elektronik M?zi(i and Tekno M?zi(i) found in the bars, nightclubs and dance hals of #stanbul, Ankara, #zmir, and elsewhere. 306 Se, for instance, Virginia Danielson, The Voice of Egypt: Um Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 197): 14. 307 ?Music of Turkey,? About, Inc. AlExperts Encyclopedia, acesed September 17, 206 . 231 Such diversity makes evident the very long and dynamic history of Western- oriented popular music in Turkey, which began nearly a century ago. Already in the 1920s, during Atat?rk?s great push for Westernization, European and American orchestras and gramophone recordings popularized the Argentine tango in Turkey. Increasingly after the 1930s, indigenous Turkish popular musical styles of urban theaters, taverns, and clubs (gazino-s) began either to succumb to the influence of such foreign popular styles or to compete with them for audiences. In the 1950s, for instance, film music imported from Egypt and Lebanon and rockabily and other forms of ?light Western music? (Hafif Bat? M?zi(i) like rhythm and blues, tin pan aley, and jaz from the United States stimulated the development of both new indigenous and hybrid popular musical forms in the following decade. The origins of Turkish popular music are, thus, generaly traceable to the 1960s when artists first became more independent of foreign dominance, creating original versions of non-Turkish popular musics or adapting folk and clasical idioms into the imported forms. 308 Arabesk and Anadolu rock both emerged in this era, and continued to dominate Turkish popular culture on and off for the next fifty years. However, Turkey remained open to developments in international pop throughout the second half of the twentieth century. French chanson was widely adopted in the 1960s, as was American psychedelic rock. In the 1970s and 1980s, Anglo-American punk rock and its many offspring, as wel as international pop, initiated the development of homespun Turkish pop and pop-rock music; Sezen Aksu, who succesfully integrated traditional music with these new forms, is widely regarded as the most influential figure in Turkish popular 308 Tansu!, 79. 232 music history. 309 American alternative rock and American and Turkish-German hip hop arived in the 1990s and, along with Arabesk, continue to dominate the markets today. Electronic dance music (techno) and world music also came in the late 1990s and early 2000s and have a more modest, but growing following. Given so much activity and variety, it is perhaps surprising that popular expresions of Mevlevism or other sects of Sufi Islam have not yet coalesced into a uniquely independent musical genre. There are, however, a number of factors that can acount for this anomaly. First of al, the absence of a vibrant Sufi pop music scene can be atributed in no smal part to Turkey?s staunchly secularist policies and to the ambiguous legality of Sufi orders in the country. In addition, although Turkish folk and clasical musics have been fully reconciled with the musical aesthetics of the largely Western-dominated international popular genres, generating some truly exceptional works in various popular styles including rock, rap, and dance hal music, the same cannot be said of Turkish religious music, 310 which has generaly eschewed such hybridization. Despite these obstacles and caveats, there is today such renewed fascination in Sufism in general and the Mevlana in specific that a rather modest Turkish Sufi popular music scene is now in evidence. Such music is a smal, but growing aspect of a larger spiritual movement that has enabled Mevlevism to be thoroughly inculcated in the popular culture of Turkey and elsewhere. Since the mid-1990s Mevlevism, perhaps in 309 Ibid., 5 and 123-32. 310 This is particularly ironic given that Turkey is one of only a few nations in West Asia that has adapted Western musical typologies and oficialy recognizes such a category as ?Turkish religious music? (Dini T?rk M?zi(i), which is further subdivided into ?mosque music? (Cami M?zi(i and Teke M?zi(i) and ?Sufi music? (T?rk Tasavuf M?zi(i). 233 spite of outdated legal directives, has become manifest in a variety of media including books for academic as wel as general readership, documentaries, posters, and audio recordings of Mevlevi clasical music. That Mevlevi music, whether clasical, New Age, or popular, can be bought in a supermarket, at music stores, and on the Internet is an indicator of the scope and quotidian appeal of this phenomenon. The ultimate expresion of this, however, comes in the ironic way that the Mevlevi have come to represent the Turkish nation-state itself (se Chapter Four for a more extended discussion). One clear, albeit rather extreme, instance of this new Turkish national identity as symbolized by the Mevlevi whirling dervish within the context of Turkish popular music is a recording entitled Turkish Hits Vol. 3. Evidently a Russian- made compilation of some of the most beloved chart-busting Turkish pop songs of 2002, the CD is meant to present both the modernity and exoticism of contemporary Turkey. The front cover features a silhouete of the famous Sultan Ahmet Mosque and a giant, reddish image of a barely clad woman, wearing only a bra, go-go boots, and a pair of underwear that she is removing while pouting her lips in a kis. The image is repeated twice behind the first image in faded gradations, implying quick motion or perhaps a sort of bely dance. The back cover features a track listing and a variant of the front cover: it depicts five dervishes whirling in a laser light show and five reproductions of the female figure from the front cover, superimposed over the dervishes. As far as I am aware, none of the tracks on the disc have anything to do with either the Mevlevi or even Sufism. Musicaly, the eighten songs are esentialy dance hal hits featuring especialy clear ?Turkish? (alat?rka) musical elements: ornamented vocal style, traditional Arabo-Turkic instruments, non-Western tunings, makam-like 234 melodic formulae, shifting rhythmic paterns and/or iregular meters, and some Arabic language expresions such as ?aman? and ?valah.? A more explicit example of the nationalist tinge that Mevlevism takes in the realm of popular music comes from Sertab Erener (b. 1964), a prot?g? of Sezen Aksu and one of the great divas of Turkish pop music. After unsuccesful atempts in 1989 and 1990 in the Turkish finals, Erener went on to represent Turkey at the Eurovision Song Festival in Riga, Latvia in 2003, ultimately winning the international competition with the song ?Everyway That I Can.? As a result of her victory, #stanbul was selected to host the Festival the following year. Presiding over an expanded two-day afair, Turkey firmly established its reputation in the world of European commercial pop music by introducing a number of innovations for the contest, including the first broadcasting in digital high definition (DHD) format, the first releasing of the entire contest on digital video disc (DVD), and the use of the new standard logo in which the host nation?s flag is graphicaly set within a heart. 31 Erener, as the previous winner, was invited to perform onstage at the competition in #stanbul, a practice imitated by winners in the folowing years. Bearing a striking resemblance to Madonna at the performance, Erener presented a medley comprising her winning song and the more operatic ?Leave,? both of which she released on her fourth al-English album No Boundaries (2003). At the 2004 #stanbul performance, the raucous presentation of ?Everyway That I Can,? complete with bely dancing, soon gave way to a 31 ?Eurovision Song Contest 204,? Wikipedia, The Fre Encyclopedia, modified April 15, 207, acesed April 20, 207 . Turkey?s musical influence is further evidenced by the 205 Kiev contest in which the entry by the United Kingdom?s Javine (?Touch My Fire?) made prominent use of alat?rka musical traits. Aditionaly, Elena Paparizou?s ?My Number One,? which clinched the first-ever victory for Grece that year, also relies on broader ?Otoman? musical influences. 235 more contemplative atmosphere appropriate for the dance Erener wanted for ?Leave.? The act, which welcomed the audience to Turkey, caled for a large troupe of female whirlers dresed in the traditional white, male Mevlevi dervish atire?generaly females are required to wear more colorful gowns?to begin turning at Erener?s dramatic sustained high note introduction to the chorus. Although the spiritual and devotional nature of the performance may be in question, the song text is not so obviously that of a secular love song as it may at first sem. The original 1999 Turkish version of ?Leave? was entitled ?A"k,? a term, which as I have discussed previously, refers both to love in general, as wel as to the Sufi concept of mystical or universal love. 312 In addition, the lyrics for the chorus and second verse of the English version performed in #stanbul center on travel and motion, which I argue are important in Sufi aesthetics. Leave../Hold your head high/You know men don?t cry/Don?t look back now Leave../Hold your head high/Heavens may cry/You can?t look back now So../Go se the world/I?l keep my heart/In a shel like a pearl/ I?l wait/For someone who deserves/And takes me as I am These lyrics, refering to the heavens, pearls, and elsewhere to the natural elements, 313 are suggestive of several of famous poems atributed to the Mevlana, especialy ?Come, come, whoever you are? and ?There is some kis we want with our whole lives.? The musical seting of the text, which requires the singer to transverse several octaves, is les clearly indebted to Mevlevi influence than to Western pop, orchestral 312 In 199, Sertab Erener also recorded the song as a duet with popular Grek singer Mando. The lyrics were rewriten to alternate betwen Turkish and Grek, and the song was given the hybrid Turkish-Grek name of ?A"k/Fos? (?Love/Light?). 313 In other versions the lyrics of the chorus are rearanged to include the phrase ?like rain on fire.? 236 music, and even hip hop. Nevertheles it retains some alat?rka features, including the prominent use of such clasical instrumentation as the kanun and ud, which in Turkey are sometimes directly asociated with the Mevlevi (se the discussion in Chapter Four on the common conflation of Otoman and Mevlevi musical traditions). Yet even without more overt references to traditional Mevlevi music, there is in al of the theatrics of soaring vocals and sweping orchestral strings an obvious asertion of nationalism with respect to Mevlevism by way of its most distinctive element, the elegant whirling. Although it may be easy to condemn Turkish Hits Vol. 3 or Sertab Erener?s flagrant appropriations of sacred symbology, these examples clearly ilustrate the new Mevlevi-Turkish iconicity. In addition, like Mevlev?-Sufi Relaxation, they perhaps also satisfy a niche market desire for a Turkish popular variant of Mevlevi music that is only now beginning to materialize. Such developments in nationalism and popular culture may yet continue to invigorate the nascent Sufi popular musical scene, but whether this wil prove to be a true movement in Turkey or fizle like any other fad depends on any number of political, economic, and religious factors. The Mevlana in the New Age The longevity of Sufi-influenced Turkish popular music, both in Turkey and internationaly, may ultimately hinge not so much on one-off pop oferings like those described above as on the more long-term asociation of mystical Islam with the New Age movement. In fact, the tourist appeal and perhaps overal resurgence of the Mevlana and the Mevlevi order discussed in previous chapters come in part because of sustained interest and support of New Age adherents who purchase tickets to whirling shows and 237 frequent the zikr-s of #stanbul and Konya. It is in this New Age context, therefore, that the existing cases of Turkish Sufi popular music are often understood or even created. The term ?New Age,? coined by the mas media in the 1980s, is used to clump together several disparate and difuse belief systems that are typicaly inefable by their nature. 314 In short, the label applies to the widespread adoption in the West of a syncretic blend of scientific, psychological, Judeo-Christian, and non-Judeo-Christian spiritual beliefs and practices, what Lewis terms ?unchurched spirituality.? 315 One common New Age belief is in the power of holistic medicine, crystals, sacred rocks, and/or meditation to restore physical and mental balance or heal ilnes. More radical followers acept the existence of crop circles and extraterestrial beings. The majority of New Age principles, however, are atributed to Native American religions and more mainstream belief systems as Buddhism, Hinduism, and the mystical branches of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Sufi elements that are especialy prevalent include the doctrine of mystical love (a"k), the use of numerology and mystical symbolism, and the notion of cosmic holism (al-taw!$d) ?that humanity, al life, and the universe are interconnected through spiritual energy. Although the popularization of New Age spirituality has more imediate roots in the countercultural and musical trends that swept through the West in the late 1960s, its origins are traceable to the ninetenth century and, in fact, are partialy built on centuries of Western orientalist fascination with the poems of the Mevlana and the sema of the Mevlevi. George Gurdjief (c. 1872-1949), an ?migr? from the collapsing Otoman Empire, was among the first to generate mas interest in Sufism in the West, specificaly 314 For a more thorough history of the New Age movement se J. Gordon Melton, ?A History of the New Age Movement? in Not Necesarily the New Age: Critical Esays, ed. Robert Basil (Bufalo: Prometheus Boks, 198): 35-53. 315 Lewis, 513. 238 in France, Britain, and the U.S. in the 1920s, by adapting the teachings of the Mevlana and the sema of the Mevlevi. Numbered among Gurdjief?s disciples were architect Frank Lloyd Wright, novelist Christopher Isherwood, and Alfred Orage (1873-1934), editor of the British journal New Age, which ran from 1894-1938 and featured numerous articles on psychology and spiritualism. 316 The wel-traveled Idries Shah (1924-96) moved from India to London in the 1960s to succed Gurdjief and others in the further promotion of Sufism in the West. Grounded in the writings of the Mevlana, Shah?s unorthodox interpretation of Sufism, which he argued predated the Koran and which he sought to make more universalist in nature, proved to be especialy resilient in the West; his books, which he published through his own Octagon Pres, sold over fiften milion copies in twelve diferent languages. 317 Shah was especialy influential on the countercultural youth of the 1960s and, acording to Lewis, ?played an important role in the later canonization of Rumi as one of the patron saints of New Age spirituality during the 1980s and 1990s.? 318 Indeed, the Mevlana?s position within the New Age pantheon was already apparent by the 700 th anniversary of his death in 1973, as young people eagerly espoused the great dervish in the anti-materialist spirit that spread across the West. One such admirer was Reshad Feild (b. Richard Timothy Feild), a former member of the folk music trio The Springfields. With a mandate from %eyh S?leyman Dede of Konya, who made him a Mevlevi "eyh in Los Angeles in 1976, Feild firmly established the Mevlevi sema in the West, popularizing it further by admiting participation by both 316 Ibid., 514. 317 Ibid., 515. 318 Ibid., 517. 239 women and non-Muslims. Feild eventualy went on to develop his own non-Islamic philosophy, heavily indebted to the teachings of the Mevlana, and formed what is today the Mevlana Foundation in Colorado and the Turning Society based in Vancouver. Gurdjief, Shah, and Feild can be counted among the leading figures of New Age spirituality and are responsible, at least in part, for popularizing the Mevlana and the Mevlevi in the West, though only Feild was actualy a Mevlevi; the others were initiates of the Nak"ibendi order. Lewis suggests that in the West ?the popularity of Sufism has perhaps now eclipsed the Indophilic spirituality of the 1960s.? 319 Yet, it must be aserted that the New Age movement is a popular global phenomenon and that the increased interest in the Mevlana and the Mevlevi is not limited to the Western world. Even in Turkey, not only have the Mevlana and his whirling dervishes regained public interest, but also other New Age spiritual influences are now widely in evidence. The reading of tarot cards, for instance, is currently extremely popular in Turkey, 320 while books on Ayurveda and yoga clases are widely available. Turkish markets and outdoor bazars, ever the consumer?s paradise, are virtual New Age shops filed with such paraphernalia as scented candles, incense, moon and sun wal hangings, beads, wind chimes, rain sticks, djembe-s, and the like. Such wares can be purchased even in the most out-of-the-wayof places. At the indoor bazar in the far eastern border town of 319 Ibid., 519. 320 While shoping for a Christmas party at the Kipa retail store in Bornova, #zmir in December, 204, I found, to my great surprise, a seasonal sale on Rider-Waite tarot cards. Being somewhat of an adept reader and ken on owning Turkish-language cards, I bought a set. Within days, word had somehow spread, and I found myself inexplicably holding regular reading sesions for both friends and complete strangers alike. The practice of reading tarot for profit, however, sems to have ben outlawed in the reforms of 1925. The resurgence in tarot?s popularity recently became an isue for the courts, when a prosecutor filed charges against fourten popular caf?s for ofering ?fre? fortune-teling sesions with the purchase of tea or cofe. The practice aparently drew in ?large numbers of customers.? Se, ?Cofe-Serving Fortune-Telers Draw Turkish Judiciary?s Ire,? Kathierini: English Edition, December 8, 205, acesed September 28, 206 . 240 Do!ubeyazit, for example, I encountered a painting of a Native American flutist amid an aray of New Age items (se Figure 58) and once on a trip from #zmir to #stanbul, perhaps somewhere outside of Bal?kesir, the bus I was on made a rest stop at a remote up- market store that sold largely teak statues of the Buddha, candles, and CDs of Mevlevi music, as Madonna?s Ray of Light lingered on in the background. Figure 58: Painting of a Native American Flute Player (Do!ubeyazit, November 19, 2004) As these examples intimate, music plays an important role in New Age spirituality, or at least in its commodification. On the other hand, they also reveal the inconsistent and sometimes contradictory nature of New Age music. Like the movement itself, New Age music intentionaly resists easy definition. ?Indeterminancy,? as Dennis Hal explains, ?is what New Age music is al about. Meaning and cultural utility are 241 deliberately left up to the listener, to be constructed, as the occasion warants?.? 321 Nevertheles, contemporary New Age music is recognizable by a loose set of aesthetic criteria, which Hal itemizes and argues are reflective of the values of postmodernity. 32 Thus, New Age music ?seks to confuse?the distinctions among elite, popular, and folk cultures,? is ?eclectic? and ?aggresively multicultural,? entails ?playfulnes,? ?irony,? and ?quotation,? and is ?at once anti-intelectual in its stance yet devoted to learning, [and] opening up esoteric [knowledge].? 323 More specificaly, as Susan Grove Hal highlights, New Age music often seks to be natural or to represent or recreate a feling of nature by way of being ?relaxing, calming, and meditative.? 324 This aspect of the music combines environmentalism and alternative healing, two of the most widely acepted precepts of New Age spirituality. Ironicaly, nature is typicaly invoked through the least natural of compositional and performative methods. Contemporary New Age music is largely electronic, making regular use of digitized sound samples and synthesized instrumental timbres, and it is rarely performed live. The sense of naturalnes, however, is achieved, especialy in live performance, through heavy reliance on such ?spontaneous? features as improvisation, variation, and ornamentation. Another important aspect of New Age music is its pretense towards universality. Programatic instrumental music, devoid of such communicative bariers as language, 321 Denis Hal, ?New Age Music: A Voice of Liminality in Postmodern Popular Culture? in Popular Music and Society 18, No. 2 (194): 17. 32 Ibid., 17. 323 Ibid., 17-18. 324 Susan Grove Hal, ?New Age Music: An Analysis of Ecstasy? in Popular Music and Society 18, No. 2 (194): 23. 242 predominates. Vocal music is generaly based on either vocables or short pasages of text in an obscure or mutualy uninteligible language. The practice of using polyphonic vocal choirs, often electronicaly synthesized, ascribed to Christian and Tibetan Buddhist tradition and is evocative of generic spirituality as wel as timelesnes or antiquity. Although New Age music is largely in a Western musical idiom, so-caled ?world music? and various ethnic, non-Western musical traditions contribute significantly to its sound, to the point where New Age and world music are grouped together in retail music stores and catalogues. Didgeridoos, non-Western flutes, ud-s, sitar-s, tabla, frame drums, and djembe-s, often in combination, are especialy common. Among the genres frequently subsumed under the umbrela of New Age and world music are Sufi forms like qawwali and music for Sufi whirling, i.e. Mevlevi music. One unique contribution of Sufism to New Age spirituality is that of dance, which is of growing importance in part because of its meditative quality, but perhaps also because it provides ritual structure to New Age Sufi gatherings. While the rocking motions of seated zikr are not uncommon, the whirling sema, alternatively refered to as ?Sufi dance,? ?dervish dance,? or ?meditative dance,? 325 is perhaps the most widely adopted form of New Age ritual movement. Besides Reshad Feild, the popularization of sema and its offshoots in New Age spiritual gatherings in the West can be atributed to Samuel L. Lewis (1896-1971), also known as Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, Mushrid (?exalted teacher?), or ?Sufi Sam.? Lewis formed his own Sufi community in San Francisco in 1966 and developed a cycle of over five hundred spiritual meditative dances known as the Dances of Universal Peace. Based on the Mevlevi sema, they are performed usualy to guitar and drum music and have grown to incorporate gestures from 325 Ibid., 519. 243 other world dance traditions. These acretions, sometimes considered unusual, have earned the practitioners the label of ?goofy Sufis,? 326 though whirling remains a distinctive feature. The dances, despite its detractors, are today performed worldwide in a variety of contexts, 327 though they retain their Sufi connections. 328 Thus, aside from their imediate ?Otoman? or ?Turkish? asociations, the Mevlana, the sema, and traditional Mevlevi music are most widely known in this context of popular New Age spirituality, with its focus on meditation and healing, universal brotherhood, and love. Such an asociation sems to be developing even in Turkey. For example, Mevlev?-Sufi Relaxation: Mental Journey (2004), despite its English title, was produced for the Turkish market. On the inside jacket?which is in a distinctive shade of gren?, beneath a smal, slightly blurry picture of whirling dervishes, are five quotations of poems by the Mevlana about nature in Turkish. Bulleted by octagons decorated with the name of Muhamad in symmetrical caligraphy, these verses are not lyrics, but are meant for contemplation, for al of the tracks on the disc are instrumental. The thre pieces on the recording have programatic Turkish titles meant to evoke a spiritual journey, ironicaly, through the same natural world that the Mevlana taught to abandon. The first, A??l?" (Opening), establishes a sacred atmosphere and comprises thre movements: G?lgeler (Shadows), Yakar?" (Prayer) and Devr-i Alem (Turning of the Universe). It commences with a sample of roaring wind and the sound of rain and thunder. Synthesizers and the steady, subtle beating of a bendir soon follow 326 Ibid., 519. 327 Ibid., 518. 328 The Dances of Universal Peace, for instance, were among the scheduled activities of the 24 th Anual Ozark Sufi Camp, held in Misouri in October 206. Other highlights of the program included zikr, meditation, a sweat lodge, and ?dervish healing service.? 244 introducing an extended improvisation on the ney by an anonymous player. Al thre pieces are, in efect, quasi-metered taksim-s for ney acompanied prominently by the sound of birds and ocean waves. The second track, Sana Do(ru (Truth To You), draws on the Sufi aesthetic of motion in the titles of its thre movements: Kervan (Caravan), Yolar (Paths), and Semadan Topra(a (From the Sema to the Earth). Aside from many modulations through various makam-s, no other steps are taken to sonicaly invoke a sense of motion and the piece is virtualy identical in character to the previous; the sound of wind, thunder, chirping birds, and pouring water again acompanies the ney and bendir. The only addition is that of a synthesized, vibrato polyphonic sample suggestive of an angelic choir, which is the sole indicator of the possible sacrednes of the ney?s modal wanderings. Okyanusa Do(ru (Straight to the Ocean) in two movements, Dalgalar (Waves) and Yakamoz (Phosphorescence in the Sea), concludes the meditative journey in imagined mystical rapture, although it lacks the intensifying and climactic character of either a zikr ceremony or even a performance of clasical Mevlevi music. Despite how diferent the music on this disc is from traditional forms, it proved succesful enough for a second volume, based on themes of love and water, to be released in 2006. Typical of New Age music, these recordings are not easily clasifiable. While they draws on the taksim tradition, a Turkish listener would be hard presed to consider them clasical Mevlevi music. Likewise, the lack of text in some ways precludes them from being tasavvuf music, despite their spiritual intentions. Neither are they popular music per se, although it is in this context that they are best understood. As I wil argue, New Age musical aesthetics have been highly influential in the development of Sufi- 245 based popular music and in the mas popularization of the Mevlana, especialy in the West. At the heart of the Mevlana?s adoption into New Age music in the West is American poet Coleman Barks, profesor emeritus from the University of Georgia. In 1976, Barks began his own ?translations? of the Mevlana?s writings, finding earlier scholarly English editions to be spiritualy lacking. 329 Although Barks does not know Farsi and works from previous translations, his evocative renditions of the Mevlana?s poetry, nevertheles, are wildly estemed and have helped to make the Mevlana the best- seling poet in the United States. 30 An important part of this succes is the aggresive method of distribution that involved Barks himself giving readings of his translations either in person, for which he traveled widely to universities, Sufi gatherings, and elsewhere, or on commercialy released recordings. Barks typicaly performed his recitations to music. As Lewis observes, Barks argued ?that the musical rendition of poetry is the typical performance mode in most indigenous cultures?[and that]?it is most appropriate in the case of Rumi.? 31 Yet, as Lewis again notes, rarely do these performances and recordings make use of culturaly appropriate Turkish or Persian music or instrumentation. 32 Barks and his imitators turned instead to the New Age and world music fusion sounds that now characterize non- Western spirituality in the popular music industry. Barks, thus, traveled with New Age musicians and released several casetes and CDs that featured a New Age backdrop 329 Barks, 1976; 193; 195; 202; and 203. 30 Alexandra Marks, ?Persian Poet Top Seler in America,? Christian Science Monitor, November 25, 197. 31 Lewis, 591. 32 Ibid., 626. 246 consisting of atmospheric drones and instrumental improvisations. The earliest of these recordings is perhaps Open Secret: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living (1987), which features flute and violin. Following Barks?s lead, a host of other artists, poets, and translators have undertaken similar recording projects, and since the late-1990s the New Age market has been inundated by Mevlana related CDs, with at least one released every year. Thus, in 1997, in commemoration of the 790 th birthday of the Mevlana, Koorosh Angali released Koorosh Angali Recites Rumi, Volume I, in which his Farsi readings of the Mevlana?s verses are acompanied by santur and synthesized orchestral drones. In the same year, Vision I: Spirit of Rumi was released, following on the heels of the surprising commercial succes of Vision: The Music of Hildegard von Bingen (1994) and the Chant (1994) album of the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. 33 On the cover of Vision I, surrounded by a border of crescent moons and five-pointed stars, is a painting of a whirling dervish in a spotlight, suggestive of spiritual enlightenment. The eleven tracks on the CD have such programatic titles as ?Sek In Your Heart,? ?Ocean,? ?Breath,? ?Desert Dusk,? ?Great Mystery,? and ?Center,? which, like ?Don?t Go Back to Slep? and its reprise, is symmetricaly aranged on the recording. The New Age/dance hal music on the disc by Australian composer Graeme Revel makes use of such unusual instrumentation as zurna, duduk, and uilean pipes, and features Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on thre tracks, Israeli singer Noa performing a Hebrew translation of a poem by the Mevlana, and ethnomusicologist Ali Jihad Racy on flute. 33 Taylor, 197. 247 The translations of Coleman Barks, in particular, have given rise to many similar New Age musical setings many times over and prove to be the most enduring. Thus, on his The Breze at Dawn: The Poems of Rumi in Song (1999) composer Dale Zola aranged Barks?s translations for voice and a bewildering aray of instruments including acordion, didgeridoo, string quartet, and gamelan-like chimes in a panoply of styles such as tango, Spanish balad, and country-western. In 2002, Bary and Sheley Philips composed music for celo, Celtic harp, and various wind instruments for their What Was Said to the Rose: Rumi, on which Barks can again be heard reading his own paraphrases of the Mevlana. Most recently, Ramananda isued Secret Language: Rumi, A Celebration in Song (2004) with music for keyboard and bansuri, again based on Barks?s translations. Several other translators have also sen their editions of the Mevlana?s poetry set to New Age music. In The Soul Wakes: Rumi in Song (2004) Michael London turns to Jonathan Star and Kabir Helminski, as wel as to Barks, for texts for his music, which includes in its instrumentation guitar, guitar synthesizer, flute, clarinet, saxophone, Tibetan bels, and shakuhachi. Nader Khalili?s translations were used for recitation over flute, saxophone, celo, cimbalon, Bulgarian tambura, tabla, and other percussion by Sura Charlier on Rumi: Fountain of Fire (1999) and again by Hamoon Tehrani on True Love Rumi (2006). In addition, Seyyed Hossein Nasr made translations that he recited over music directed by Turkish neyzen S?leyman Erg?ner on the album Lament of the Red (2001). Undoubtedly the most succesful translator outside of Coleman Barks in the New Age market is Indian endocrinologist and New Age spiritual healer Depak Chopra. 248 Acording to Franklin Lewis, 34 Chopra, in February 1996, ?ostensibly overwhelmed with emotion? when a woman performed an ?ecstatic dervish dance? as he recited an English translation of a Mevlana poem by one Fereydoun Kia, decided on the spot to undertake his own rather liberal translation project of the ?love poems? of the Mevlana. 35 Shortly thereafter, Chopra released a long, thirty-six track CD entitled A Gift of Love (1998), which featured Chopra and a throng of A-list Hollywood stars reciting his versions of the Mevlana?s writings over a jaz and world music influenced New Age soundtrack composed by Adam Plack and Yaron Fuchs. Madonna led the way with her contemplative reading of ?Biterswet.? Others narators include Demi Moore with her chil rendition of ?Do You Love Me,? Martin Sheen with his funk-based ?Caught in the Fire of Love,? Goldie Hawn with her more serious reading of ?The Meaning of Love? over flute improvisations, and civil rights activist Rosa Parks with her inspirational ?Looking for Love.? The album was an enormous commercial succes and charted on Bilboard?s Top 20 List. Clothing designer Donna Karan used the recording as the backdrop for a fashion show introducing her Mevlana-inspired fal lineup. 36 Several of the songs were even redone for the dance hal, with the remix of Demi Moore?s ?Do You Love Me? by Eddie Baez being especialy popular with disc jockeys at New York nightclubs. Because of its overwhelming popularity, Chopra released A Gift of Love I: Oceans of Ecstasy in 2002, a smaler, though racier, collection of poems by Tagore as recited by Lisa Bonet, Marisa 34 Lewis, 602. 35 Depak Chopra, Love Poems of Rumi, (New York: Harmony Boks, 198). 36 Robin Givhan, Washington Post, April 6, 198, D1. 249 Tomei, Sinead O?Connor, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Grifith, Angelica Houston, and several others. Our Lady of Mysticism: Madonna and the Mevlana In many ways, Madonna (b. Madonna Louise Cicone) was also an important catalyst of this Mevlana craze that developed in Western elite culture in the 1990s. She was among the first Western pop artists not only to be deeply moved by the Mevlana and the practices of his devotes, but also to make use of Mevlevi themes in Western-oriented popular music. In early October 1993, while on her worldwide ?Girlie Show Tour,? Madonna performed in both Tel Aviv (October 4) and #stanbul (October 7). Although orthodox Jews staged an unsuccesful campaign to cancel her first-ever performance in Israel, her inaugural Turkish concert, for which some 54,000 tickets were sold, proved to be more positive and may be the biggest popular music event ever mounted in Turkey. 37 Her Middle East performances appear to have left a similarly weighty impresion on the singer, for Madonna subsequently came under the spel of Islamic as wel as Jewish mysticism, though I have not been able to confirm definitively that she atended a whirling show during her visit to #stanbul. 38 37 Umut Mert and Fatih Melek, ?MadonaT?rk Ahmet San?la G?r?"t?,? MadonaTurk.com, January 206, acesed September 26, 206 . 38 Yildirim sugests that Madona did witnes a Mevlevi performance, perhaps in Galata, while in Turkey, despite her demanding concert schedule and the fact that she had just mised the festivities for the Mevlana?s birthday (on September 30) the wek before. Email comunication, Ali Yildirim, September 25, 206. Se also his Yildirim?s extensive website on Turkish music Tarkan DeLuxe: Turkish Music and Artists, May 16, 204, acesed September 25, 206 . Acording to one report, Ahmet San, Tarkan?s former manager, not only brought Madona to #stanbul, but gave her an extended tour of the city, which more than likely included some form of evlevi presentation. Se Umut Mert and Fatih Melek, 206. 250 Exactly one year later, in the wake of both her world tour and the controversies surrounding her album Erotica (1992) and her erotic book Sex (1992), Madonna released her sixth album. Bedtime Stories (October, 1994) aimed to present the more subtle, artistic side of Madonna, and though it was not as commercialy succesful as some of her other eforts, it nevertheles reached the top ten charts in eight European nations, Australia, Canada, and Mexico and peaked at third in the U.S. Bilboard Top 200. Furthermore, the album proved, in hindsight, to signal a decisive shift in both Madonna?s music and personal life. The video for the title song ?Bedtime Story,? co-writen by Icelandic popular artist Bj?rk, proved to be particularly important. Released in 1995, it was directed by Mark Romanek and is considered among Madonna?s most artistic and experimental music videos, having been added to the permanent film and video collection of New York?s Museum of Modern Art. Complexly blending reality and dreams, science and faith, realism and absurdity, and tactility and abstraction, the video establishes itself unquestionably as a product of postmodernity and the New Age. The narative is framed as a series of events, projected on a futuristic computer monitor, that are taking place in the dreaming subconscious of subject ?Cicone, M.? who is intravenously connected to a round table in a clinic. The video is replete with depictions of water, the moon, and various birds, and draws on the beliefs and symbols of several world religions; it features ancient hieroglyphs and stars a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and a representation of death. Madonna, herself, with clear light emanating from her forehead like a third eye and extending her tongue, portrays Kali, the Hindu goddes of destruction. 251 Especialy important in the video are references to the Mevlevi and their sema. A mysterious, stationary elderly figure wearing a wool coat and pointed wool hat, perhaps representing an observant psychotherapist, resembles more a watchful Mevlevi "eyh. Nine ?dervishes,? wearing purple gowns, sparkling gold tunics and hats, and pink spectacles over their closed eyes, recur frequently throughout, whirling in a counterclockwise direction with outstretched arms, though their hands are positioned contrary to Mevlevi tradition. Madonna herself appears in a counterclockwise spinning cube, as wel as in a white night gown reminiscent of actual Mevlevi atire. An overal impresion of circumambulation is generated further in the video by the clockwise rotation of various objects and characters, not the least of which is the table-bed on which the sleping Madonna lies. Other Sufic symbols also occur throughout the video, including octagons and grapes, which Madonna mashes with her foot in the proces of destroying the Arabic phrase, writen in sand, ?Try to forget whatever you have ever learned before.? Such clasical Sufi themes alude to the state of intoxication and perhaps even fana, the state of self-annihilation that is the esence of sema. Textualy and musicaly, too, ?Bedtime Story? is indebted to Sufi and New Age aesthetics. The lyrics, for instance, state plainly the esoteric knowledge that Celal ed-Din Rumi sought to conceal in his poetry: 252 Today is the last day that I?m using words They?ve gone out, lost their meaning Don?t function anymore Let?s, let?s, let?s get unconscious honey Let?s get unconscious honey Today is the last day that I?m using words They?ve gone out, lost their meaning Don?t function anymore Traveling, leaving logic and reason Traveling, to the arms of unconsciousnes Traveling, leaving logic and reason Traveling, to the arms of unconsciousnes [Chorus:] Let?s get unconscious honey Let?s get unconscious Let?s get unconscious honey Let?s get unconscious Words are useles, especialy sentences They don?t stand for anything How could they explain how I fel Traveling, traveling, I?m traveling Traveling, traveling, leaving logic and reason Traveling, traveling, I?m gonna relax Traveling, traveling, in the arms of unconsciousnes [Chorus] And inside we?re al stil wet Longing and yearning How can I explain how I fel? [Chorus] Traveling, traveling Traveling, traveling Traveling, traveling, in the arms of unconsciousnes And al that you?ve ever learned Try to forget I?l never explain again 253 The clich?d references here to ?honey,? ?longing,? and ?yearning,? and even the sexual connotations of being ?wet? on the inside, are those of ecstatic Sufi poetry, not of secular love. Indeed, ?Bedtime Story? bears litle semblance to the ?material girl?s? typical fare that blatantly exploits erotic subject mater. Instead, she literaly, repeatedly, and perhaps unwitingly, refers to concepts of movement central to Sufi philosophy (?traveling,? ?going out,? and ?leaving?), and subtly aludes to achieving fana through sema (geting ?lost? and ?leaving logic and reason to the arms of unconsciousnes?). Themes that are specific to New Age and postmodern sensibilities include the inability to verbalize and understand truth and meaning, as wel as references to relaxation and meditation. On the surface, ?Bedtime Story? owes les musicaly to Mevlevi tradition than it does to New Age and techno. Les melodicaly driven than most of her previous work, the song is also slower and more atmospheric, having more in common with Mevlev?-Sufi Relaxation. The electronic character of the song is produced by synthesized instrumentation, especialy strings and organs, and by sampled and digitaly manipulated vocals and homophonic choirs. However, some paralels may also be drawn to the Sufi zikr ceremony, especialy with respect to the song?s complex rhythmic texture, which made the song a dance hal favorite in the mid-1990s. The layers of rhythmic intricacy are underpinned by a muted, but steady and continuous rhythmic loop suggestive of the zikr. The patern B. B. B B. B. B is constant throughout the entirety of the song, though slightly altered at points for variety; sometimes it is also clapped or amplified by organs. Also reminiscent of the zikr is a digitaly altered inhalation on the syllable ?ah,? which reoccurs intermitently, but is especialy prominent at the beginning. 254 Although Madonna eventualy came to identify herself as a practitioner of Kabala, her forays into Islamic mysticism continued throughout the 1990s. In 1998, aside from releasing her seventh album Ray of Light, which owed its contemplative and electronic techno rave character to ?Bedtime Story,? Madonna was reportedly the motivating force for Chopra to have his translations of the Mevlana?s poems set to music on his A Gift of Love recording. 39 As the highest profiled and most important admirer of the Mevlana in Western popular music, she has been influential, at least in part, in the recent meteoric rise of Sufism and Mevlana culture in the West. Sufism and Popular Music in South Asia In addition to the influence of Madonna and the New Age movement, various currents from South Asia too have been important contributors to the establishment of Sufism and the Mevlana Rumi in popular music and culture. Already in this study the eforts of such Indian personalities as Idries Shah and Depak Chopra have been noted, as has the general influence of Hinduism and South Asian Sufism. My focus now turns to developments in India and Pakistan more specificaly for it is in these countries, not in Turkey or in the West, that the earliest manifestations of Sufism in popular music first emerged. Of particular significance has been the fact that unlike in Turkey and elsewhere in West Asia where secularist forces either suppresed or banned Sufism for much of the twentieth century, in both India and Pakistan Islamic mysticism has been permited to thrive as a popular form of religious expresion. The favorable social conditions in the subcontinent have not only alowed traditional Sufi musical forms like qawwali to rise in 39 Se Jamaludin Hofman, ?The Mevlevi Order; Rumi: A Poet for al Times,? The Islamic Supreme Council of America, acesed September 30, 206 . 255 popularity, but they have also enabled Sufi concepts to flourish in such mainstream forms as Bollywood film and rock music. Sufism has been especialy long lived in India and Pakistan ever since it arived in the subcontinent in the late eighth century. The most prominent tarikat has been that of the Chishti, which in its history shares many commonalities with that of the Mevlevi. Originating in the tenth century in what is now Afghanistan, the Chishti order spread to India in the thirtenth century in advance of the same Mongol hordes that pushed many Persian mystics like the Mevlana Rumi into Anatolia, and it quickly took root at the royal court of the Turkish sultanate of Delhi. Like the Mevlevi, the Chishti are known for their doctrines of tolerance, opennes, and mystical love, and just as their Turkish counterparts are imediately asociated with the whirling sema, the followers of Mu?in ad-Din Chishti are inextricably linked to qawwali music. A highly emotive devotional genre, qawwali is the principal form of Sufi musical expresion in South Asia, serving as the local form of the ancient sama? spiritual concert. Its origins are traced mythicaly to eighth-century Iran and later to the thirtenth-century mystic Abul Hasan Yamin al-Din Khusrau (1253-1325), who acording to legend also invented the tabla and sitar. Khusrau is further credited with a large body of mystical poetry, which, along with the gazel-s of the Mevlana Rumi, forms the primary corpus of texts used in the standard qawwali repertory. 340 Although by definition a vocal genre? the term derives from the Arabic al-qawl meaning ?the spoken word? 341 ?, qawwali has traditionaly been performed by a sizeable ensemble comprised of at least one qawwal 340 Qureshi, 1986, 13. 341 Acording to Amnon Shiloah this term is stil used in reference to the singing of folk poetry. Se Shiloah, 195, 32 and 59. 256 (?one who says?), a chorus of singers who also clap, and such instruments as the tabla, dholak, and harmonium. Figure 59: Qawwal-s at Chitaurgarh Mosque (Chitaurgarh, India, August 7, 2003) With the advent of commercial recording in the subcontinent in the early part of the twentieth century, qawwali music has enjoyed enduring mas appeal. 342 Particularly in the past fiften years the genre has also been able to atract a broad international audience beyond the Diaspora and has become a favorite of the world music industry. World-renowned qawwal-s include Abida Parveen and the Sabri Brothers, as wel as the incomparable Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-97), who over the course of his carer released an estimated one hundred and twenty-five albums, earning him an entry in the Guinnes Book of World Records for recorded qawwali. Born in Pakistan to a family of qawwali singers, Khan, with his powerful six- octave tesitura, gained international notoriety toward the end of his life when he began collaborating with such Western popular musicians as Bruce Springsten, Eddie Vedder, and Peter Gabriel. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Khan released several crossover 342 Se Qureshi, 192-93, 11. 257 recordings in which his traditional qawwali-s were either remixed as techno dance songs or inspired by the music of Madonna and his other key Western influences. For instance, in his wel-known ?Sab Vird Karo Alah Alah,? (?Everyone Chant Alah Alah?), widely available on the posthumous compilation Rapture (1997), Khan combines traditional flute improvisations, tabla, and his distinctive coloraturas with a steady backbeat, keyboard synthesizers, an electric guitar solo, and a group of female backup singers repeating the name of Alah. The succes of such crossover fusions generated Western interest in his more traditional work as evident in the popularity of his two-disc Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Final Studio Recordings (2001), another posthumous release, which commences with his rendition of the Mevlana?s ?Too Karemi Man Kamina Barda Am? (?You Are the Gracious, I Am the Ignoble?). In addition to his forays into the Western commercial pop, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also worked with both Western and South Asian filmakers in order to popularize qawwali music further through the silver scren. While his contributions to the soundtracks of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Natural Born Kilers (1994), and Dead Man Walking (1995) garnered aclaim in the West, his collaborations beginning in the late 1970s with leading Bollywood actors and directors like Raj Kapoor brought qawwali to ever larger audiences in India and Pakistan. The term Bollywood derives from the conflation of the words Bombay and Hollywood and refers not only to the prolific movie industry based in Mumbai, but also to those of the other major film centers of the subcontinent, including Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), and Lahore; in Pakistan often the term Lollywood is used. Beyond question, the dominant popular song form of South Asia is the Bollywood film song 258 (filmi git). With a minimum of five or six songs per film and with an output of up to one thousand films per year, it is no exaggeration to say that virtualy al of South Asia?s popular music comes from the movies and that a film?s succes is usualy incumbent upon the appeal of the soundtrack and on the visual characterization of each song; by virtue of the cinematic format, each filmi git is visualy presented in a movie as a song- and-dance number or as an MTV-style music video. Although a great multitude of film song styles and subgenres exists and continues to proliferate, one of the most popular and influential is that of the Bollywood qawwali. The typical Bollywood qawwali difers from the traditional form in that it is shorter, it employs an expanded instrumentation that includes a Western string orchestra, and is thematicaly more concentrated on romantic rather than spiritual love. Significantly, the couplet structure of the traditional qawwali ghazal (Turkish gazel) not only prevails in the Bollywood qawwali, but is also used in many of the other Bollywood song forms. More revealing stil of the importance of the Bollywood qawwali is the fact that visual characterizations of it almost always depict a full qawwali ensemble onscren, whereas the usual Bollywood convention is to place primary emphasis not on musicians, but on dance, scenery, and costuming. 343 Some of the most popular early film qawwali-s include ?Nigaahein Milane Ko? (?Love at First Sight?) from Dil Hi To Hai (This is the Way the Heart Is, 1963), ?Yari Hai Iman Mera? (?Friendship is My Religion?) from Zanjer (Chain, 1973), and ?Pardah Hai Pardah? (?Everything is Veiled?) from Amar Akbar Anthony (1977). It is 343 Se Peter Manuel, Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey (New York: Oxford University Pres, 198): 180-81. In fact, as Sarazin points out, it is mainly in Muslim contexts and in the case of Muslim usical genres that musicians most consistently apear onscren. Telephone conversation, Natalie Sarazin, April 4, 207. 259 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, though, who with over two dozen film qawwali-s brought the genre to the forefront in the 1980s and 1990s. In the year of his pasing, he had two songs featured in the film Aur Pyar Ho Gaya (And I Fall in Love, 1997) alone, appearing onscren for the first time in the qawwali ensemble for the song ?Koi Jane Koi Na Jane? (?Some Know, Some Don?t?). Increasingly since the year 2000, Sufi themes have gained even greater currency in the South Asian film industry. Several movies, including Fiza (2000), 34 Ver-Zaara (2006), and Fanaa (Destroyed in Love, 2007), are either premised on or make overt reference to specific Sufi motifs and concepts. The Bollywood Sufi craze has even given rise to rumors circulating widely on the Internet and in the Turkish pres that Indian filmaker Muzafar Ali, director and producer of the highly aclaimed Umrao Jaan (1981), has planned a movie, perhaps staring Daniel Day Lewis or Al Pacino, about the Mevlana Rumi, though until now nothing has yet materialized. In the meantime, the Mevlana?s poetry and that of other great mystic writers, though not quoted directly, continues to inspire filmi git lyricists and has fueled a new trend in which many Bollywood movies now feature at least one qawwali song. Recent qawwali hits include ?Tumse Milke Dil Ka Hai Jo Hal? (?The Woes of My Heart Have Glimpsed You?) from Main Hoon Na (I?m Here Now, 2006) and especialy ?Kajra Re? (?Kohl-Lined Eyes?) from Bunty Aur Babli (Bunty and Babli, 2005), which has not only been ranked among the most popular songs in history on a BC Internet poll, but has also displaced ?Chaiyya, Chaiyya? (?Shadow, Shadow?) from the criticaly aclaimed Dil Se (From the Heart, 1997), a previous non-qawwali favorite based on clasical Sufi poetry 34 The qawali from this film, ?Piya Haji Ali? by the Sabri Brothers, has become so sucesful that it is now a standard in the traditional qawali repertory. Telephone conversation, Natalie Sarazin, April 4, 207. 260 and featuring dancers performing a zikr-like dance on a moving train. Such songs are joined by an emergent new form of Bollywood qawali exhibiting greater influence from Western commercial pop, techno, and rock, which in some cases may be considered qawwali-s only by virtue of their lyrics and visualizations. An extreme example is ?Ya Ali? (?O Savior?) from Gangster (2006), which features an electronic soundtrack with some quasi-flamenco references and is set visualy in a Sufi shrine, but with a band of guitar-playing mystics, rather than the traditional qawwali ensemble. In addition to traditional and Bollywood pop qawwali, Sufism has also engendered yet a third important genre of South Asian popular music: Sufi rock and roll music, which has gained a large following both in the subcontinent and internationaly. The term ?Sufi rock? was first devised in the 1990s to describe the distinctive hybrid sound of the Pakistani rock group Junoon. The band was formed in 1990 by guitarist and songwriter Salman Khan and comprises members of both Pakistani and American nationalities. With more than half a dozen albums released, a few Bollywood crossover hits, and many prominent worldwide performances, including several commemorations of the September 11, 2001 terorist atacks in the U.S., Junoon remains today the most popular and most influential Sufi rock group of any country. Junoon?s music seks to fuse traditional qawwali and Pakistani folk music with hard rock and is deeply inspired by Sufi imagery and themes. The band takes its name from a Sufi ecstatic concept translated as either ?obsesion? or ?frenzy? and their songs, which are as much about divine love as they are about earthly romance, are often based on the writings of such Sufi poets as Alama Iqbal, Baba Bulleh Shah, and the Mevlana, to whom concerts and recordings are routinely dedicated. The song ?Ab Tu Jag? 261 (?Awake Traveler?) from their fifth album Parvaaz (The Flight, 1999), which is widely regarded as among their finest, clearly demonstrates Junoon?s characteristic treatment of Sufi poetic texts. The lyrics are drawn from Punjabi Sufi poet Bulleh Shah (1680-1757), who was himself inspired by the gazel-s of the Mevlana, Awake traveler, move on. Trailing its star, the night is gone. Do what you have to, today. You wil never be back this way. Companions are caling. Let?s go. Awake traveler, move on. Trailing its stars, the night is gone. A pearl, a ruby, the touchstone, and dice ? With al that you thirst by the waterside! Fool, open your eyes. Get up. Awake traveler, move on. Trailing its stars, the night is gone. Awake! 345 This movement-inspired text is set to guitar, bas, and dholak and the song features two lengthy guitar solos, occasionaly colored by a sitar-like timbre, a fast-paced galoping rhythm in the dholak, and a vocal melody that fuses blues with qawwali ornaments and rising sequences. The growth of Sufi popular music in South Asia has had tremendous resonance worldwide, particularly in North America, Europe, and the Middle East where artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Junoon have concretized and where Bollywood has an ever- growing viewership. In Turkey these influences have been les direct, though they have nevertheles contributed to the emergent Sufi popular music scene there as wel. 345 Mohsin Habib and Talha (Zerocol), Junon[dot]com: The Oficial Website, acesed April 4, 207 . 262 Bollywood filmi git-s and the qawwali-s of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in particular have some following in Turkey and as qawwali and Mevlevi music are the two most internationaly recognizable Sufi musical forms, cross-influence is inevitable. Before turning to the music of Mercan Dede, who draws the most influence from South Asian musical forms, I explore the emergence of Sufi rock music in Turkey, drawing paralels to Junoon, where possible. Sufi Rock in Turkey As in Pakistan and India, Sufism in Turkey has found new expresion in local forms of rock music. Although a distinct genre of Sufi rock music has not yet been recognized in Turkey as it has in South Asia, the number of rock musicians exploring Sufi themes is growing and individual songs are becoming increasingly more popular. These songs are in some ways quite distinct from those of South Asian Sufi rock bands, especialy in terms of their reliance on traditional musical elements. Unlike Junoon and other South Asian groups, whose influence from qawwali and other traditional genres is sometimes les obvious or minimized, Turkish rock artists like Replikas, Nev, and Murat G?!ebakan are generaly more mindful of Mevlevi music and other Sufi and religious genres when they premise their songs on Sufi themes. This is particularly noteworthy as rock music in Turkey over the last decade has in general become les prone to stylistic hybridization than in the past and is now frequently cast purely in the sound world of Anglo-American rock, especialy in such idioms as hard rock, alternative rock, and punk. Rock and roll has been without question the most succesful and longest lived of al the genres of Western-oriented popular music in Turkey. Founded already in the late 263 1950s, Turkey?s rock music scene is one of the oldest, continuous rock music movements outside of the U.S. and it is so wel established that it is almost perceived as indigenously Turkish. In the mid-1960s, after only a few years of American domination, Anadolu rock (Anatolian rock) emerged as one of the earliest subgenres of rock and roll, as artists sought to forge a distinctive ?Turkishnes? in rock by infusing it with elements of Anatolian folk music and Turkish clasical music. Inspired by the experimentalism and progresivenes of the San Francisco psychedelic movement, Turkish musicians commonly made use of asymmetrical rhythms and such instruments such as the ba!lama, and composed melodies that were often richly adorned with vocal ornamentation and makam-like inflections. Today, the term Anadolu rock is indiscriminately applied to al types of rock music in Turkey, be they original creations or local variants of imported forms sung in Turkish. Of al the new rock musicians that have surfaced since the mid-1990s when the Turkish government began privatizing the music industry, perhaps the one group that is most closely asociated with the experimental and psychedelic Anadolu rock of the 1960s and 1970s is Replikas, though technicaly they are clasified as a ?post-rock? band. Originaly formed in #stanbul in 1993, Replikas had fully defined their sound and expanded to their curent size by the year 2000, and they are today internationaly recognized as one of the foremost popular music groups of Turkey. Known for their eclecticism, band members are most interested in experimenting with musical sound, making extensive use of advanced electronic techniques and drawing heavily from Turkish folk and traditional music; they often make use of such traditional folk instruments as the ba!lama, ikli!, zurna, and darbuka. 264 Among their many influences, Replikas cite Mevlevi, Bekta"i, and Alevi Sufi teke music as being particularly significant. 346 Their reliance on Sufi music and concepts is most evident on their debut album K?ledoyuran (Slave Feder, 2000) on which six of the eleven tracks either have titles evocative of Sufism and travel, like ?Fakir? (?Dervish?) and ?Seyyah? (?Traveler?), or draw directly from Sufi musical forms. The zikr ceremony especialy is invoked at several points in the album and is in itself a recurring and organizing principle. The zikr-like pasages first appear in the third track ?Akis? (?Reflection?), the centerpiece of which is an extended section of deep rhythmic breathing based on the utterance ?Hua? set within a thick texture comprised of high-pitched electronic samples, an ostinato-like electric guitar rif, and distorted slow-paced inhalations and exhalations. In the following ??ekirge Dans?? (?Grashopper Dance?), perhaps the most distinctive and wel-known piece of the album, the zikr becomes more defined. The first half of the track features a meandering, whiny, and high-pitched guitar improvisation over a darbuka emphasizing the rhythmic iteration of the heavily-aspirated phrase ?a!lama sen sak?n, a!lama ge?er? (?don?t cry, crying pases?), which plays on the phonetic similarities of the words ?a!lama? and ?Alah? (Figure 60). Figure 60: Zikr-like Formula from ??ekirge Dans?? As the texture becomes more polyphonic with the addition of a distorted zurna ostinato, the tempo and volume gradualy intensify like in the traditional zikr ceremony until a full 346 Deniz Durukan, T?rk Rock 201, (#stanbul: St?dyo #mge, 202): 181-82. 265 pause marks the beginning of the possibly unrelated jaz-inspired second half of the piece. The zikr returns again as a primary element in the final two tracks of the album. Reminiscent of ?Akis,? the song ?Yol? (?Path?) centers on a zikr-like interlude characterized by the repetition of the zikr syllable ?Hayy,? while the final instrumental piece ?K?h? (Farsi for ?Mountain?), like ??ekirge Dans?,? uses the zikr ceremony, this time based on the heavily aspirated ?Alah Hayy? (?God Lives?) formula (Figure 61), as the foundation for elaborate guitar pasages. Figure 61: Zikr Formula used in ?K?h? As the zikr proceds steadily throughout, the textural density and pitch range increase by way of tense and upward moving choral vocal sequences and expanding guitar chords. Despite their atention to the specific musical and movement aesthetics of the Sufi tradition on this album however, it is important to note that Replikas did not invoke the zikr for spiritual or ceremonial purposes, but intended rather to make an artistic and poetic statement about nihilism. 347 Their four zikr-s, especialy the two in ??ekirge Dans?? and ?K?h,? are placed within tense musical setings dominated especialy by winding, tortured guitar solos, ultimately suggesting the darknes, coldnes, and ennui of modern life. Moreover, Replikas did not use zikr or other Sufi elements in their later albums, further indicating that their interest in fusing Sufi music concepts with rock was not rooted in religious or devotional conviction. 347 Ibid., 182. 266 To get a beter sense of what more spiritualy inspired Sufi rock music might be like in Turkey, we must turn instead to artists like Nev and Murat G?!ebakan, both of whom recently released highly poetic rock songs featuring Mevlevi whirling dervishes in their videos. Looking somewhat like Buddy Holly in his black and white quasi-formal atire and black-brimed eyeglases, pop-rock singer Nev (b. Nevzat Do!ansoy, 1968) released his sole Mevlevi-informed song ?Efkarl?? (?Anxious?) in 2002 on his debut CD Her"eye Ra(men (In Spite of Everything). The slowest, most contemplative song of the twelve on the album, ?Efkarl?? explores spiritual restlesnes through a series of non- rhyming couplets. Efkarl?y?m ba"?m duman I?m anxious, my head is in a bad state Sitemi var ey koca ??nar I am reproachful, O great plane tre Zor g?n?mde nicesini and?m In my dificult days, I remember your greatnes Muhabbet yetmezmi" bilmedim I didn?t know love wouldn?t be enough D?n bug?n dedim g?nl?m avuttum Yesterday I said today, I dalied with love Yar?n yetmezmi" bilmedim I didn?t know tomorrow wouldn?t be enough Dert bir yandan sevda bir yandan Pain from one side, love from another Derman yetmezmi" bilmedim I didn?t know strength wouldn?t be enough sitem ne ?are What remedy is my reproach? %u d?nyan?n haline kand?m I had my fil of that empty world of yours Ben yaln?zm?"?m bilmedim I didn?t know I would be alone G?n?l i?in i?in yanar da My soul burns in flames Sab?r yetmezmi" bilmedim I didn?t know patience wouldn?t enough sitem ne ?are What remedy is my reproach? Efkarl?y?m ba"?m duman I?m anxious, my head is in a bad state Sitemi var ey koca ??nar I am reproachful, O great plane tre Nev?s musical seting of this text does not conform to the typicaly livelier style of other Turkish pop and pop-rock music, and it difers considerably even from those of his other songs on this album, none of which incidentaly are aranged in couplets. Rather, 267 Nev alters the standard pop song style in ?Efkarl?? to alow for multiple overt references to Mevlevi traditional music to come into relief. For instance, the song begins with a short, semi-taksim-like introduction for solo acoustic guitar and pauses briefly before moving into the first main section, which, although in a brisk and lilting 5/8 meter (B = 160), nevertheles has the staid character of clasical Mevlevi music. In addition, his vocal style in ?Efkarl?,? in comparison to that of the other songs on the album, is more tense as he is largely constrained to his upper tesitura and becomes progresively more melismatic and slightly more ornamented toward the end; the overal efect is in keeping with the vocal style of Mevlevi and other Muslim religious vocal music. More atributable stil to Mevlevi musical influence is the prominent use of bendir and especialy ney, which while it is rarely featured in popular music on acount of its religious asociations, it is here used both in heterophony with the vocal and guitar parts throughout the whole song, and as the dominant instrument in the interludes betwen the sung verses. The simple music video for ?Efkarl?? features only two individuals on a plain white background: a reverent Nev singing and playing guitar and a woman clad in a full white Mevlevi tunic whirling with outstretched arms. Full-body and close-up shots of each of the two fade gently one into another continualy throughout the video, creating a subtle sense of movement, though the primary focus during the thre ney interludes is on the female whirler, further emphasizing the asociation of the ney with the Mevlevi sema. While the video has no real narative to speak of, it ends, after a few last sema turns, in silence on a stil frame with Nev having disappeared and left behind his guitar on his stool, thus implying his spiritual and corporeal transcendence. In the fickle and 268 ephemeral world of Turkish popular music, both the song and the video sem to enjoy unusual staying power for, though originaly released in 2002, they remain popular on the Internet today and were heavily rotated on the radio and especialy on Turkey?s many cable music television channels late as 2005, wel after Nev had released his second album. Perhaps the one mainstream rock artist who identifies most closely with the Mevlana Rumi and the spiritual traditions of his devotes is Murat G?!ebakan (b. 1968), whose ?Sana Olan A"k?m %ahit? (?My Love For You Is a Witnes?) from the eponymous album of 2005 overlapped on music television with Nev?s ?Efkarl?.? G?!ebakan, who has had Sufi training, is among the few Turkish popular musicians and songwriters in the overwhelmingly secular world of Turkish popular music to not only overtly addres religious themes in Western-oriented pop, but to infuse rock lyrics specificaly with refrences to Alah and other sacred terms, in efect creating a sort of Turkish Islamic rock music. Musicaly, his instrumental style makes no obvious concesions to any Islamic forms, be they Sufi, Mevlevi, or otherwise. Rather, it is solidly grounded in 1970s Anglo-American hard rock and characterized by loud, driving electronic guitar playing, occasional gratuitous guitar solos, and pounding drums. Often this instrumental framework is augmented by the addition of violins and other orchestral strings, synthesized orchestral drones, and perhaps other elements typical of Arabesk music and Arabic song. G?!ebakan?s vocal style, on the other hand, readily betrays the influence of Muslim religious models. Characterized by highly emotive, even exaggerated, singing and occasional semi-spoken recitation, G?!ebakan?s mannerisms are related to a popular 269 religious musico-poetic style that involves the dramatic half-sung, half-spoken recitation of poetry or lyrics over an instrumental foundation, usualy a drone played on ud or ney. To my knowledge, this genre, despite its widespread popularity, has not been systematicaly studied by music scholars, though I have already refered to one variant of it in my earlier discussions on the naration of the Mevlana?s poems over musical acompaniment, as popularized by figures like Coleman Barks, Depak Chopra, and Madonna. It is likely that the appeal of this exaggerated vocal style is inspired, at least in part, by the overly afective preaching style of the charismatic and extremely influential Turkish religious scholar Fethullah G?len, beter known as Fatullah Hoca. G?!ebakan employs this technique in his ?Sana Olan A"k?m %ahit,? particularly in his rendering of the third stanza of the song?s text. 270 G?ne"imi solduran g?zlerim "ahit My eyes witnes my fading sun Geceye mahkum eden yoklu!un "ahit Convicted to the night, I witnes your absence Kap?nda bir ?m?r bekleyip I wait at your door for a lifetime Yolar?na bakan g?zlerim "ahit My eyes, which stare at your path, are a witnes ?mr?me ?m?rler veren y?re!ime Giving life to my existence, planting love in sevgiler eken my heart Bedenimi almaya gelen Azrailin pen?esi Coming to take my body, Azrael?s claw is a "ahit witnes Sehpada Pir Sultan birmi boynunda My spiritual guide is at the table, at his neck Cem Sultan is the master of ceremonies Sana olan a"k?m? anlatan bir yol atan The one who explains my love for you, the one who puts a path before me Alah?m "ahit My God is a witnes E!er If Birini ararsan titreyislerinde You sek someone who is trembling G?r?p g?rebilece!in Look and you wil se Duyup duyab?lece!in Listen and you wil hear Her"ey ama her"ey Everything, but I mean everything Senin cennet kokan sa?lar?na kar?"?m?n The smel of heaven in your disheveled hair Benim y?re!?m "ahit My heart is a witnes G?zlerime bak yedi veren y?rek Look into my eyes seven times giving heart G?zlerime Into my eyes Hayalerimi u?urtma Do not devour my dreams Yapt?m I did it Y?ld?zlara dilek I wrote a wish to the stars Yazd?m ad?n? semaya yazd?m I wrote your name in the firmament Oku Read it A"k?m i?in oku Read it for my love ??nk? bu kara sevdaya Because (it is for) this blind love Alah?m "ahit My God is a witnes With an overal mesage of mystical death and references to the fading sun, trembling fakir-s, his Pir Sultan, and the path of enlightenment, G?!ebakan?s song is clearly indebted to the writings of Sufi masters like the Mevlana. The video for ?Sana Olan A"k?m %ahit? is not only visualy far richer than that for Nev?s ?Efkarl?,? it also reveals a deeper awarenes of Sufi concepts of motion. Staring G?!ebakan, members of his band, and a troupe of five whirling semazen-s, it is set 271 entirely in the gardens and courtyards of #stanbul?s famed Aya Sofia Museum, which was formerly a mosque and before that a church. 348 While the musicians are shown simply playing their instruments in a relatively placid manner, G?!ebakan is depicted performing grandiose, overly dramatic gestures that correspond to his excedingly emotive vocal style. With the wind blowing through his geled long hair, G?!ebakan lifts his hands up to God often and flails his arms about repeatedly in order to emphasize the delivery of the lyrics, and close up shots of him show him either making caresing motions over his lips and face or closing his eyes in reverence as he tilts his head. Even during the softer musical portions of the song, his gestures are exaggerated and excesive. For instance, at the beginning of the video, when the music features delicate orchestral drones and a subdued guitar solo, G?!ebakan is depicted performing wide, flowing Tai Chi-like movements in the shadow of the Aya Sofia and again at the end, as the melody fades, he is shown placing his right hand over his heart and blowing a kis at the camera with his left hand. The Sufi aesthetics of motion, however, are not suggested only in G?!ebakan?s actions, but are in fact explicit in the video?s cinematography, which is inspired entirely by the whirling of the five Mevlevi semazen-s. An overal sense of elegant, sweping cosmic turning can be said to pervade the whole video, as principal photography was shot mainly by rotating cameras using wide-angle lenses, transforming even the most static scene focusing on the musicians into a sort of counterclockwise dance. The sema proper is featured multiple times in the video and is highlighted particularly during the semi- 348 In adition to being a cultural icon, the Aya Sofia is also an important religious symbol hotly contested by the rival secularist and pro-Islamist factions of Turkey. In 1935 Atat?rk turned the mosque into a museum and on various ocasions since then it has ben in dispute and has even become a protest site for devout Muslims. Se, for instance, Howe, 74. 272 spoken third stanza of the lyrics as wel as during more muted musical sections at the beginning and end. The disparate examples I discuss above by Replikas, Nev, and Murat G?!ebakan constitute, as far as I am aware, the only cases of Sufi-inspired Turkish rock music that have come into the mainstream in recent history; an earlier album entitled Zikir by Okay Temiz also received some notoriety and was apparently a key influence on the music of Replikas, though I have unable to learn anything further about either the recording or the artist. To these examples may be added the Sufi rock of Junoon as wel as the narated songs ?The Inteligent Fish,? ?The Half Inteligent Fish,? and ?Stupidfish? by the American band Thre Fish, which drew their inspiration for their self-titled first album (1996) from a wel-known tale by the Mevlana Rumi. 349 In musical terms, this motley asortment of Sufi rock exhibits the stylistic plurality more typical of an unsetled, nascent musical form, rather than that of a mature, fully defined genre. Exploitation of traditional forms and instrumentation is as much deliberate and self-conscious as it inconsistent. For instance, while Replikas and Nev invoke clasical Mevlevi and Sufi genres like the zikr and taksim and Nev and Junoon make use of iconic Sufi instruments, Murat G?!ebakan draws on none of these and as a result creates possibly the most spiritualy-informed examples of Sufi rock. Perhaps the only unifying feature of these examples apart from the textual content may be the pervasivenes of concepts of movement, which are so ingrained and fundamental to Sufi forms, that they naturaly become manifest in Sufi popular styles. 349 Se Lewis 1-2 and 610. 273 Mercan Dede, Sufi Traveler While Sufism has made some important inroads into the world of rock music, undoubtedly the most prominent, most consistent, and longest lived manifestations of the teachings of the Mevlana in Turkish popular culture can be found in techno electronic dance music, namely in the ambient style of Ark?n Il?cal?, Turkey?s best-known techno DJ. Performing under the stage name Mercan Dede, and sometimes also Alen Arkin, Il?cal? is a composer and music producer, as wel as a ney and bendir player. He was originaly born in Turkey in 1966 and now resides also part time in Montreal. Maintaining a very active touring schedule across Turkey, North America, and Europe, he is one of Turkey?s most peripatetic artists, and with an ever-growing international following, Il?cal? has become a rising figure in the world music market. In 2004, his international standing was bolstered further when the Ministry of Culture appointed him an official representative of Turkish culture and arts around the world, a rare distinction aforded a Sufi artist that in itself both reflects the growing tolerance towards Sufism within the state bureaucracy and contributes to the rehabilitation of Mevlana culture. As Mercan Dede, Il?cal??s succes comes from his efective blending of traditional Turkish, Persian, and South Asian Sufi musical elements with ambient techno electronic dance music and New Age music, resulting in an eclectic, yet subdued Sufi world music fusion. Though a solo artist, he normaly performs with a number of diferent ensembles including the Mercan Dede Trio, the Mercan Dede Ensemble, and Secret Tribe, and he is known for his collaborations with a variety of singers and instrumentalists working in a diverse spectrum of musics ranging from Turkish rap, Arabesk, and gypsy music to jaz and Western and Persian clasical music. Thus in addition to computer generated sounds 274 and his record spinning and ney and bendir playing, Mercan Dede?s music also features an ad hoc asortment of instrumentation including kanun, ud, ba!lama, tar, sitar, electric violin, double bas, flugelhorn, clarinet, didgeridoo, dholak and other sundry Western and Middle Eastern percussion. In al, Il?cal??s discography to date includes, in addition to over twenty compilations and studio productions for other artists, almost eight Mercan Dede albums starting with Sufi Dreams (1998) and continuing through Journeys of a Dervish (1999), Seyahatname (Book of Travels, 2001), 350 the two-disc compilation Sufi Traveler (2004), and a series of four concept albums based on the four material elements: Nar (Fire, 2002), Su (Water, 2004), Nefes (Breath, 2006), and the as yet unfinished and untitled CD based on the theme of earth. Despite the many influences on his music, Mercan Dede?s works follow a generic linear scheme that normaly progreses from a slow or fre meter introduction to one or more extended metered sections, sometimes broken up by ametrical interludes, before reaching a climax and concluding with a fading fre meter denouement. The metered sections are comprised of looped samples or cyclicaly recurring rhythmic paterns and are characterized by an overal tendency toward textural and dynamic intensification. Meanwhile, instrumental, and sometimes vocal, improvisation is featured throughout the whole composition. Traditional Sufi elements play a critical role in virtualy every work as wel, but they can vary considerably from the use of taksim-like ney improvisations as in Neyname (The Book of the Ney) from Seyahatname to zikr-like pasages as in Semaname (The Book of Sema) from the same album and Nar-? Cem (Fire of Communal Union) from Nar. The recitation or singing of gazel-s and other Sufic texts is also 350 This title, which refers to Mercan Dede?s own spiritual journeys, is derived from a popular genre of travel writing best exemplified by the Seyahatname of the famous sevententh-century Otoman traveler Evliya ?elebi. 275 common, as in Dem (Breath) from Nefes in which Iranian-born and Indian-raised singer Azam Ali sings verses by the Mevlana Rumi or in Zefir (Exhalation) also from Nefes which is based on a recording of K?ni Karaca, the late master interpreter of Mevlevi and other Turksih religious music, singing poetry by Yunus Emre. The piece Dreams of Sufi Saints, Walking on the Red Sea from Sufi Dreams is representative of Mercan Dede?s style and features several references to Sufi religious and musical traditions. The lengthy, nearly nine-minute track begins with a slow, steady pulsation reminiscent of a heartbeat that is soon joined by an incremental layering of rhythms: first the intermitent sound of bubbling water, then a low-pitched electronic loop followed by a recurring sample that sounds vaguely like a tef, and finaly more complex paterns performed on tabla. This waren of rhythms serves as a foundation for the recitation of the names of various Sufi saints including the Mevlana Rumi, %ams Tabrizi, and Nur ed-Din al-Cerahi as wel as for the pronouncement of a string of praises for the love of Alah. While this work lacks both the improvisations and winding melodies of his later works and has no obvious climax to speak of, it does peak precisely at the golden mean with the sound of blowing wind, creating a somewhat unsetling distortion of the underlying polyrhythm. In efect, Dreams of Sufi Saints, with its litany of names and praises at the beginning and its grounding in recurrent paterns of complex persistent rhythms is redolent of the Sufi zikr ceremony. The normal performance context for this piece, a techno dance party, is also understood by Mercan Dede and many club-goers as having direct paralels with the zikr gathering, as both make use of highly repetitive rhythmic music and vigorous up and down movements of the head and torso to engender a feling 276 of communal wel-being and spiritual union betwen participants, described in both instances as ecstatic trancing. It is in this performance context, more so than in the album titles or music videos, that both the aesthetics of motion and the devotional nature of Mercan Dede?s music are most palpable. I atended one such performance in Konya on December 14, 2004, during the wek of the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs (Figure 62). Figure 62: Flyer for Mercan Dede?s Concert Tour during the Mevlana Festivities of December 2004 The audience was comprised mainly of high school and college aged youth, many of whom informed me that they were either enamored of the Mevlana or were deeply interested in Sufism and Sufi music. Though in many ways identical to a techno rave in the West, the event bore an unmistakably Sufi stamp. On a scren behind the stage, the name of the Prophet Muhamad writen in a symmetrical design alternated with bright 277 colors, psychedelic geometric paterns, and swirling images of the Milky Way. In betwen the changing colors of the hypnotic light show, I could make out the silhouetes of scarved and geled heads bobbing up and down, while one of the musicians breathed deeply zikr-like into the microphone. Onstage, Mercan Dede, with his distinctive bleach-blond mohawk, stood mainly concealed behind his fortres of turntables and electronic equipment, prefering to have al the atention directed toward his acompanying musicians and especialy toward his captivating semazen Mira Burke, the Canadian Sufi female whirler who with glow sticks sown into the hem of her white tunic has gained a cult following of her own. Her routine, while breaking significantly from tradition, alowed for more motion and activity than the traditional sema and was characterized by longer periods of whirling and more fre flowing arm ovements. Her reverence and expresivity elicited great enthusiasm in the audience and at one point one young woman on the crowded dance floor even fainted, much as I had sen at the private zikr ceremonies and even at the public sema shows. In fact, Mercan Dede?s live performances occupy the realm in betwen the two great Sufi ceremonial traditions of Turkey, ofering more of a visual concert presentation than at the zikr ceremonies while at the same time providing a more interactive experience than at the sema shows. Ultimately, events such as this are not only further indicators of the resurgence of Sufism in Turkey, they also bear witnes to and perhaps may even be key stages in the evolution of Sufi tradition as mystical Islam becomes known to a new generation of potential Sufi adherents, both in Turkey and across the world. Yet, even as manifestations of Sufism in popular culture are generating greater interest in the teachings of the Mevlana and the ways of Islamic mysticism, they have 278 also caused some controversy and have drawn heavy criticism ironicaly not from secularists or the state government, but from traditionalists and the Sufi religious establishment, as I explore in the following section Spining in Circles: Popular Music, Intention, and the Polemics of Authenticity Frequently in this chapter, and indeed at many points throughout this disertation, the questions of authenticity and intentionality have surfaced and lingered in the air. They are among the thorniest and most pervasive of al the isues surrounding the study and performance of Sufi music in Turkey, and they are posed of al musical types, from the popular genres discussed in this chapter to the state sponsored sema performances analyzed in Chapter Four; charges of spiritual disingenuousnes are even raised against the lodges of downtown Konya for alowing so many ?foreigners? to participate in the zikr ceremony, as if being Turkish and a Sufi were synonymous and exclusive terms. This element of nationalism only complicates maters further, especialy given the precarious legal standing of Sufism in the country, but it may be that it is this very mater of prohibition that makes the isues of authenticity and intentionality so prominent. Then again, the question of spiritual authenticity can be traced back at least to the mid- sevententh century when one Katip Chelebi (1609-57) criticized the Mevlana?s devotes for performing the sema, to use Lewis?s words, ?in an ungrounded fashion.? 351 It is interesting to note that music is so interconnected in this tradition with ceremony, devotion, and spirituality that questions about the authenticity of the one can cast doubts upon the genuinenes of the others, particularly since Sufi enlightenment is 351 Se Lewis, 519 and K?tip ?elebi, The Balance of Truth, trans. G. L. Lewis (London: Alen and Unwin, 1957): 43. 279 ultimately a personal journey that is not necesarily tied to any specific musical or ceremonial form. 352 Indeed, as Jean During argues, what makes a kind of music ?Sufi? has more to do with intention and interpretation than with anything specificaly atributable to musical content, 353 yet even he is quick to dismis popular music as devotionaly viable and would not likely subscribe to Hamarlund?s suggestion that ?Maybe, Sufi rock music can become a vehicle for zikr in the future, rather than staged sema shows of so-caled whirling dervishes.? 354 I have deliberately circumvented the isues of authenticity and intentionality until now so as to addres them in the one area of Sufi music where they are most poignant. Sufi popular musics, as I have demonstrated, have played an important role in bringing Sufism to ever-larger numbers worldwide, but they have done so by manipulating traditional forms and sometimes by making changes so extreme that they raise doubts about the true intentions of the artists and are declared inauthentic. To detractors, the problems of popularizing Sufism through popular music, or of popularizing Sufism at al, are manifold. For some tarikat-s, mystical knowledge is meant to be esoteric, a closely guarded secret that should be divulged only to those who are most worthy and most prepared. 35 In other cases, the concern is over desacralization, with the secularism, materialism, and consumerism glorified by popular culture being 352 To ofer a paralel example from Western Europe, Johan Sebastian Bach, who was not a Catholic, did not composed the Mas in B Minor wholy out of religious motivations, yet today this does not preclude the work from being understod as sacred, even when it is usualy performed in a secular concert hal seting. 353 Se During, 199. 354 Anders Hamarlund, ?Sacral, Secular or Sacred? An Esay on Music and Aesthetic Emancipation,? in Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and Midle East, Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 27-27, 197, ed. Anders Hamarlund, Tord Olson, and Elisabeth ?zdalga (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet; Richmond, England: Curzon, 201): 45. 35 Se During, 201, 153. 280 sen as antithetical to the core of Sufi teachings. As Franklin Lewis reveals in expresing his worries of the Mevlana?s adoption into pop culture, at the heart of this anxiety is the belief that commercialism engenders, among other things, misrepresentation, misinterpretation, and misunderstanding. I watch now with concern as pop culture dilutes and distorts his mesage, with a foreboding sense that modern secular culture wil inevitably reduce the sacral into the banal through its relentles commercialism and consumerism. 356 In Turkey, the isue of desacralization is also connected to the power struggles currently taking place betwen religious and secularist forces, with the popularization of Sufism sometimes being construed as a cynical atempt on the part of the government to further neutralize or even ridicule genuine piety. Added to this already lengthy litany of isues involving the rise of Sufism in popular music and culture are the clasic tensions betwen modernity and tradition, the fear that Sufism is becoming more of a musical rather spiritual movement, and the belief that this music atracts spiritual dabblers and not serious devotes. Many of these concerns pertain to certain frictions existing betwen Western secularism and Islam, but they stem ore directly from the way that Sufism has spread to the West through such figures as Gurdjief, Shah, and Feild. Traditionalists criticize these individuals in particular for divorcing Sufism from Islam, diluting its principles, and polluting it with elements from the occult, paganism, and other faiths. 357 This has led 356 Lewis, 4. 357 Se for instance Seyed Hosein Nasr, Review of The Sufis, by Idries Shah, Islamic Studies 12 (1964): 531-3 as wel as his Sufi Esays (Albany: State University of New York Pres, 1972): 15. 281 some to recognize two distinct branches of Sufism, one traditional, the other Western, 358 with the later sometimes refered to in such terms as ?recreational Sufism.? 359 The implications of this perceived schism are that Western adherents of Sufism are often asumed to not be full Muslims or otherwise lack the commitment, spirituality, and esoteric understanding required for being true Sufi dervishes. Madonna, for one, has been widely acused of faddism for her interests in the Mevlana and Jewish mysticism. Yet such criticisms are levied not only against Westerners, but are applied to any artist, Sufi or otherwise, who chooses to merge Sufism with Western-style popular culture. While Junoon and Bollywood qawwali are the prime targets in South Asia, 360 in Turkey, Mercan Dede and Mira Burke are chief among those acused of being musicaly and spiritualy inauthentic. In addition to not being an actual dede, Mercan Dede invites criticism for his hybrid musical style and his commercial appeal, meanwhile Burke acknowledges receiving disapproval not only for her unorthodox sema style, but also for being a highly visible female whirler. 361 What their detractors are not usualy aware of is that both have had decades of training in various Sufi orders in Turkey and abroad, that Burke is in fact the daughter of a "eyh, and that Il?cal? actualy performs under a variety of pseudonyms precisely in order to escape the cult of personality and other trappings brought on by succes in the world of popular music. 358 Se Olav Hamer, ?Sufism for Westerners,? in Sufism in Europe and North America, ed. David Westerlund (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 204): 138-40. 359 Asma Hasan, Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odysey (London: Element Boks Limited, 204). 360 Se Vikas Hatwani, ?Pop Goes Sufi,? The Indian Expres Group, July 20, 206, acesed September 17, 206 . 361 Mira Burke, personal comunication, December 14, 204. 282 In response to their indictors, Sufi popular artists and their fans typicaly retort that criticisms put forth against them run contrary to the ideals and values of the teachings of the Mevlana Rumi and they are quick to invoke the doctrines of universalism and tolerance that are especialy characteristic of Sufism in the West. As Coleman Barks puts it, Rumi is certainly important in many diferent cultures, and had followers of diferent faiths in his lifetime. I se him as someone who kicked fre of doctrinal confinement and got to the core from which we al worship. I think he saw these God clubs as divisive. Others may se him diferently. 362 It is likely that the isues of authenticity and intentionality wil remain of central importance as the Mevlana continues to be asimilated into international popular culture and as Sufi popular musical forms keep on proliferating in Turkey and across the world. In the meantime, these questions also persist in the sema and zikr traditions in Turkey, especialy as foreigners remain key supporters of Mevlana culture. In the next chaper, I revisit these isues of authenticity and intentionality as I explore more fully what other roles outsiders play in further expanding Mevalana-related musical life in Turkey. 362 Peter Culshaw, ?Giving the Dervish a Whirl,? The Guardian, December 1, 201, acesed April 4, 207 . 283 CHAPTER SEVEN SONGS FROM OTHER SPHERES: NON-TURKISH MUSIC IN THE WORSHIP OF THE MEVLANA As I demonstrated in the previous chapter, veneration of the Mevlana Rumi has begun to take on new modes of musical expresion beyond the conventional Turkish sema and zikr ceremonies and now also includes New Age music and various types of popular music. However, one need not venture into the space age to discover that worship of the Mevlana extends wel beyond the traditional Turkish forms. During my fieldwork in Turkey in 2004 and 2005 and subsequently thereafter, I encountered numerous occasions when various other musical styles were used for devotional purposes. These comprised mainly of traditional musical forms indigenous to other cultures that were performed in Turkey primarily by pilgrims and touring musicians. This chapter surveys some of these traditional genres. Because of the wealth of the material and the potentialy interminable listing of musical forms, however, I have chosen to limit my discussion here largely to those performances I documented during the 2004 Mevlana Festival, which nevertheles stil constitutes a considerable amount of music. As in previous chapters, my primary goal is to discuss the aesthetics of motion and the devotional aspects of these disparate styles, but my focus is les analytical than ethnographic in nature because, while most of these musics have already been thoroughly analyzed by other scholars, their connections to the Mevlana Rumi have heretofore either been overlooked or underemphasized; in some instances, the asociations were previously nonexistent. 284 Thus, in the first section, I present a brief ethnographic excerpt from a zikr ceremony I atended at the dergah of Nuri Baba during which a Catholic Sanctus was sung by one of the pilgrims. I place this performance in fuller context in the following section and use my analysis of it and various pieces of Western clasical music based on the Mevlana as a springboard for my discussions in the rest of the chapter. Hence, in the third section, I concentrate on a series of sundry concerts held at the Konya Chamber of Commerce that together launched the First Annual Konya International Mystic Music Festival. I conclude the chapter with an examination of another group of performances held in honor of the Mevlana during the 2004 Mevlana Festival that, while unrelated in type, al originate from Iran and Afghanistan, both of which lay claim to the Mevlana as a native son. ?Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus?. It Means ?Alahu Akbar!?? December 13, 2004 Konya This evening?s zikr ceremony has been more exuberant than usual. It is the third day of the Mevlana Festival and the growing number of visitors descending upon Konya is becoming more and more evident. Perhaps as many as a hundred and fifty souls have packed into the prayer hal of the dergah of Haci Nuri Baba this evening, whereas only about twenty five were in atendance just two nights ago. While many of the congregants are Turks, most have come from abroad, and with each new eager face the atmosphere becomes increasingly more animated and charged with tasavvuf. Mevlana devotes have arived from as far afield as India, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, and the U.S., but the overwhelming majority tonight hail from Iran. 285 Although we are currently in the contemplative lull following the concluding fatiha, the zikr gathering has been dominated by the fervor and contagious energy of the Persian pilgrims. Some of them had brought along bendir-s decorated with kitschy sepia images of whirling dervishes, augmenting the already sizable musical ensemble to an unprecedented six frame drums. Ken to extend their ecstatic experience, the unrelenting Persians drummed wel after the last ?Hu? of each of the many ilahi-s performed, and some jumped and screamed as they chanted the zikr formulas. A few men and women even wept and sobbed profusely from their spiritual euphoria. Shortly after the zikr rite, many of the Persians left and the gathering gave way to a more subdued poetry reading sesion. The "eyh recited Turkish translations of the Mevlana?s gazel-s from memory, which another congregant then loosely and artlesly translated again into English. A second reader, a young German-Turkish woman who had traveled the world in search of deeper spiritual knowledge, was eventualy asked to take over. Having spent some time in Brazil studying the Santo Daime movement only to find what she was seking in her ancestral homeland, the otherwise modest pilgrim translated as she read to the mixed asembly of men and women. Her voice and the words of the Melvana echoed loudly from the tinny speakers and they sem to linger on even now that the gathering has opened up to sohbet and informal music making. Presently, while some are stil engaged in muffled side discussions, a Dutch woman siting on her knees close to the "eyh suddenly but calmly sings a beautiful melody in a high, moving voice. Although I do not recognize the tune, the lyrics are certainly familiar. With her eyes closed and her hands on her heart, she sings the full Latin text of the Catholic Sanctus. Overcome with joy, she proffers an awkward English 286 translation, ?Al Goodnes to everyone who comes in the name of God,? and then blurts out, ?It means ?Alahu Akbar!?? Her singing and sentiment prompt resounding approval from the other congregants, particularly from the elder Turkish dervishes who thank her before one of the musicians begins to play the ba!lama and initiates a lengthy and vigorous second zikr ritual. The Mevlana and Western Music The heartfelt singing of the Christian Sanctus in the segment of the zikr ceremony described above may be unorthodox, but it is certainly not unprecedented and neither is the recitation of poetry in multiple languages. As I explained in Chapter Five, foreign pilgrims and travelers from distant lands are a common sight at the dergah of Nuri Baba in central Konya. Rarely did I atend a zikr gathering where there were no visitors from other countries present, even outside of the busy Mevlana season in December. Visitors mainly came from Europe and North America, but during the 2004 Mevlana Festival pilgrims arived from al four corners of the earth. Because of the heavy trafic of congregants flowing through the dergah year round and because the "eyh likes to leave parts of the gathering open for anyone in atendance to perform usic or read poetry, a zikr ceremony here can be a highly unpredictable afair (se Chapter Five). Although I did not encounter any other instances of the use of Christian music in Sufi devotional contexts during my fieldwork, Franklin Lewis notes that at one Sufi gathering in San Anselmo, California in 1976 a group of women sang the famous Quaker spiritual ??Tis A Gift To Be Simple? as acompaniment to the performance of sema. 363 363 Lewis, 521. 287 In fact, there is a long history of the Mevlana Rumi being connected to the musical traditions of the West, particularly those genres that fal under the broad, generic category of Western clasical music. Most of these examples comprise vocal setings of translated texts writen by the Mevlana. Among the earliest are German Lieder based on translations done by Friedrich R?ckert. Franklin Lewis has compiled a comprehensive list of almost a dozen of these songs by various composers of the Germanic tradition, including most notably Franz Schubert?s wel-known ?Du bist die Ruh,? D. 776 and ?Lachen und Weinen,? D. 777 and Richard Strauss?s ?Die Sch?pfung ist zur Ruh gegangen,? Op. 62 and ?Und dann nicht mehr,? Op. 87, No. 3. 364 Added to the Lieder are a number of other vocal works including choral setings, solo vocal compositions, operas, and oratorios. From the choral repertory, the third movement of Bethoven?s Die Ruinen von Athen, Op. 113 (1811), the so-caled ?Chorus of the Dervishes? is among the first to draw inspiration from the Mevlana tradition. More substantial examples, however, come from the twentieth century, when translated editions of the Mevlana?s writings became more acesible. For instance, Lewis has pointed out that a second-generation Polish translation of a Mevlana poem by Tadeusz Micinski from R?ckert?s German edition served as the basis for the choral segments of Karol Szymanowski?s Symphony No. 3, Opus 27 (?Piec?n? o nocy?). 365 Also on Lewis?s inventory is Ton de Leuw?s Transparence (1986) for mixed chorus and bras, which features French and Dutch texts based on verses by the Mevlana and thre other Sufi poets. 364 Ibid., 617. 365 Ibid., 619. 288 An important update to this list of Mevlana-themed choral works is the Mevlana Symphony by the Viennese-trained Turkish composer Sabri Tulu! T?rpan. Inspired by notions of pilgrimage and the composer?s own inner voyage, the work was writen in honor of the Mevlana?s 700 th birthday and premiered on May 9, 2007 at the Hagia Irini Church in #stanbul as part of the Europe Day festivities. The premiere stared Turkish popular singer Sertab Erener acompanied by the Vienna Clasical Players, which consists of members from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and also featured choreography by modern dancer Ziya Azazi. 36 Major English language translations of Mevlana poetry in the late twentieth century have also led to the composition of a few solo vocal works by U.S. composers. Diane Thome used translations of various poems by Kabir Helminski as the basis for her The Ruins of the Heart (1990) for soprano, orchestra, and tape. Andrew List composed a trilogy of Mevlana song setings entitled Oh My Beloved in two versions, one for mezo- soprano, clarinet, and piano, and the other for mezo-soprano, clarinet, and string quartet. Meanwhile, Ben Johnston set translations by Coleman Barks for bas narator and string quartet in his Quietnes (1996). 367 In addition to choral and solo vocal works, the Mevlana has been the subject of a few of opera projects. The earliest of these is Soliman second (1761) by the prolific Charles-Simon Favart, who included a Mevlevi-inspired divertisement at the end of his popular semi-operatic verse play. More recently, Philip Glas composed Monsters of Grace (1998), a multimedia production that features a vocal quartet singing Mevlana 36 Asl? Sa!lam, ?Traveling through His Iner Soul, Composing for Mevlana,? Turkish Daily News, May 5, 207, acesed May 5, 207 . 367 Ibid., 619-20. 289 translations by Barks and electronic samples of Persian music. The American composer Michael Paul Elison has also writen an opera in thre acts based on the life story of the Mevlana with a libreto drawn from translations by Nader Khalili as a disertation project for his doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Composed after a year of research in Turkey on Turkish clasical and folk music, Mevlana: A Chamber Opera (2003) is set for Azeri singers and Western chamber orchestra and singers, with optional parts for kemen?e, tanbur, ?eng, and kanun, as wel as a non-optional part for ney. 368 The Mevlana?s life story, however, has been most popular as the subject for oratorio libreti. At least four Mevlana-themed oratorios have been composed since the 1960s. The first was by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, who has also writen a theatrical work caled Loving (1979) for two actors and vocal quartet on Mevlana verses. Schafer?s Divan i Shams i Tabriz for Orchestra, Seven Singers, and Electronic Sounds, which is also known by the title Lustro, was composed on the poetry of Rumi and Tagore betwen 1969 and 1972 and was followed in 1973 by the Mevlana Oratorio of Ali Do!an Sinangil, which was writen in honor of the Mevlana?s 700 th %eb-i ?urs. 369 Meanwhile, commemorative performances of two other works entitled Mevlana Oratorio have been scheduled on the occasion of the Mevlana?s 800 th birthday in 2007. The Ankara State Opera and Balet has featured Mustafa Erdo!an?s Mevlana Oratorio in its 2006-2007 program, 370 while the #stanbul Opera and Balet Orchestra and Choir has planned to give multiple performances of Can Atila?s Mevlana Oratorio throughout the year. This latest 368 Michael Paul Elison, ?Mevlana: A Chamber Opera (One Act)? (Ph.D. Disertation, University of California at Santa Barbara, 203). 369 Lewis, 619. 370 ?Ankara State Opera and Balet to Hail New Season with Surprises,? Turkish Daily News, September 30, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 290 Mevlana-themed oratorio by Atila, based on a libreto by Semih Sergin, was writen specificaly for the Sufi saint?s anniversary and features recitation of the Mevlana?s poetry, sema, and music for a 200-piece orchestra and choir reminiscent of Richard Wagner; the composer intends for the work to also be performed at the Vatican and in New York. 371 In addition to music for voice, the Mevlana and his devotes have also inspired a more modest asortment of balet music and instrumental pieces. Already in 1788, the Mevlevi had been the subject of a balet performed at the Th??tres des Grands Danseurs du Roi in Paris entitled Les Derviches. In the twentieth century, the Mevlevi and their sema resurfaced more frequently in balet and modern dance and sometimes were also referenced in instrumental music. In November 1920, the balet Dervishes, with music by Alexander Glazounov, was premiered at the Balet Su?dois. 372 Some time later, dance would continue to be a major theme in instrumental music, as exemplified by Dan E. Welcher?s Dervishes: Ritual Dance-Scene for Full Orchestra (1976). Strongly characterized by sweping orchestral movement, this piece derives its name from the second main section, which features a dance-like 5/8 ostinato motif that is suggestive of the zikr ceremony. In addition, Michael Paul Elison, who we have met as the composer of the Mevlana chamber opera, has also writen a piece caled Fana for violin and jaz piano trio in 2001, although it was not initialy informed by any Sufi concepts. Among the few examples of purely instrumental music to draw on the Mevlana and his writings directly is a chamber piece entitled The Heart?s Ear (1997) for flute, 371 ?Mevlana?s Life and Works Brought to Stage,? Today?s Zaman, March 27, 207, acesed March 31, 207 . 372 For a more detailed treatment of Mevlana-inspired balet, se Lewis, 620-21. 291 clarinet, and string quartet by Liza Lim, a student of Ton de Leuw with a deep interest in the Mevlana?s poetry. Mevlana-inspired instrumental works remain rare in part because the medium lends itself les wel than vocal music to the Mevlana?s teachings and in part because many composers are hesitant to asume projects of such spiritual magnitude. As the Turkish pianist Faz?l Say articulates so wel, I want to create a work inspired by Mevlana but as this is a very delicate topic, one should prepare wel. I regard this as a very serious spiritual task. When I fel I?m ready, I wil definitely compose a piece on Mevlana. 373 The case of Faz?l Say, who has also rejected the idea of composing a Mevlana Symphony for similar reasons, along with al of the Western art musics surveyed above, raises several significant isues that shape my discussion throughout this chapter on the aesthetics of motion in non-Turkish devotional music. First among these is what precisely constitutes ?non-Turkish music.? In the other sections of this chapter, the definition of the term as simply music that is not indigenous to Turkey is straightforward enough, however, in the present case of Western art music such a distinction is les axiomatic. European musical forms have a long history in Turkey and were officialy established as early as 1828 when Giuseppe Donizeti (1788- 1856), elder brother of the famed Italian opera composer Gaetano Donizeti, became Master of Music to Sultan Mahmut I (r. 1808-39). During his almost thirty years of service, Donizeti made Western music prevalent at the Otoman court, replacing the repertory of the Mehter military musical corps with Western-style military music, organizing visits by such leading European figures as Franz Liszt, and, most importantly, 373 Quoted in ?Renowned Pianist Faz?l Say Wants to Compose Piece on Mevlana,? Turkish Daily News, December 25, 206, acesed January 3, 207 . 292 giving music lesons to scores of courtiers. In following generations, with European art music firmly implanted in court life, Otoman Turkey boasted numerous acomplished performers and composers, including several sultans, most notably Abd?laziz (r. 1861- 76) and Murat V (r. 1876). By the dawn of the Republican Era, European music had already begun to spread beyond the elite circles of the royal court, and under Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk, who was an enthusiastic admirer of opera, Western styles came to officialy supplant most traditional music as part of the sweping series of reforms that sought to modernize the fledgling nation-state. 374 Thus, the Istanbul Conservatory was founded in 1926 and the German composer Paul Hindemith helped to launch the Ankara State Conservatory in 1936. Today, Western art music is wel established in the Turkish musical education system and continues to be supported through various state institutions and festivals. Faz?l Say is among Turkey?s best-known composers and performers, and, like most Western music advocates, he maintains a busy touring schedule both in Turkey and around the world. Despite this rich history and the current flurry of activity, however, Western art music in Turkey is stil considered to be ?non-Turkish? and is refered to as Klasik Bat? M?zi(i (Western clasical music) or by some variant that distinguishes betwen Bat? (Western) and T?rk (Turkish). The second major isue that Mevlana-themed Western music raises is that of intentionality. The problem concerns whether the composition, performance, or audition of a particular piece of music, either with or without a Mevlana, Mevlevi, or other Sufi 374 Se for example Orhan Tekelio!lu, ?An Iner History of ?Turkish Music Revolution? ? Demise of a Music Magazine,? in Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and Midle East, Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 27-27, 197, ed. Anders Hamarlund, Tord Olson, and Elisabeth ?zdalga (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet; Richmond, England: Curzon, 201): 11-15. 293 theme, is intended to be an act of worship or devotion, a more non-religious gesture of tribute, or merely a display of musical artifice. As I suggested in my earlier discussion on popular music artists (se Chapter Six), gauging spiritual intent, and thereby the religious authenticity of any performance of music, is extremely dificult and is something that ultimately cannot be fully known. While it may not be quantifiable, intention, methodologicaly speaking, must nevertheles be considered as one of the most important factors in the study of Sufi music, for it is the presence of tasavvuf (?spiritual esence?), or at the very least the construal of its presence, more so than any thematic or sonic element, that in the end renders something truly ?Sufi? and devotional. It is not axiomatic, despite how closely the Mevlana is tied to nationalism in Turkey today, that a piece of music is more likely to be intentionaly devotional in nature if composed or performed by a Turk than by a Westerner, or by anyone from any other culture for that mater, especialy considering the prevalence of secularism in Turkey and the increasing globalization of Sufism. Al music has the potential to engender or be infused with tasavvuf, be it a Mevlana Symphony or a Sanctus. Indeed, a piece of music need not even be originaly intended for worship in order to be interpreted as such. Conversely, as I discuss in the folowing section, a performance that is intended to be mystical in nature may not be received that way by an audience. The third and final isue that bears addresing here is that of the aesthetics of motion. I have demonstrated throughout this disertation that movement, as both a physical action and a concept, is central to Sufi Islamic doctrines and is correspondingly manifest not only in music and ceremonial, but also in Turkish and Middle Eastern culture at large in various ways. With the expansion of what constitutes Sufi music and 294 music for the Mevlana, the question that by necesity arises now is how the Sufi aesthetic of motion can be present in styles and genres that were not originaly Sufi. In my earlier analyses of the sema and zikr ceremonies, I showed that the concept of motion is evident in ways that are culturaly and musicaly rather specific (se Chapters Four and Five). However, Sufism has a far deeper tradition of espousing and laying claim to broader notions that are more universaly applicable and apparent. With their tendency towards universalism, Sufis appreciate and interpret musical movement in the most generic of terms from programatic titles or references in vocal texts to dance or rhythm; indeed, as one informant explained to me, music is in and of itself a form of motion, progresing from one sound to the next through time and space. Apart from these more universalist, and occasionaly more cerebral and philosophical, reckonings, the aesthetic of motion in music is most specificaly identified in the ability of a performance to instil tasavvuf, its ability to be spiritualy and emotionaly moving and thereby elicit movement in the form of a physical response or perhaps ecstasy. This shifts the question back to the elements of intention and interpretation, but in the end these may be the only factors that limit or contain the universalist outlook that alows a Sufi to potentialy construe motion in just about everything. To beter explore these concepts and isues, I turn now to thre specific examples that I documented in Konya in 2004 during the commemorations of the Mevlana?s pasing from this earth. 295 The Pyrotechnics of Piety: Music at the First Anual International Mystic Music Festival The most prominent examples of non-Turkish music performed in Turkey in honor of the Mevlana Rumi, whether as acts of devotion or otherwise, are those occurring at the annual International Mevlana Mystic Music Festival, which is held each December in Konya as part of the official program of the broader Mevlana Festival. The Mystic Music Festival was established in 2004 in commemoration of the Mevlana?s 731 st %eb-i ?urs with a series of afternoon concerts performed by seven groups from six countries over the eight days of the festival. The program included an ilahi choral group from #stanbul, which gave two performances, a qawwali ensemble from Karachi, a Persian clasical music group from Tehran, a folk music group from Azerbaijan, a gospel choir from Paris, a choral group from Sarajevo, and a Bekta"i troupe from Nev"ehir (Hac?bekta"); at the last minute, the Bosnian group canceled due to inclement weather and the program was shortened to seven days. Ironicaly, the mystical recitals were al held at the Konya Chamber of Commerce, perhaps in an atempt to either deemphasize or mask the spiritual nature of the festival. Although my focus here is on the Pakistani qawwali ensemble, the Azerbaijani folk group, and the French gospel choir, I want to first describe the first of the two ilahi recitals so as to establish the expectations and behaviors of the standard Turkish audience and to provide a basis for comparison. The inaugural performance on December 10, 2004 featured a large nearly thirty-member chorus acompanied by a masive instrumental ensemble comprising of two ney-s, two tanbur-s, two ud-s, kemen?e, two kanun-s, keman, viyolonsel, four bendir-s, and k?dum under the direction of the wel- known conductor, composer, and tasavvuf music exponent Ahmet Hatipo!lu. The 296 official program listed over two dozen pieces, including fiften ilahi-s, numerous compositions by Hatipo!lu, and the third selam from Nayi Osman Dede?s Hicaz Ayin-i !erif. The performance, however, presented only a few of these pieces and instead took the form of a short staged zikr ceremony featuring a few ilahi-s, kaside-s, taksim-s, and unison choral singing of the zikr formulas. It began with the recitation of an ilahi text over ney and kanun drones and occasionaly featured quasi-polyphonic pasages. Unlike the zikr ceremonies I had been atending, this performance was quite staid and sober, as is typical of a clasical music concert, and had al the trappings of an official state function: flags, speeches from government bureaucrats, and cameramen recording the event for posterity. The conservatory trained singers and musicians in black and white formal atire, while occasionaly quite emotive, remained rather stif and virtualy motionles throughout the performance, only Hatipo!lu, who also played k?dum at one point, made any movements, and then these were the grand gestures characteristic of a conductor of Western clasical music, and not those of the zikr ceremony. The large audience, which consisted mainly of Turks and a few Westerners, too sat relatively stil, but listened avidly to the performance. In betwen pieces, audience members applauded enthusiasticaly and at the end there was an instant standing ovation. Hatipo!lu and the group were honored with flowers and kises before the contented audience began to disperse. On the following day, much of the audience returned, with a few new additions from the U.S., Europe, Iran, and South Asia, to hear Pakistani qawwal Faiz Ali Faiz and his ensemble, which consisted of seven members who sang, clapped, and played harmoniums, dholak, and two sets of tabla-s. Wearing colorful blue kurta-s, they sat on 297 the floor of the stage under the Turkish and Pakistan flags and presented a long recital of five qawwali songs, some of them nearing twenty minutes in length. The first song was dedicated to the Mevlana Rumi and the Prophet Muhamad and featured a very long ameterical introduction characterized by numerous improvisations and meandering vocal ornaments before setling into the exuberant metrical song and speeding up to the end. As each qawwali song unfolded in a similar way, Faiz sang pasionately with deep emotion, often thrusting his right palm forcefully into the air in order to convey his elation and the sentiments of the texts, reminding me of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. 375 Compared with the Turkish group from the day before, the performance was more visibly ecstatic and the foreign audience members, myself included, too were more obviously enthraled throughout. The Turkish audience members, however, appeared to be on the whole more reserved. Unacustomed to the lengthy pieces, the unabashed display of emotion, and the fervent gesticulation in a such a concert seting, they were quite reticent at first, but eventualy warmed up, clapping along with the ensemble and offering resounding applause at the end, though not much of a standing ovation. In India and Pakistan, audience response to qawwali performances is usualy far more uninhibited. As Qureshi notes, [A]s for the listener?s outward responses, it is asumed that mystical emotion, though spiritual in nature, wil expres itself physicaly, and strong emotional arousal, being an inner movement, needs to find outward expresion in physical movement?. [I]n the extreme state of ecstasy, complete restraint from physical movement is impossible. 376 375 For a more thorough catalogue of al the gestures and expresive responses used in qawali performance, se Qureshi, 195, 121. 376 Ibid., 120. 298 Meanwhile in Turkey, public performances of tasawwuf music, from the sema shows to the ilahi concerts, are usualy more contemplative in nature and, hence, more restrained. Undoubtedly, the more muted responses from the Turks can also be atributed in part to the long history of state represion and the stil tenuous permisibility of such open displays of tasavvuf. If the pyrotechnics of Faiz Ali Faiz?s performance posed somewhat of a chalenge for the Turks, those of famed Azeri singer Baba Mirzayev and his ensemble two days later on December 13, 2004 would prove to be downright controversial and scandalous. Betraying some of the influence that the state had on folk music during the Soviet period, Mirzayev and his ensemble, which consists of four instrumentalists on tar, clarinet, acordion, and percussion (double-headed drum, bendir, etc.), gave a long performance that was more characteristic of a schmaltzy cabaret show than of a pious spiritual recital. The concert began unasumingly with a lively folk-based instrumental piece, but toward its end, when the clarinetist stood up to perform a lengthy solo, a few concertgoers began to furl or raise their eyebrows, not expecting such a brazen display at a recital of mystical music. From this point on, however, the performance would only become increasingly more gratuitous. During the applause, Baba Mirzayev, displaying an even greater flair for the dramatic, sauntered onto the stage wearing a puffy white shirt and a black coat elaborately decorated with a sparkling gold trim. Already in the next piece, Mirzayev?s exaggerated vocal style and stage presence was obvious. He sang extremely long melismas and high notes with a feigned look of ecstasy on his face while at the same time signaling to the audience for applause with his right hand. Somewhat later, he broke into fits of laughter while reciting a story and switched unexpectedly 299 betwen singing and loud whispering. As he continued, his other onstage antics included dramaticaly kicking over a chair, singing at the tar as it played a solo, singing to the cameraman that was filming him, and singing into the microphone while on his knees. The instrumentalists too engaged in similar choreographed displays of showmanship and ostentation. Near the end of the concert, during an extended series of solos that lasted nearly half an hour, for instance, the clarinetist disasembled his instrument and performed numerous solos using only the mouthpiece and various parts of the instrument. Also during this period of solos, the percussionist impresively played several drums simultaneously while striking a bendir with his head and occasionaly slapping himself and Mirzayev with his right hand, a feat that elicited wild applause and rhythmic clapping from the audience. While most of the repertory Mirzayev and his group performed were display pieces, there were some Azeri folk songs that were more in keeping with the mystical theme of the festival. These songs, which refered often to Alah and Muhamad, were either recited over tar or clarinet drones and improvisations or were sung in fre meter and richly ornamented. Twice while singing these songs, Mirzayev walked deliberately around the stage in a wide circle, invoking the more folksy sema-like ayini-i cem ceremony of the Shiite Alevi and Bekta"i Sufi mystics. At the end of the concert too, after having been presented with flowers, Mirzayev commandeered the microphone and delivered a lengthy discourse on the Mevlana and his greatnes, something none of the other artists performing at the festival had done. Despite Mirzayev?s tributes to the Mevlana and the excelent musicianship displayed by him and his ensemble, much of the audience had long since dismised the 300 performance for being too consciously self-absorbed with technical virtuosity and pretension. At various points during the concert, outbursts of laughter could be heard and some had become visibly embarased. Yet it was not only the Turks who had had their sense of propriety and reserve offended; both local and foreign concertgoers had grown impatient with the self-indulgent melismas and other onstage antics and a few of the more restles could occasionaly be heard blurting out exclamations like ?crazy? and ?Alah Alah? in their dismay and incredulity. Stil, these sentiments were not unanimous as several audience members around me, both Turkish and non-Turkish, were fully engrossed in the performance and cheered enthusiasticaly at the end, throwing their hands in the air in praise. Indeed, even many of the detractors had by the end abandoned whatever expectations or reservations they may have had and simply enjoying the unabashed display of showmanship. Undoubtedly the most unusual and initialy least obviously Sufi performance programed under the banner of the First Annual International Mystic Music Festival, however, was that given by The Gospel Legend Singers two days later on Wednesday, December 15, 2004. The Gospel Legend Singers was a French group comprising entirely of Afro-French and Francophone Africans who sang American gospel songs and Negro spirituals predominantly in English, though a few ere in Zulu and other African languages. Dresed in colorful church robes, the eight-member choir was acompanied by keyboard, electric bas, and drum set and was directed by Jackson Mpongo, who formed the group in 1995. Their listing on the program drew a full house of curious Turks and large numbers of Europeans, who had by now begun to pour into the city in anticipation of the %eb-i ?urs events on Friday. The program featured a number of real 301 crowd pleasers including old clasics of the African American vocal repertory like ?Amazing Grace,? ?Swing Low,? and ?When the Saint?s Go Marching In,? which had many in the audience holding hands and swaying. In many ways, Gospel Legend?s performance was as much a ?show? as it was a sacred recital, and in the end they had more in common with Baba Mirzayev and his ensemble than they would initialy sem. For instance, during several vocal solos, Mpongo signaled to the audience with his hand for applause, much as Mirzayev had done two days earlier, and at one point, several choir members engaged in a scene of play- acting and pantomime as they sang. In yet another song, one of the choir members, having caught the spirit, even moved out into the audience to dance and initiate what for a moment looked very much like an Evangelical revival meting. At first, the Turkish members of the audience semed unsure of how to react and behave, but following the lead of the contingent of the excited Europeans at the front of the hal, they soon became more comfortable with clapping to the songs, dancing in their seats, and singing along with the choir. In the end, it was the European audience members, more so than the Turks, who sought to foster a more outward expresion of tasavvuf, holding hands and swaying back and forth at many points during the concert. This was particularly evident during the performance of the song ?Fredom Is Coming,? which featured ululations, a strong underlying polyrhythm, and a section of cal and response betwen the choir and the audience on the word ?fredom.? Thoroughly caught up in the moment, the row of Europeans al joined hands and began to rock front to back, intentionaly transforming the gospel show into a seated zikr sesion. In fact, most of these Europeans were actualy 302 Sufi pilgrims who had come to commemorate the death of the Mevlana Rumi and they were quite moved at the end of the show when Mpongo dedicated their performance to brotherhood in Alah. In an informal discussion after the concert, however, some of the choir members admited to me that they had no idea who the Mevlana Rumi was and explained that they had come to Turkey to spread the word of Jesus and to go sightseing. This selection of four performances from the Mystic Music Festival, particularly this last gospel recital, showcases wel some of the greatest and most presing complexities, tensions, and ironies that currently face Sufis and Sufi music audiences in Turkey today. As Sufi adherents work to reasert the cult of the Mevlana in Turkey, they are also striving to follow his teaching of universal brotherhood and are beginning to reach out to embrace other Sufi communities and peoples of other faiths worldwide. In the proces, the notion of what is or what can be Sufi devotional music is slowly expanding in Turkey to include forms that in their performance reveal interesting paradoxes involving spiritual intention and interpretation. Each of these four cases described above, for instance, included varying degres of onstage theatrics that, because of their specific contexts, caled into question the spiritual intention of the artists and therefore the authenticity of the performance. At the root of each of these questions of spiritual genuinenes is the element of movement. While the Turkish choral performance had been more inhibited, perhaps in part because of the oficial state seting, Faiz Ali Faiz and his ensemble, indeed al of the other non- Turkish groups, displayed unrestrained pasion and gestured or moved about without abandon. By and large, the Turkish performance semed to have received the greatest approval from the Turkish audience, but given the history of state control over religious 303 musical performances, some doubt may linger as to the real spiritual intent of the artists. In the case of Baba Mirzayev, his pyrotechnical performance, though intended to be spiritual, was not acepted as such in part because of his excesive movement and self- indulgent choreography. Conversely, the gospel show was ironicaly very wel received for the very same reasons that Mirzayev?s had been rejected, and was in the end transformed into a Sufi devotional event, even though that had not been the original intent of the performers. Here, tasavvuf occurred irespective of intention and, as I have argued, it is this presence of spirituality that more than anything else makes a performance of music truly Sufi. In the end, it had been the unfetered movement?the dancing, the pantomime, even the spontaneous vocal ornamentation?brought on by spiritual pasion that had made the Christian performance one of the most truly Sufi of al those programed for festival. Perhaps the most important detail to emerge from this comparison of devotional performances, however, is that it appears that it is the non-Turkish performances and not the Turkish ones that are most prone to outward displays of physical movement. In fact, public Sufi presentations such as the sema shows and ilahi recitals on the whole tend to be more contemplative in nature perhaps in part because of state censorship; yet even at the zikr ceremonies Turkish Sufis in some respects are more reserved in their outward displays of ecstasy than their visitors from the Low Countries, India, or Iran. It may be that the specificaly Turkish aesthetic of motion is more tempered than it is in Sufism at large. In the next section, I present thre further examples of non-Turkish devotional performances that sem to coroborate this observation. 304 Returning to Rumi?s Roots: Music from Iran and Afghanistan Apart from the concerts I described above, the majority of non-Turkish music that I saw performed in honor of the Mevlana Rumi during the 2004 Mevlana Festival was that originating from Iran and Afghanistan. Though it is likely that the Mevlana?s true birthplace may be in what is today Tajikistan (se Chapter One), both countries are usualy cited as being his natal lands. Persians in particular are quick to claim the Mevlana as a cultural icon and one informant even expresed to me his great contempt for the Turks for their having appropriated him as their own. Despite the rivalry, ziyaret to Konya from Iran during the %eb-i ?urs had been increased steadily since the late 1990s, growing, acording to the same informant, from perhaps around fifty pilgrims in 1997 to wel over one thousand in 2004. While Persians constituted one of the largest pilgrim groups at the 2004 festival, regretably the Afghans were among the smalest, for I met only a single one, a musician from Herat, and even he had come by way of Europe, to where had emigrated because of the dificult political and economic circumstances he faced in his native country. Having already examined the major questions raised by non-Turkish music in the previous sections, I end this chapter more simply here with ethnographic descriptions of thre performances that were given by some of these Persian and Afghan pilgrims and that were intended to be unadulterated acts of worship of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi. The first of these is an acount of a concert of traditional Persian music at which many of the audience members had been so overwhelmed by the beauty of the music and the spirit of the Mevlana that they slipped efortles into ecstatic states. The next two pasages describe events that occurred on the final day of the Mevlana Festival, the day 305 commemorating the Mevlana?s pasing and his wedding with the Divine. The first of these two is set at the shrine of the Mevlana and describes a large ceremony at which Persian pilgrims recited poetry writen by the Mevlana. The second describes a recital performed by the Afghan musician Seyed Abdul Haq on the evening of the Mevlana?s final sublimation with Alah. December 15, 2004 Konya After inquiring at the concierge and wandering around lost in the hotel for a while, I finaly hear the sound of the tar coming from one of the conference rooms and lead us right to the concert. During sohbet at the dergah, my new frelance journalist friend had told me that the Persians were about to hold another recital tonight at a nearby hotel. Indeed, I had noted their absence at zikr, and as we were both eager to connect with them further, we decided to head out to find the hotel imediately, as the concert had already started. Standing at the door now and peering in, I se a few familiar faces from the dergah, but the only fre seats are off to the left. The large audience consists almost entirely of Persian pilgrims and is in fact comprised largely of women; there are only a few Turks and Westerners sprinkled about. Taking my seat and geting my bearings, I note right away that the concert is somewhat diferent than I had expected. I had asumed that we would se the same ensemble that performed a few days ago as part of the Mystic Music Festival. That performance had featured the famous Persian clasical signer Ali Reza Ghorbani acompanied by ney, setar, and bendir. Tonight?s concert, though, has the les typical lineup of two tar-s and thre bendir-s and has a more overtly spiritual, rather than 306 clasical, character. Two of the thre bendir-s are ornately decorated, one with elegant Arabic caligraphy, the other with a sepia image of a whirling dervish. In front of the musicians is an altar with a portrait of the Shite saint Ali surrounded by candles. Despite the reverent atmosphere, there are video cameras and people taking flash photography everywhere, and one Persian cameraman is even hovering around on stage filming the musicians and the altar, irespective of the audience. No one sems particularly disturbed, though, and the musicians cary on flawlesly without even taking notice. When the tar-s move from a duet into a full ensemble piece, the audience remains subdued, somewhat like the Turks at formal concerts, but as the performance progreses into a series of vocal works, the spectators begin to sing softly and clap gently along with the musicians and a few close their eyes and bounce their heads back and fourth. Soon it sems that most people in the audience are performing zikr-like motions and a few have obviously slipped into gentle trance states. An elderly man siting behind me wearing full dervish dres bows his head down to his knees and starts swaying it emphaticaly back and forth, while across the hal, I spot a Western backpacker doing much the same, but in a les exaggerated manner. Most dramaticaly, one woman in a white headscarf, whom I had sen bowing up and down in her seat with her palms facing up, now begins to tremble, slowly at first as if crying, and then more and more eraticaly. She sems to be struggling to contain her ecstasy, covering her ears with her hands and then pushing her shaking arms outward as if to stop the sound of the music. One of the cameramen runs to her to capture the scene on film, while a number of the women around her watch her to make sure that she is alright, but leave her be. 307 After a few minutes, the ensemble finishes its set and turns the stage over to a solo singer acompanying himself on setar. One man stands up to rearange the bendir-s that the previous musicians had abandoned haphazardly on their chairs and makes sure that the image of the whirling dervish is upright and lit by the candles. A litle later, someone turns down the lights, leaving only the candlelight reflecting from the frame drum to iluminate the room (Figure 63). Figure 63: Bendir Decorated with a Whirling Dervish (Konya, December 17, 2004) In the meantime, another man has taken it upon himself to walk around and lift his hands up in the air so as to encourage the audience to sing along to the choruses of the songs. Although I do not speak any Farsi, I can make out the words ?Mawlana? and ?Shams? mixed in with the obligatory ?Alahu? and ?Ali.? At the end of the concert, the old dervish behind me stands up and hoarsely, but pasionately sings a long melody, with those around him either singing along quietly or occasionaly intoning the mystical syllable ?Hu.? Afterwards, my friend and I stay up late into the night conducting 308 interviews, having lengthy conversations about the Mevlana with the pilgrims, and even manage to join an impromptu jam sesion with some of the musicians. December 17, 2004 Konya Ariving at the main gate of the Mevlana Museum, I realize that while we are not by any means late, my friends and I should have gotten here much earlier as the shrine is already beginning to get rather crowded. We had taken our time after lunch conducting interviews and talking about Rumi and the festival, and had even paused on the way over to film one of the Persian journalists singing the Mevlana?s gazel-s on the side of the road. Now, we are being told by the museum workers to proced al the way past the tombs and go into the former sema hal. I had hoped to sit up front near the shrines of the Mevlana and his son because this is where the main procedings of the so-caled ?Candle Ceremony? are going to take place, but with so many people already clustered around them, my chances do not look good; in fact, I have a hard time even just pushing through the throngs of pilgrims to get into the semahane, and in the proces I get completely separated from my friends. Fortunately, I soon find a spot on the floor next to a woman I recognize from the dergah but have not yet had much of a chance to talk to. She invites me to sit with her and we have a nice long conversation about Sufism as we wait for the ceremony to start. I take the opportunity to ask her about what to expect this afternoon, but she does not sem know too much more than I do. While the candle is a common enough motif in the Mevlana?s writings symbolizing the light of Alah and mankind?s burning desire to be reunited with Him, I do not recal having ever heard or read about a specific ceremony 309 named after it. Nevertheles, dozens of lit candles hang from the spiral-decorated dome above us and encircled the room al the way around. I presume that the ceremony commemorates the Mevlana?s pasing, but I am unsure why it is being held in the afternoon and not at sunset or later in the evening when legend holds that the Mevlana?s soul finaly ascended to met his Beloved. The ceremony is taking quite some time to get started as the museum workers are stil struggling to acommodate the hundreds of pilgrims who want to get into the building. Those of us who had been siting have al been asked to stand and we are al now tightly packed together. Sometime around 3:15 p.m., I faintly hear a fre meter vocal piece that sounds vaguely like the nat-i Mevlana, followed by recitations from the Koran, and a series of chants. Although I am facing the Mevlana?s tomb, I cannot se or hear very wel from this distance. I raise my video camera above the congregation like a periscope, drawing the atention of the Turks and Persians around me who also want to se what is happening up front, but there does not sem to be much going on; stil, I leave my camera up because some appear grateful that they can at least se the sarcophagi on the pullout display on my camera. Presently, the congregation pronounces a series of ?amin-s? to the prayers being chanted and soon begins to communaly repeat the word ?Alah? in a sudden crescendo and acelerando, closing their eyes as they vigorously shake their heads. After a few more short prayers, the ceremony ends with congregational pronouncements of the syllable ?Hu.? Although most of the supplicants disperse as soon as they can from the crowded shrine-museum, many continue to linger on afterwards. Persian pilgrims in particular sem keen on loitering about, talking, meditating, or listening to the preprogramed ney 310 taksim soundtrack that fils the semahane. In celebration of the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs (wedding to his Beloved), one woman hands out Iranian money and candy enclosed in white nuptial wrappings. A few others cower in the corners convulsing in trance states. Meanwhile, I find my friends and se that they have joined a group of Persians gathered around a man reading from a book of the Mevlana?s poetry in Farsi. As I approach, I can hear that his recitational style is highly rhythmic and is characterized by strong emphasis on the cadences occurring on each half of the distich. His naration over the ametrical ney taksim backdrop causes some to wep or rock back and forth on the floor. Those pilgrims who are not siting in rapt audition move about with their video cameras and mobile phones recording the performance. We stay for quite some time listening to various readers, but one man in particular stands out as the most captivating. He recites in a highly enthusiastic manner, emphasizing the asymmetrical and compound rhythms with his hands, and he slowly works himself into an ecstatic state, swaying, jumping up and down on his knees, and breathing heavily and deeply in a zikr-like fashion. The trancing draws the atention of the museum officials who, trying to preserve the secular character of the ?museum,? several times come to warn him to calm down and read in a more a restrained and quite tone. 37 Eventualy, we are al forced out of the museum, though many of the Persians simply relocate outside, where they would remain al night reciting poetry and singing until sunrise. 37 Actualy, recitation of the Mevlana?s verses at his shrine sems to be quite an ancient practice. Already during the time of Sultan Veled, one Seraj al-Din-e Masnavi-khwan lived at the Mevlana?s shrine and was employed to recite the Mesnevi there. Se Lewis 432-3. 311 December 17, 2004 Konya It has been a very full day. Indeed, it has been quite a busy wek as I have run around al over the city trying to document as much of the Mevlana Festival as possible. Oddly, although I have slept litle over the past eight days, staying up late every night atending performances, cataloging recordings, and writing field notes, I am not in the least bit tired; I must be feding off of everyone?s tasavvuf. With al the events commemorating the Mevlana?s %eb-i ?urs tonight, I hardly know which to atend before I have to catch an early morning bus back to #zmir. After spending over an hour at the overcrowded dergah of Nuri Baba, a group of us decide that with al the heat and al the people stil waiting to take part in the zikr ceremony that perhaps it is time to move on. Having heard that there might be another zikr or a recital at the carpet show we had been to the night before, we make our way there just in time for the ?ay, lokum, and music. The Afghan musician Seyed Abdul Haq is preparing to give a short recital of instrumental pieces on rubab. As he tunes, the mixed gathering of locals, tourists, and pilgrims from around the world gret one another and share tea and swets. Refering to the lengthy tuning proces, Seyed explains that just as the body needs food, so the soul needs music, and just as it takes time to cook food for the body, so too does it take time to cook food for the soul. One of the mystics stands up and says that for Seyed his rubab is not a musical instrument, but a ?praying instrument,? and the musician adds that there is a Sufi play on words that refers to the instrument as a ?ruh-bab,? drawing from the Arabic word for spirit (ruh). Siting cross-legged under various wal hangings with images of whirling dervishes and the Mevlana, he begins to play an alap in raga Bhairavi (Indian raga 312 Bhairava) before moving into the main composition in Tintal. As he begins to play, one of the French tourists puts out a recording device in the middle of the floor, but unlike the Persians, Seyed does not alow any taping, apologizing and saying that he plays only for the Mevlana. The congregants sit in silence in the intimate tourist seting, listening with reverence as he travels through the raga with his eyes firmly shut. I find it rather appropriate to be spending the evening commemorating the Mevlana?s final journey by listening to a migrant musician from the same land from which the saint had came. After the performance, we sit for a short while in sohbet, eating and drinking tea while talking about music, religion, and our travels. Soon, one of the mystics announces that it is midnight and that we were going to commemorate the moment with g?r?"mek. Forming a large circle, we intone the syllable ?Hu? and then break up into a complicated spiral so that we can gret one another spiritualy by touching temples, kising hands, and staring into each other?s eyes. 313 CHAPTER EIGHT CAUGHT IN MOTION: CONCLUSION This chapter concludes this disertation. Organized in four sections, it surveys the wealth of Mevlana-related developments taking place at the time of this writing and locates the disertation within the world of Mevlana studies. The first section serves as an anecdotal postscript to my fieldwork experience in Turkey in 2004 and 2005 and describes recent tourist advertisements in the U.S. that feature Mevlevi semazen-s and that may yet prove to be significant contributors to the continued renaisance of Mevlana culture. The following section centers on the dizying panoply of activities being scheduled in the name of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi and his devotes as Turkey anticipates the 800 th anniversary of his birth. In the penultimate section, I review the salient arguments and main contributions made in this disertation and then briefly survey the current state of research on music for the Mevlana in the final section, highlighting potential areas for further investigation. ?Welcome Home? ? Caught in Motion March 13, 2007 College Park, Maryland Waiting at the College Park Metro station for the shuttle bus to the University of Maryland campus, I hold my breath as a Washington D.C. metro bus spirals toward me. At such times of impending vehicular disaster, I am reminded of how I was once struck by a slow-moving car in Bornova while walking down the sidewalk of an empty road. This event was particularly ironic considering how I had survived every stret crossing I 314 had ever made in Turkey unscathed by adopting the jaywalker?s motto of ?close your eyes and open your heart? I had learned in Egypt. This time though, instead of my life flashing before my eyes, I se a large tourist advertisement for Turkey on the side of the bus as it whizes past me. Displaying colorful images of thre iconic Turkish scenes, the ad makes me instantly nostalgic. On the far left side of the poster is a detail of the famous library of Celius at Ephesus, while at the right the distinctive stone-crested peribaca-s (?fairy chimneys?) of Kapadokya dart upward into the central Anatolian sky. Caught in motion at the very center of the ad are a number of dervishes whirling in what appears to be an old caravanserai. The advertisement is only one peripatetic element of a new marketing campaign promoting Turkish tourism. The comprehensive project also includes television commercials, one of which I have sen airing on CN on Sunday mornings. The TV spot features a winding ?ingene-style (?Gypsy?) melody on the clarinet and major Turkish buildings and icons slowly transmuting one into another as the camera pans around frely. Both the melody and ad culminate at the moment when the sail of a boat in the Mediteranean Sea metamorphoses into the spinning white tunics of Mevlevi dervishes. As the whirlers? arms and skirts unfurl, the words ?Welcome Home? emerge and the clarinet delicately setles into a tranquil cadence. Wondering how much these ads wil be able to increase Turkish tourism and what further impact this wil al ultimately have on Mevlana culture, I hop on a diferent bus a few minutes later and get back to the busines of disertation writing, now that I?m back ?home.? 315 Music and the Mevlevi in the Year of the Mevlana The commercials described above represent only one smal aspect of an ambitious series of programs and initiatives currently being implemented by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism that center on the Mevlana and his whirling dervishes. The first such large-scale promotion of Mevlana culture occurred in 1973 when on the occasion of the 700 th anniversary of the Mevlana?s death the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization declared that year the Year of Rumi. At that time, commemorative stamps were isued (Figure 64), a conference was held in Ankara, and sema performances were given in Konya and abroad. Commemorations of the Mevlana have only become more extensive since then. Figure 64: 1973 Commemorative Stamps featuring Whirling Dervishes, K?dum Players, and the Mevlana After adding the sema to its list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in October 2005, UNESCO has once again sought to preserve and reinvigorate Mevlana culture by declaring the year 2007, marking the 800 th anniversary of his birth, another Year of Rumi (Figure 65). 316 Figure 65: UNESCO Mevlana 2007 Emblem Under this banner, a bewildering aray of celebrations have been scheduled across the world and in Turkey, where semingly every cultural event occurring there this year has been linked, oficialy or otherwise, with the Mevlana and the Year of Rumi. Although I am unable to confirm at the time of this writing whether many of the following events actualy transpired, the festivities reportedly were to begin on December 17, 2006, the day commemorating the Mevlana?s 733 rd %eb-i ?urs. 378 Following the official ceremonies in Konya, the so-caled ?Mevlana Love, Tolerance, and Culture Train? was to depart for a thre-month expedition across Turkey and Europe. Traveling through Ankara, Eski"ehir, Afyon, Bilecik, #stanbul, and Edirne before continuing on to sixten countries in Europe, the train evidently was to cary troupes of musicians and semazen-s who were to perform both on board and at various train stations along the way. The train had also been conceived of as a traveling museum and was intended to house exhibits featuring translations of the Mevlana?s writings, Mevlevi cuisine, artwork, and period atire in addition to promotional materials for tourism in Turkey. A silk carpet 378 ?Culture Train to Promote Mevlana and Turkey in Europe,? Turkish Daily News, July 7, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . Se also #stanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau, ?Mevlana Train to Tour Europe,? ?stanbul Buletin, September 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 317 bearing the likenes of the Mevlana was also to be weaved on the journey and presented by the Turkish Prime Minister to his Spanish counterpart in Madrid as a gift of peace. Other sema troupes have planned similarly extensive worldwide tours that include performances in such previously atypical venues as Mexico, Poland, and Portugal. 379 Meanwhile, numerous official conferences, sema presentations, and Sufi music concerts have also been scheduled in such major cities as Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Geneva, Rome, Cairo, Damascus, Dushanbe, New Delhi, Jakarta, Melbourne, Sydney, and Tokyo. In France, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris is expected to host a discussion panel on the Sufi saint in September, while in Germany, the Frankfurt Book Fair has planned an exhibition focusing on his writings as wel as his life and times. 380 In the Netherlands, the Year of the Mevlana has been received with even more enthusiasm as the release of commemorative coins, calendars, and documentaries complement an extensive year-long schedule of spiritual programs and performances of music and sema. 381 Yet, nowhere is the Mevlana?s birthday being more elaborately feted than in Turkey, where his name has on occasion been atached to the most unlikely of events and activities. Among the major curiosities and anomalies include a Mevlana ches tournament coinciding with the 2006 Mevlana Festival, 382 a Mevlana fashion show that 379 Kemal ?akirg?z, Rumi 207: 80 th Aniversary, Copyright Kube Production 206, acesed May 1, 207 . 380 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated around the World in 207,? Turkish Daily News, October 27, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 381 Mevlana80Info: 80 th Aniversary Birth Mevlana Rumi, acesed December 18, 206 . 382 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated with Comprehensive Program,? Turkish Daily News, November 30, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 318 wil also tour Europe and the U.S. 383 and the reintroduction of a forgotten desert from the Gelibolu Mevlevihane, now caled the ?Mevlevi,? about which the researcher- confectioner declared, ?My aim is to share this desert, which has mystical atributes, with the Turkish people and then with people around the world.? 384 Added to these is the release of an animated cartoon movie intended to bring the Mevlana?s mesage to children, 385 the production of a movie about the Mevlana to help revitalize the Turkish film industry, 386 the creation of a Mevlana television project and a musical, 387 and the broadcasting of a Mevlana documentary on the major national television station (TRT). 38 Most commemorations, however, follow more traditional means. A four-day symposium held in #stanbul and Konya (May 8-11) 389 and the isuing of stil more commemorative coins and stamps both hark back to the 1973 Year of Rumi, while the performance of hundreds of sema ceremonies throughout the year in both Turkey and 383 ?Fashion Show Inspired By Mevlana?s Philosophy to Travel around the World,? Turkish Daily News, December 13, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 384 ?Forgoten Delicacy Swetens 21 st Century Cuisine,? Turkish Daily News, April 18, 205, acesed February 1, 207 . 385 Acording to a state oficial, the animated film has generated great interest from abroad and there are plans to distribute the carton worldwide to in twenty diferently languages in order to ?contribute to the promotion of Turkey in terms of tourism.? Se ?Mevlana Carton to be Broadcast around the World,? Turkish Daily News, October 20, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . A longer fifty-two episode animated series based on the Mesnevi has also ben planed but, as far as I am aware, has not yet materialized. Se ?Mevlana?s Love Beckons Al to Konya,? Turkish Daily News, December 17, 205, acesed September 15, 206 . 386 ?Turkey Could Resurect the Silver Scren, Says Paradigm President,? Turkish Daily News, January 2, 207, acesed February 1, 207 . 387 ?Author Reveals Vibrancy of Elders,? Turkish Daily News, February 28, 207, acesed March 1, 207 . 38 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated around the World in 207,? Turkish Daily News, October 27, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 389 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated around the World in 207,? Turkish Daily News, October 27, 206, acesed December 18, 206 < htp:/ww.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=57575>. 319 around the world testifies to the degre to which the Mevlevi musical tradition has been reinvigorated since then. In Turkey, countles additional whirling shows are scheduled to be performed throughout the year beyond the standard wekly programs at the Mevlana Cultural Center in Konya, the thrice wekly shows at the %irkeci Train Station in #stanbul, and the biwekly ceremonies at the Mevlevihane in Galata. Added to these are commemorative concerts featuring other Sufi music as wel as various concerts of Western clasical music such as those held in February by the #zmir State Symphony Orchestra 390 or those presenting new compositions discussed in the previous chapter. This increased musical and ceremonial activity in 2007 and in the past few years has purportedly generated greater interest in other aspects of Mevlevi and Mevlana culture among foreign visitors. Citing the need to met tourist demand, the Konya municipal government recently announced plans to create a new living Mevlevi museum near the Mevlana?s shrine. Caling it the first of its kind anywhere in the world, one Konya government official described the concept as follows: A group of workers wil portray a family and show their daily life by spliting chores, praying, providing the necesities?basicaly impersonating the Mevlevis. Tourists who come here at designated times in groups of 20-30 wil pay a fe and get a breath of Mevlevi air. 391 Also under the pretext of further stimulating tourism and cultural patrimony, the Turkish state has begun a number of significant restoration projects that wil overse the renovation of several historic Mevlevi teke-s acros Turkey and in neighboring 390 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated around the World in 207,? Turkish Daily News, October 27, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 391 Quoted in ?Live Mevlevi Museum Near Mevlana Culture Center,? Turkish Daily News, May 18, 205, acesed February 1, 207 . 320 countries. 392 The Mevlevihane in Gelibolu (Galipoli), which is the largest of its kind in Anatolia, has already reopened and the Yenikap? lodge in #stanbul, which was damaged in a fire in 1997, is currently being restored as a Mevlevi museum. Other teke-s in #stanbul are likewise slated to be restored and converted into libraries and research centers, though precedent leads me to believe that they wil undoubtedly also serve as venues for sema performance. Telingly, the Republican People?s Democratic Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) has opposed these projects on acount that they violate the 1925 ban. The current government, however, has overal been quite enamored of the Mevlana of late and continues to justify its support of Mevlevism through such projects on economic and political grounds. Fearful of what efect the stigma of religious intolerance and a spate of recent terorist atacks on synagogues, Western banks, and tourist centers may have on Turkey?s prospects for membership in the European Union, the government has been eager to adopt a more liberal atitude and actively promote the Mevlana?s mesages of peace, tolerance, and coexistence. In the wake of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent worldwide struggle against fundamentalist Islamist terorism, the Mevlana?s teachings have been sen as al the more vital. Thus, in the Year of Rumi, the municipal government of Konya planned to send one milion Mevlana-themed postcards with the slogan ?Mevlana?s Invitation for Peace? to influential political and cultural figures in almost 175 countries. 393 Along these lines, the Konya government has 392 ?Tekes ? Living Spaces for Mystic Sects,? Turkish Daily News, February 4, 207, acesed May 1, 207 . 393 ?Worldwide Activities to Highlight Konya and Mevlana,? Turkish Daily News, April 1, 207, acesed April 12, 207 . 321 also established the International Mevlana Peace Prize to honor individuals who have contributed most to world peace. 394 It is in this web of international Islamophobia, E.U. politics, tourism economics, and UNESCO patronage that the Mevlana has been thrust upon the world as a guide for al humanity and that his devotes in Turkey have been able to take the biggest steps toward their rehabilitation. Child semazen-s are now regularly featured in the main public shows in Konya and they perform, acording to one report, ?with the awarenes of its spiritual aspect and not merely as a dance performance,? thereby ensuring the next generation of Mevlana devotes. 395 Meanwhile, the Mevlana Festival continues to expand, growing from eight days in 2004 to eleven days in 2005, to eighten days in 2006 and 2007. Yet, without question the single most significant development to arise from UNESCO?s 2007 Year of Rumi has been this more subtle statement appearing recently in the Turkish pres regarding the Konya Ministry of Culture and Tourism: The ministry officials said new events could be included in the program and that, as the ministry, they supported activities to be held by nongovernmental organizations to commemorate Mevlana. 396 In the world of Turkish cultural politics, this invitation is virtualy tantamount to an official reinstatement of the Sufi tarikat-s, or at least as close to it as the Mevlana?s devotes have ever been in the past eighty years. It is unlikely that this more liberal climate wil disipate within the near future; rather with the growing religious 394 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated around the World in 207,? Turkish Daily News, October 27, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 395 ?Mevlana?s Love Beckons Al to Konya,? Turkish Daily News, December 17, 205, acesed September 15, 206 . 396 ?Mevlana to be Comemorated around the World in 207,? Turkish Daily News, October 27, 206, acesed December 18, 206 . 322 consciousnes occurring throughout the country and the increasing influence of religiously rooted political parties, the Mevlana?s followers wil undoubtedly continue to move forward for many years to come. Coming Ful Circle: An Ofering to the Mevlana The number eight is considered to be an incredibly auspicious number. As Annemarie Schimel explains, Already in antiquity it was regarded as a remarkable, lucky number: it was thought that beyond the 7 spheres of the planets the eighth sphere, that of the fixed stars, was located. As a ?number of gods? it is found as early as in ancient Babylon?[where it was asociated with Paradise]. The connection of 8 with Paradise continues through the ages: the Muslims believe that there are 7 hels and 8 paradises, since God?s mercy is greater than his wrath?. Eight appears as a second beginning, on a higher level, the fulfilment of what the heptad had prepared and completed?. [And] it sems that the eightfold division of the path that leads to eternal blis is a rather universal concept. 397 In addition, the octagon, acording to Sufi thought, not only symbolizes al of these sacred elements, but it is also esotericaly understood to be the one shape that most resembles a circle without actualy being one (se Chapter Two). Thus, I come full circle here in the eighth chapter to discuss the major themes and contributions of this disertation, which whether by an act of auspiciousnes or coincidence comes to light at the dawn of the Mevlana?s eighth century and is acordingly dedicated to him and to his followers. This disertation has been guided by the central themes of ethnography, motion, and devotion. The first of these was a major concern for me even before I began my fieldwork. Underwhelmed by the amount of ethnographic detail and specificity in the 397 Anemarie Schimel, The Mystery of Numbers (New York: Oxford University Pres, 193): 156-59. 323 existing literature on Mevlevi music and ritual, I was eager to document actual living practice and not rely only on ancient histories and generalities to make broader points and conclusions about music and culture. Going into ?the field? to document what I had come to understand was a moribund tradition, I was pleasantly surprised and then daunted when I discovered that Mevlevism is not only resurgent in Turkey, but is also experiencing a worldwide renaisance. Actualy, the Mevlevi do not realy exist today in the way that we have come to know them through old romantic travel journals and idealistic Sufi poetry; one wonders if in fact they ever did exist in the way these writings describe. The tarikat, which has been outlawed for almost a full century, is now an international cultural foundation more than a Sufi order in the traditional sense; meanwhile, the Mevlevi, rather than being cut off from the world confined to their cloisters, are engaging with it in new ays as they sek to spread the teachings of their founding saint around the globe. As I came to understand this current situation more fully during my fieldwork, I realized that, more precisely, al the activity taking place is not being done so much on behalf of ?Mevlevism? or even ?Sufism,? terms that in the end do not sem to mean very much to the faithful, but in the name of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhamad Rumi. Indeed, it is the Mevlana, more so than any specific order, that is experiencing the greatest rebirth in Turkey and around the world and those who are helping to bring this about are not necesarily ?Mevlevi? or even ?Sufi.? This situation on the ground forced me to reformulate my research and move beyond such outmoded and ultimately divisive labels, for as Franklin Lewis notes, Despite Rumi?s close asociation with the Mevlevis, rival orders like the Nimatollahis, the various branches of the Naqshbandis and the 324 International Asociation of Sufism, which hold ecumenical conferences on Sufism in the West, not infrequently appeal to Rumi and hold him in reverence. 398 Thus, I shifted my research focus while stil in the field from ?Mevlevi music? to ?music for the Mevlana? and in so doing I discovered a much bigger world of devotional music than had hitherto been documented. This is a world populated by wandering musicians of al types from touring profesionals to pilgrims and from trancing devotes to tourists. I realized that if I was going to produce the most detailed and most acurate ethnography possible, I had to acount for al these types of travelers and their modes of transport, and that I had to start including the tourists and Westerners in my video recordings and not try to film around them. As James Cliford articulates so wel, ethnography too often has ?privileged relations of dweling over relations of travel.? 39 Past ethnographies have tended to marginalize or erase several blurred boundary areas, historical realities that slip out of the ethnographic frame. ? The means of transport [for instance] is largely erased?. The discourse of ethnography (?being there?) is separated from that of travel (?geting there?). ? Generaly speaking, what?s hidden is the wider global world of intercultural import- export in which the ethnographic encounter is always already enmeshed. 40 My atempt to ?rethink? Mevlana culture as a site of ?dweling and travel,? to borrow again from Cliford, 401 emerged as I began to study the Mevlana?s writings, Sufi theology, and devotional music more deeply. I soon discovered themes of travel everywhere and observed that travel both informed and was a part of a wider Sufi 398 Lewis, 520. 39 Cliford, 2. 40 Ibid., 23 401 Ibid., 31. 325 aesthetic of motion. However, I wondered how useful such a broad aesthetic would be as an analytical tool for music. As I demonstrate throughout this disertation, motion is evident or findable in just about everything from vocal texts to melodic modulation, rhythm, overal structure, dance, trance, and so forth. In the field, I worried that this aesthetic had more to say about the culture than ?the music itself,? as it was too broad to alow for distinctions betwen Sufi forms and other types of music, but as I came to realize at the Mevlana Festival and later through my study of popular music, this universalism is precisely the point. Sufism is nothing if not a universalist endeavor, and if there is to be anything that defines a kind of music as ?Sufi,? then it must be something that is also widely applicable. Indeed, the only limitation on what can be Sufi music concerns the element of tasavvuf (?spiritual esence?), which I have suggested is itself tied to notions of movement. Sufism seks to direct the supplicant toward spiritual unity with the One God and maintains that music is itself the vehicle that provides the quickest, most direct route to Him. Thus, for a kind of music to be Sufi it must be able to function devotionaly, it must impart tasavvuf. As I have shown in this study, performance of virtualy any type of music can met this requirement so long as it references those emotions and concepts in the performer or listener. One of the major contributions of this disertation, therefore, is the reasesment of what constitutes ?Sufi music.? While Jean During places the emphasis on intention and hence on the performer, 402 I shift the focus to interpretation and thus expand his definition to include also the listener or devote. This has alowed me to take into acount other forms of music that are not typicaly understood to be Sufi or devotional in 402 Se During, 199. 326 nature, but nevertheles functioned as such while I was in the field. Thus, another important facet of this disertation is the analyses it provides of musical forms beyond the standard Mevlevi clasical repertory of the sema ceremony, namely music of the zikr ceremony, popular music, and non-Turkish music. These analyses demonstrate the ubiquity of the aesthetic of motion and ofer a deeper understanding of how aesthetics and worldview not only shape and become manifest in cultural praxis, but conversely how cultural praxis informs aesthetics and worldview. In addition, this disertation, in its focus on the aesthetics of motion, also provides a beter understanding of both the interconnectivity betwen music and such physical forms of movement as gesticulation, dance, and trance, and of its relation to broader elements of social mobility like pilgrimage, tourism, and globalization. Ultimately, the focus on al these various elements that comprise the aesthetics of motion has alowed for a more thorough ethnographic acount of Sufi musical practice than has until now been possible. Beyond Static States: An Ofering to Ethnomusicology In the spirit of the aesthetics of motions that permeate the musics, ceremonies, and cultural practices that have been the focus of this disertation, it is not my intention to conclude with a full stop, but to impart rather a sense of forward motion, much as the closed circle implies perpetual movement, by discussing briefly here some potential avenues for further investigation on Mevlana culture and other topics. First and foremost, there remains the ongoing documentation of Mevlana culture as it continues to unfold in Turkey and around the globe after UNESCO?s Year of Rumi. 327 It is likely that this year?s festivities wil lead to the further intensification of Mevlana- related performances, activities, and projects in the near future and it remains to be sen just what impact, if any, this wil al ultimately have on the Sufi orders of Turkey and their devotional practices. While it is unlikely that their oficial standing wil change, there may yet be further liberalization that alows the various tarikat-s to continue expanding their activities and musical repertories. Included in this is the potential growth of Sufi popular music as wel as the further use of non-Turkish musical forms in devotional contexts; undoubtedly both categories would be highly revealing studies in and of themselves. Additionaly, a more exhaustive study of the music used in the traditional zikr ceremony would also be an extremely valuable addition to the scholarly literature. Also welcome would be ethnomusicological studies of other Sufi tarikat-s, many of which remain wholly undocumented. Most of these orders have music asociated with specific saints and poets aside from the Mevlana Rumi that merit atention and an investigation of any of these would serve to complement the present study. In particular, the poet-saint Yunus Emre, to whom I have refered on occasion, has had numerous poems set to music, including now also popular music, though this repertory has not been systematicaly examined. Beyond Turkey, an ethnomusicological study of the music used by the European and North American Sufi groups sems especialy appropriate at this time as they begin to strengthen their ties with the Turkish tarikat-s. Finaly, several areas of potentialy fruitful investigation also emerge from the theme of the aesthetics of motion. One area that requires further concentration not just in ethnomusicology, but in other fields of the social sciences as wel is the study of tourism 328 from the perspective of the tourist, who too often is either negatively typecast or regarded as ignoble. More specificaly pertinent to the field of ethnomusicology is the need for continued study of the interelationships betwen music and the various forms of social and physical movement. This wil encourage music scholars to rely more on such fields as social anthropology, dance ethnology, and ethnochoreology and wil propel ethnomusicology forward in its ongoing quest for unity with other academic disciplines. 329 APENDIX: LIST OF MAKAM-S USED IN THE !EDARABAN AY#N OF USTAFA NAK!# DEDE Nat-? !erif Makam Rast Taksim Makam Rast Makam !edaraban Pe"rev Makam !edaraban Makam Rast 330 First Selam Makam !edaraban Makam Rast Makam H?mayun on yegah (D) Makam H?seyni Makam Nihavend on a"iran (E) Makam Nihavend on d?gah (A) 331 Second Selam Makam Nihavend on h?seyni (e) Makam Nihavend on d?gah (A) Makam Rast Third Selam Makam U"ak Makam Nihavend on h?seyni (e) Makam Nihavend on a"iran (E) Makam Nihavend on d?gah (A) 332 Fourth Selam Makam Nihavend on a"iran (E) Son Pe"rev Makam H?seyni Son Y?r?k Sema?i Makam K?rdi on a"iran (E) Makam Nihavend on a"iran (E) 333 BIBLIOGRAPHY Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. 2 nd ed. 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