La cultura sufí y el ritual del giro derviche

Información

During this Monastery visit & Dervish Ceremony; you will find out the story of Sufism, Sufis and their communities in Istanbul, Turkey, today. You will meet the Sufi community and their monastery, listen to their music, eye-witness the Whirling Dervishes Ceremony. The ceremonies are presented every mondays and thursdays.

Known to the west as Whirling Dervishes, the Mevlevi Order was founded by Mevlana Rumi in the 13th century. The Order wrote of tolerance, forgiveness, and enlightenment. They survive today as a cultural brotherhood. They are not theatrical spectacles but sacred rituals. The ritual of the Mevlevi sect, known as the sema, is a serious religious ritual performed by Muslim priests in a prayer trance to Allah. Mevlevi believed that during the sema the soul was released from earthly ties, and able to freely and jubilantly commune with the divine. Dervish literally means "doorway" and is thought to be an entrance from this material world to the spiritual, heavenly world. The Whirling Dervishes played an important part in the evolution of Ottoman high culture.

From the fourteenth to the twentieth century, their impact on classical poetry, calligraphy and visual arts was profound. Rumi and his followers integrated music into their rituals as an article of faith. Rumi emphasized that music uplifts our spirit to realms above, and we hear the tunes of the Gates of Paradise.



Duration: Two hours.
Start/opening time: At 7.30pm.
Languages: English.
Others: Dress Code : Long Sleeves & Long pants or skirts. It is a religious ceremony in the monastery, not touristic shows therefore please respect the dress code. Photography: On Mondays, No Photography Allowed. On Thursdays, you can take pictures without flash and not disturbing the Ambiance of the Monastery. Lecture: Before we leave from sultanahmet, we do a small conversation for 5-10 min. about the Ceremony, Sufism & Islam. If you have any questions, we can try to answer them before or after the ceremony. We also provide small documents about the evening programme in our monastery.