Dancing Dervishes in Budapest

Staff report - Caboodle - Budapest, Hungary

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

The Dialogue Platform (Dialógus Platform Egyesület), a Turkish-Hungarian cultural association, has brought a unique performance to Hungary that opens a window on the deeply spiritual side of the Islamic religion.

According to index.hu, dancers of the Mevlev dervish order from the town of Konya, the whirling dervish, will give performances in Szeged's Belvárosi Mozi (Downtown Cinema) on Tuesday, April 3 and in Budapest's MOM Park on Wednesday, April 4.

These dancers, whom an audience has already seen in Debrecen on Monday, follow the Sufi path, which means they embrace both the inner and the outer aspects of their religion on a journey to spiritual maturity.

During the two-hour "Sema night," the audience can listen to authentic Sufi music and watch the dervish attain spiritual ecstasy.An organizer of the program, Ahmet Akyüz, told the portal that as this is the first similar performance in Hungary, it is followed by great interest and there tickets are scarce.

Whirling dervishes are probably familiar to most people from the movie "Baraka" or possibly from a trip to Egypt, Syria or Turkey where tourists are sometimes introduced to the practices of these dancers, the portal writes.

The history of the dervish stretches back 800 years. The founder of the the Mevlev dervish order is Mevlana Jalaladdin Muhammad Rumi, born as a son of a scientist in Afghanistan in 1207. He later settled in the Turkish town of Konja and became a follower of the Sufi.

His literary works are read by more people now, several hundred years after his death, than ever before. The Sema ritual is an important part of Sufi Islam.

It originates from the time of Rumi and is still practised today. During the Sema, the dervishes spin with arms extended above their heads, accompanied by music. They experience a form of spiritual ecstasy while they dance, and dissolve themselves in God. Once they reach a state of trance, they establish a mystic connection with Allah.

The dervish were invited to Hungary because the UNESCO has announced 2007 the year of Rumi.