Wirling Dervishes:
As waves upon my head the circling curl,
So in the sacred dance weave ye and whirl.
Dance then, O heart, a whirling circle be.
Burn in this flame - is not the candle He?

The Mawlawi rites samâ symbolise the divine love and mystical ecstasy; they aim at union with the Divine. The music and
the dance are designed to induce a meditative state on the love of God. Mawlawi music contains some of the most core
elements of Eastern classical music and it serves mainly as accompaniment for poems of Rumi and other Sufi poets. The
music of the samâ (ceremony) is generally conducted by the chief drummer. Percussion accompaniment is supplied by the
kudums (small kettledrums) and cymbals; melody is provided by the Ney (reed flute), the string instruments and the voice.
The words and even syllables of the poetry are connected to the musical sentences. "Dervish music cannot be written in
notes. Notes do not include the soul of the dervish."

The dervishes turn timelessly and effortlessly. They whirl, turning round on their own axis and moving also in orbit. The
right hand is turned up towards heaven to receive God's overflowing mercy which passes through the heart and is
transmitted to earth with the down turned left hand. While one foot remains firmly on the ground, the other crosses it and
propels the dancer round. The rising and falling of the right foot is kept constant by the inner rhythmic repetition of the
name of "Allah-Al-lah, Al-lah..." The ceremony can be seen as a great crescendo in three stages: knowing God, seeing
God and uniting with God.

what is samâ? A message from the fairy, hidden in your heart;
with their letter comes serenity to the estranged heart.
The tree of wisdom comes to bloom with this breeze;
The inner pores of existence open to this tune.
When the spiritual cock crows, the dawn arrives;
When Mars beats his drum victory is ours.
The essence of the soul was fighting the barrel of the body;
When it hears the sound of the daf it matures and calms down.
A wondrous sweetness is sensed in the body;
It is the sugar that the flute and the flute-player bring to the listener.

(Divan, 1734:1-5)
Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz,
'Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi',
University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Spirtual Music of The
Orient & Mystics