See the Whirling Dervishes Turkey

“The ceremony began with an ensemble playing an array of musical instruments I had never seen nor heard before. Cloaked in black, the dervishes emerged and made their way to the middle of the room. There were bows, slow footsteps and muttered prayers, but the entire experience was a mystery to everyone watching as there was no narration explaining what was happening. Slowly, one by one the dervishes began to whirl themselves into position. It began with a gentle spin counter-clockwise which gained momentum as they raised their arms into the heavens, and their skirts slowly began to flair and rise. I almost felt like a bit of an intruder to be watching someone undergo a spiritual journey before my eyes, yet at the same time, it was the kind of thing where I couldn’t stop looking. It was fascinating.”

“I jolted in my seat as the five cloaked mystics slapped their palms to the ground and rose in unison. The entire room was silent and you could feel an inexplicable energy in the air. Here I was sitting in a 550-year-old hammam in Istanbul filled with several hundred people, about to witness a spiritual dance so private yet intriguing. I was here to see the famed Sufi whirling dervishes spin themselves into a trance-like state in what is known as a Sema Ceremony, a whirling dance that is said to free the soul from worldly affairs and elevate it closer to God.”

“Zeynep and I were required to cover our hair for the dhikr. Women ordinarily are required to worship up in a latticed loft above the ceremony hall, but Zeynep managed to convince the lady in charge to allow us to sit away from the men in the main ceremony hall, where we could see the action. Inside Nurettin Efendi Dergahı, the dervishes, dressed entirely in white, began with slow turns and gradually worked themselves into a state of transcendence through whirling and reverberating chants and music performed by worshippers. As the worshippers chanted and swayed in a swirling motion with their upper bodies, I felt myself involuntarily swaying along with them.”