For nearly fifty minutes we are taken on a guided journey by historian and writer William Dalrymple of Sufi sites in Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, India, and Morocco as he shows us examples of how music and poetry have been incorporated into Sufi worship and philosophy. Along the way he also explains through interviews with various musicians the basic tenets of Sufism, and gradually builds a picture of a faith that is far different from the one the majority of us have come to believe in. He doesn't deny that the more uncompromising practices exist, but he opens our eyes to the fact that just like there are more then one kind of Christian, Jew, Hindi, and Buddhist, there is more then one kind of Muslim.
In Turkey, where Sufism has been outlawed since the 1920s and followers are forced to meet in secret, the former rituals of dance and music have been turned into "performances". Whirling dervishes now perform for tourists instead of as a means of communicating with God as they used to, but that doesn't prevent the philosophies behind the dance from being remembered. Human beings see the world as divided between the physical and the spiritual. According to Sufi beliefs it's through dance and music we can be bring the two visions of the world together and bring ourselves closer to God.
In temples, meeting houses, and private homes Sufis in countries throughout the Muslim world gather to sing and create music in an effort to bring themselves closer to their God. In each country the approach is different as local musical traditions are incorporated into the practices. Some practices are raw, elemental gatherings where drummers play with an ever-increasing frenzy that whips themselves and their audiences into a frenzy that breaks down physical and emotional barriers, allowing them to enter into a trance-like state they believe necessary to best experience God.
In the temple to one Sufi saint who died in 1752 music has been played every day since his death upon the instrument that he invented. Plucked like a guitar or other strung instrument it is also beaten like a drum in accompaniment to the songs written by the saint praising God. Like Catholics, Sufis believe that God can be worshiped through veneration of their various saints, and celebrations held in the various temples honouring the saint on the day of their death, or the day they met God, can be extravagant festivals that take on the appearance of concerts with performers setting the words of the saint into song.
Translations of the lyrics might take people by surprise, because it was very common for the saints to describe the love of God in terms associated with human relationships. For them poems about the love between a man and woman were a metaphor for expressing and exploring love for God. So a poem celebrating the love a man feels for a woman would actually be celebrating the poet's love for God. Perhaps the most famous of these poet saints was the thirteenth century mystic Rumi whose poems and philosophy has shaped much of modern Sufi thought, and enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 1990s when he became the best selling poet in the United States.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
This looks great! Gonna have to pick it up. Thanks for the review, Richard.
2 - William Hill
The writer of this dribble has absolutely no education on the history of islam and the treatment of non-believers once an area was conquered by the muslim hoard. You only need read the koran and the Hadith of mohammed to know that human rights abuse, rape, pillage, murder and slavery were what the jews, Christians and others who lived side by side with islam in the conquered lands of the middle east. Israel is not the cause nor has it ever been the cause of hate, violence and human rights abuses taught, learned and the practiced by islams' followers. Please, please if people want to post statements about the hostory and ideology of islamists, it should be a law that they study and learn the truth about what they publish. This is a musical review but it sounds more like trained statements of someone hired and put out there as an appologist for islam by the muslim brotherhood. If you can't get it right about the polotics and history then at least keep to the music and not false statements flowering an ideology like islam that profains the name of any religion by it's own hate filled writings, teachings and history of robbery, human rights violations, rape, murder and even the sickening child molestation teachings of it's so called profitt, 'marry at six, and have sexual intercourse to consumate the illigitimate marriage at 9.' Free all of our imprisoned child molesters and send them East for the freedom to live as the profitt taught.