18
September 2005
The
commemoration ceremonies of Mawlana, the famous
Persian poet, attracts thousands of tourists from
Iran and all over the world to Konya, in modern
Turkey, every year.
The name Mawlana Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi stands
for Love and ecstatic flight into the infinite.
Rumi is one of the greatest spiritual masters and
poetical geniuses of mankind and was the founder
of the Mowalavi Sufi order, a leading mystical
brotherhood of Islam.
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi or Rumi who was born
in Balkh (then a city of the Greater Khorasan
province of Persia, now part of what is known as
Afghanistan) and died in Konya (in present-day
what is known as Turkey, then within the Iran's
Seljuk Empire's territory). His birth place and
native tongue points towards a Persian heritage.
He also wrote his poetry in Persian, and is read
widely in Iranian world where the language is
spoken. Yet, he is adored to such a degree that
citizens of the modern states Turkey, Pakistan,
and India sometimes consider him one of their own!
Escaping the Mongol invasion and destruction, Rumi
and his family traveled extensively in the region,
performed pilgrimage to Mecca, and finally settled
in east of Iran Konya, in modern Turkey, which at
that time was a part of the Iran's Seljuk Empire.
When his father Bahaduddin Valad passed away, Rumi
succeeded his father in 1231 as professor in
religious sciences. When Rumi was just 24 years
old, he was already an accomplished scholar in
religious and positive sciences.
Every year Turkey attracts a lot of tourists to
the country during the week of commemoration of
Rumi birthday, in which a lot of Rumi lovers
gather from all around the world for the ceremony.
Turkey, aware of the importance of tourism
industry and the income tourists bring in, tries
to attract tourists including the Iranians who
boast to the poet as a source of their national
pride to the county during this week by holding
ceremonies at the time of Rumi’s birthday.
In Commemoration ceremonies of Mawlana which is
held in Konya city, where the tomb of this poet is
located, several programs are be held which
consist of music, Sama (a whirling dervish) dance,
and lyric poems.
The Sama symbolizes 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. Mowlavi 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 Sama represents a mystical journey of man's
spiritual ascent through mind and love to
"Perfect." Turning towards the truth,
the follower grows through love, deserts his ego,
finds the truth and arrives to the
"Perfect." He then returns from this
spiritual journey as a man who has reached
maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love
and to be of service to the whole creation.
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