Whirling Dervishes
The "dance" of the Whirling Dervishes is called Sema. Sema is a part of the inspiration of Mevlana as well as part of the Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture.
Sema represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." Turning towards the truth, his growth through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth and arrives to the "Perfect," then he returns from this spiritual journey as a man who reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination of believes, races, classes and nations.

Sema is part of the inspiration of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi (1207- 1273) as well as of Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture.
From a scientific viewpoint we witness that contemporary science definitely confirms that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. There is no object, no being which does not revolve and the shared similarity among beings is the revolution of the electrons, protons and neutrons in the atoms, which constitute the structure of each of them. As a consequence of this similarity, everything revolves and man carries on his live, his very existence by means of the revolution in the atoms, structural stones of his body, by the revolution of his blood, by his coming from the earth and return to it, by his revolving with earth itself.
However, all of these are natural, unconscious revolutions. But man is the possessor of a mind and intelligence which distinguishes him from and makes him superior to other beings. Thus the "whirling dervish" or Semazen causes the mind to participate in the shared similarity and revolution of all other beings… Otherwise, the Sema ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." Turning towards the truth, his growth through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth and arrives to the "Perfect," then he returns from this spiritual journey as a man who reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination of believes, races, classes and nations.

                 

Sema consists of seven parts.
The first part:
The dervish with his headdress (his ego's tombstone), his white skirt (his ego's shroud) is by removing his black cloak spiritually born to the truth, he journeys and advances there. At the onset and each stop of the Sema, holding his arms crosswise he represent the number one, and testifies to God's unity. While whirling his arms are open, his right hand directed to the skies ready to receive God's beneficence, looking to his left hand turned toward the earth, he turn from right to left around the heart. This is his way of conveying God's spiritual gift to the people upon whom he looks with the eyes of God. Revolving around the heart, from right to left, he embraces all the mankind, all the creation with affection and love… It starts with an eulogy "Nat-I Serif" to the Prophet, who represents love, and all Prophets before him. To praise them is praising God, who created all of them.
The second part is a drum voice,
symbolizing God order to the Creation: "Be."
The third part is an instrumental improvisation "taksim" with a reed "ney." It represents the first breath which gives life to everything. The Divine Breath.
The fourth part is the "dervishes" greetings to each other and their thrice repeated circular walk "Devr-i Veled," with the accompaniment of a music called "peshrev." It symbolize the salutation of soul to soul concealed by shapes and bodies.
The fifth part is the Sema (whirling). It consists of four salutes or "Selam"s. At the end of each as in the onset, the dervish testifies by his appearance to God's unity.
• The first salute is man's birth to truth by feeling and mind. His complete conception of the existence of God as Creator and his state of creature.
• The second salute expresses the rapture of man witnessing the splendor of creation, in front of God's greatness and omnipotence.
• The third salute is the transformation of rapture into love and thereby the sacrifice of mind to love. It is a complete submission, it is annihilation of self with in the loved one, it is unity. This state of ecstasy is the highest grade in Buddhism, defined as "Nirvana" and in Islam "Fenafillah." However, the highest rank in Islam is the rank of the Prophet, he is called God's servant first and his messenger afterwards. The aim of Sema is not unbroken ecstasy and loss of conscious thought. At the termination of this salute, he approves again by his appearance, arms crosswise the Unity of God, consciously and feelingly.
• The forth salute Just as the Prophet ascends till the "Throne" and then returns to his task on earth, the whirling dervish reaching the state of "Fenafillah," return to his task in creation, to his state of subservience following the termination of his spiritual journey and his ascent. He is a servant of God, of his Books, of his Prophets and all his creation.
At the sixth part Sema ends with a reading of the Quran and specially of the verse from sura Bakara 2, verse 115, "Unto God belong the East and the West, and whither over ye turn, you are faced with Him. He is All-Embracing, All-Knowing."
The seventh part is a prayer for the repose of the souls of all Prophets and all believers.

" Tilavet " Chamber (Quran Reading And Chanting)
Tilavet" is an Arabic word which means reading the quran with a beautiful voice and the correct rythim. The room takes its name from its function in the past. At present it is used as the Calligraphy Department.
The calligraphy section contains the framed works of famous calliagraphs of their time such as Mahmud Celaleddin, Mustafa Rakim, Hulusi, Yesarizade as well as a gilt relief frame done by Sultan Mahmut II. The couplet in Farsi engraved on the silver door with the calligraphy of Yesarizade Mustafa Izzet Efendi says:
Kabetü'l-ussâk bâsed in mekam
Her ki nakis amed incâ sod temam
(Let this be the Kaaba of the minstrels. Who ever enters here in half, finds himself whole)
Huzur-i Pir (Mausoleum)
The hall of the mausoleum is entered from a silver door which was donated in 1599 by Hasan Pasha, who is the son of Sokollu Mehmet Pasha. Here, the oldest copies of the famous works of Mevlana the "Mesnevi" and "Divan-i Kebir" are displayed in two glass fronted cabinets. The mausoleum hall is roofed with three small domes The third dome which is also called the skin dome joins, the green dome in the north.
The hall is bordered with a platform on its east, south and north sides. In the north where there is a two level platform, the sarcophaguses of 6 Sacred horasan men are placed. Right at the feet of these, the Target Stone, made for Ilhanli King Ebu said Bahadir Khan.
There are also two framed inscriptions which are important as they reflect the thoughts and philosophy of Mevlana. The first frame is in Turkish and says :
"Either seem as you are or be as you seem"
Hz. Mevlâna

Second frame is a quatrain of Mevlana in Persian. In translation it reads :
"Come, come who or whatever you are, come
Should you be an unbeliever, a Magian or a pagan still come!
Our lodge is not a lodge of despair
With hundred repentions unheeded you may be, still, come"
Hz. Mevlâna

On the high platform bordering the mausoleum hall on the east and south there are 55 graves, ten of which belong to ladies and the whole group belongs to the family members of Mevlana, and his father. There are ten other graves which belong to people such as Hüsameddin Çelebi, Selahaddin Zerkubi and Sheyh Kerimüddin who had reached high ranks in the sect of Mevlevi.
Right under the Green Dome there are the graves of Mevlana and his son Sultan Veled. The double hunched marble sarcophagus over the graves was donated 1565 by Süleyman the Magnificant. The quilt embrodieried with gold thread placed over the sarcophagus is a Seljuk masterpiece and was made for Mevlana in 1274. When Süleyman the Magnificent had a new marble sarcophagus made over the graves of Mevlana and son, the original wood one was removed and put over the grave of Mevlana's father.

Semâ-Hâne (Ritual Hall)
The Semahane section together with the small mosque was built by Süleyman the Magnificent in the XVIth century.
Semah ceromonies were continued at this ritual hall until 1926, when the Dergah (Dervish lodge) was converted to a museum. The Naat Pew in the Hall, the place where the musicians set (Mutrib cells) and the sections for men and women are preserved in their original state, while metal and glass objects and musical instruments of the Mevlevi are displayed in glassed cabinets and rugs of historical value are hung on appropriate walls of the Semahane.

Mosque
The small mosque, or the mesjidt is entered from the Çerag (apprentice) Gate. There are additional small entrances from the Semahane and the Huzur - Pir, the cemetery. The place for the müezzin and the Mesnevihan Pew are kept in their original state.
Extremely valuable rug and wooden door samples are displayed on the south wall of the mosque and in 10 glassed cabinets put around this space, significant examples of binding, calligraphy and gilding are exhibited.
There are 17 small cells, each with a small dome and chimney around the west and north sides of the front court of the Mevlana Lodge. These cells were built in 1584 by Sultan Murat III to house the dervishes.
Four cells to the right of the entrance gate are at present used as a ticket window and administration offices . The first two of the 13 cells to the left of the gate used as "Postnisin" and "Mesnevi-han" cells are kept in their origanal form and presented to the public.
The last two cells at the end are allocated to the very valuable book collections donated by Abdülbaki Gölpinarli and Dr. Mehmed Önder, and they are used as a library.
The partition walls of the remaining 9 cells were removed providing two interconnected large corridors. In one of these corridors old rugs of historical value from regions famous for their rugs such as Kula, Gördes, Usak and Kirsehir are displayed while the other has old rugs from districts of Konya such as Ladik, Karaman, Karapinar and Sille which are centers of rug weaving. Display windows built in the window and door sills of these cells display artifacts of Mevlevi ethnography such as "Pazarci masasi", "Mütteka", "Nefir" which were transferred to the museum from the Lodge, and the extremely valuable Bursa fabrics from the museum collection.

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Useful Links: www.mevlana.org , www.sufism.org , www.emav.org , 300 Rumi Quotes