Dervish

Whirling Dervishes have always fascinated me, and through them I find allot of inspiration in my art.

 

The whirling dance was popularized by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), who was a Sufi mystic and poet. As legend has it, Rumi chanced upon goldbeaters in the town marketplace singing songs in reverence to Allah, and he began spinning in a circle with arms outstretched. As Rumi whirled, he entered a trance and became ecstatic, and with that, the dance was born. After Rumi’s demise, his followers continued with the practice and formed the Mevlevi sect. 

Rumi, as the founder of the dance, said that the dervishes represent the planets going around the sun in the solar system. The whirling dervishes acknowledge humanity’s place in the cosmos and join in the movement of the earth. The dance is also interpreted as a re-enactment of death and resurrection, where the mind transcends, and the body is left to the ground. The dance is often viewed as a way of uniting with cosmic powers as well as with eternity and establishing a relationship between humanity and divinity.