45 f Sufi Anatolia
It’s theoretically banned by the government, but Sufi-inspired music is flourishing in Turkey today. Nick Hobbs burrows into the culture.
Calvinism, it doesn’t welcome into the mosque music, dancing, images, saints, vis- ible women, and most other signs of human gaiety. Nor (perhaps like most reli- gions) does it welcome doctrinal competi- tion from (in Turkey) Alevism and Sufism.
T
Sufism (and Alevism) has a rich musical, dancing and chanting tradition. As a lover of qawwali and Sufi music from the Nile, I was keen to know the music made by the Sufis of Anatolia. Most evidently, there’s the formal, ney-lead chamber-music which accompanies the dancing dervish cere- monies, of which there’s plenty available on record (often aimed at tourists) which tends to be either the musical equivalent of chew- ing twigs or it gets reverbed into a new- agey, pastel wash. Low-fi sound aside, some of the best examples I’ve heard are on Ecstatic Dances Of The Whirling & Howling Dervishes Of Turkey & Syria (ARC, 1974).
As part of the young Republic’s sharp parting of ways with its Ottoman past, Sufism was banned by governmental decree in 1925 and, bizarrely, has never been unbanned. Even the most paranoid Kemal- ist (secular nationalist) or most pious AKP (the mostly Sunni government party) mem- ber would find it hard to make a case for Sufism being a threat to the established order these days. The old (and sometimes cabalistic) Sufi lodges (tekkes) and shrines were closed down or turned into museums – the biggest of which is Mevlana’s splendid tomb complex in Konya.
But that didn’t bring Sufism to an end in Anatolia, with lodges operating unoffi- cially in the guise of museums, or in private
he longer you live in Turkey, the weirder it gets (not that, say, the UKIP-ian UK is any less weird). Sunni Islam is weird about music. Something like
(a sort of by-invitation-only, opaque, reli- gious tradition – tolerated, but not operat- ing openly). And there are dervish groups who are officially something like folklore performers of the rituals but who are also likely to be adherents to some degree. There are also kitsch versions of the cere- monies performed for tourists (the Konya dervish performances in their concrete, monster, pseudo-tekke are particularly unholy and to be avoided). Rumi remains revered both as a poet and as a saint, and there are contemporary Sufi gurus with fol- lowers of their own, as well as many surviv- ing (just about), and to some extent reviv- ing, Sufi orders.
I’m fascinated by the rituals (zikrs) which
don’t necessarily involve dervish dancing, and seem to me to be closer in spirit to Shia rituals of self-flagellation as a way of expiating one’s sins. They feature deep chanting, generally male-only (while the women may be prepar- ing the food for after the ceremony), with much rhythmic bowing and grunting. The best recording of a zikr I’ve come across is Dervish Sufi Chants & Songs Recorded During A Live Zikir Ritual In Konya on Earth CDs (2003). There’s no information about who the performers were – apparently because they didn’t want trouble with the authorities – but they certainly sound devoted. This is ritual, not strictly music, but, like listening to Tibetan monks, provides a pleasure which is musical as well as spiritual. Zikr chants, rendered into a more gentle form, often feature in contem- porary Anatolian Sufi music.
Together with Ürün Eren, we chose three musicians to interview who are avowedly Sufi in their inspiration, with the hope of getting a better idea of how Sufism and music interweave in today’s Turkey of crony capitalism, constipated (sorry) state- religion and pop culture.
Suleyman Erguner, ney-player and scholar:
Do you consider yourself a Sufi? [Laughing.] “No, but since childhood I know the real Sufis of dervish lodges and tekkes via my family. Tekkes then were more beau- tiful than the ones we have now. I like the state of mind of being a Sufi. That influ- enced my lifestyle and my music. In this sense I like Sufism. I hope to become a Sufi.”
“There’s the view that doesn’t accept the artistic side of Sufi music. It says instead it should focus on reaching its essence. I did that, but at some point you need to accept the artistic side. Some elders said ‘This man is making too much art, he’s not a dervish’, but that’s like doctrine. For example Hafız Burhan is purely Sufi in his music while Münir Nurettin is an artist. I like both.”
Mercan Dede & The Secret Tribe
Photo: © Judith Burrows
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