Soufi Music by Konya Turkish Ensemble

I’ve not experienced Soufi music nor did I attend any of the Whirling Dervishes before the performance the Konya Turkish Ensemble gave on March 30th at the Cultural Hall as part of the recently concluded annual Spring of Culture. I was in for a nice – and spiritually uplifting – surprise.

The unfortunately incident in which a misguided soul barged into a mosque on the Bahraini-Saudi Causeway and proceeded to serenade humourless security staff (and some worshippers I should think) reminded me that I had recorded the Turkish Soufis on my mobile phone and I had them unprocessed and untouched on my computer.

I broke out Audacity and cropped the three recordings into size, cleaned them up a bit and am presenting them to you as a gift. I hope that you will excuse the wanting quality of the clips and that you will understand that I am providing them here to enthuse you enough to go out and buy their and other Soufi music CDs – if they are available – or even demonstrate to you that Islam comes in various flavours, and song worship is in fact one recognised form.

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download the mp3 parts: [one] • [two] • [three]

The rituals of the Whirling Dervishes are among the most enduring and exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual whirling, still practiced today by the dervishes of the Melevi order, is an act of love and a drama of faith. Sufi music is closely connected with religious music and the lyrics are mainly taken from poems of Mevlana Celaleddini Rumi. The Konya Turkish Sufi Music Ensemble was formed in 1990 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey and mainly performs during annual commemorations of Mevlana but also perform Sufi music and Sema rituals in Konya throughout the year. The forty member Ensemble is headed by Omer Faruk Belviranli
(vocal) and its art director is Yusuf Kayya (nay). The Ensemble plays an important role for the promotion of Turkish culture around the world.

Have a wonderful and peaceful evening my friends.