Sufi Rituals in the Middle East and the Balkans

This book offers intimate and moving portraits of Sufism as practiced in five countries. Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, is as far from the strident and often violent fundamentalist strain of the religion that has so captured world attention as it is possible to be. Sufis in all parts of the Islamic world are broad-minded, tolerant, and non-violent, their quest only to find and approach God through all means, including poetry, music, and dance. Historian Nicolaas Biegman has been observing and photographing Sufi practice and ritual in different Muslim lands for many years, and here in this collection of extraordinary photographs he feels the pulse of the Sufi experience, with its enormous variety in discipline and exuberance, intellectualism and spontaneity, in Egypt, Syria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Macedonia. In accompanying texts he explores what lies behind the rituals, and explains aspects of Sufi life and practice such as the position of women.

Author Biography:
NICOLAAS (NIEK) BIEGMAN holds a Ph.D. in Balkan history, and is an expert on Islam. He has produced a number of photographic books on Egypt, Haiti, Manhattan, and most recently a Sufi community in Skopje (God's Lovers)

Labels: books, derviches, divine love, literature, Love, mysticism, Sufi Dancers, sufi literature, sufi manuscripts, sufi masters, sufi music, sufi paintings, sufi poems, sufi poetry, sufi saints, sufi teachers, sufi women, sufism, sufism books, tasawwuf

Lights of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam

  Mirror Case

‘Ali Ashraf

Brooklyn Museum celebrates Sufism with an Islamic Art Installation featuring objects ranging from the Medieval period to the Present Day.

On view at the Brooklyn Museum from June 5 through September 6, 2009.

From Brooklyn Museum:

Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam features twenty-four objects from the Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and private collections that are related to a mystical form of Islam known as Sufism. This special installation will be on view in the Brooklyn Museum’s Islamic galleries from June 5 through September 6, 2009.

While diverse Muslim sects and Islamic cultures do not necessarily share a singular view or practice of Islam, the mystical and romantic nature of Sufism tends to have a more universal appeal to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This exhibition focuses on some of the most important Sufi ideas and practices that found expression through the arts of the Islamic world, beginning with light, which symbolizes both God and enlightenment. The works displayed represent both literal and figural reflections of important mystical themes, including furnishings used for lighting; representations and attributes of Sufi mystics; illustrated, illuminated, and laser-etched manuscripts of Sufi poetry; and traditional and contemporary works inspired by Sufi principles. The range of chronology, cultures, and media of the works exhibited reflects the wide appeal and impact of Sufism on the arts from the early period to the present day.

Highlights include a gilded and enameled glass lamp inscribed with the famous “Light Verse” (Ayat al-Nur) from the Qur’an, a gilded and jewel-encrusted silver beggar’s bowl meant for collecting alms, and two inlaid brass candlestick bases from the eastern Islamic world made in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, respectively. Two contemporary artworks will be featured in this installation: one is a modern interpretation of the mystical verses of the renowned poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273), translated by Zahra Partovi and inscribed in a glass book by Brooklyn artist Kelly Driscoll, and the other is a composition of charcoal prayer-stone rubbings by Iranian-American artist Pouran Jinchi. The exhibition will also present several portraits of Sufi dervishes, some identified through inscriptions and others through costumes representing a particular Sufi order. A vintage photograph depicts a dervish family from the early twentieth century in modest attire, while an album page shows a mystic resembling a Chinese luohan in meditation accompanied by his flute and alms bowl. Some works, such as large Qajar painting and illustrated manuscript pages, illustrate narratives recounted in well-known Sufi literature. Poetry also appears on a beautiful medieval Iranian ceramic dish
painted in light-reflecting luster, including verses by Rumi’s master, Shams al-Tabrizi (d. 1248), whom Rumi compared to a sun shining the light of God upon him.
The exhibition has been organized by Ladan Akbarnia, Hagop Kevorkian Associate Curator of Islamic Art, Brooklyn Museum.
Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam will be presented in conjunction with Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas, an unprecedented ten-day festival and conference in New York City celebrating Islamic culture of which the Brooklyn Museum is a supporting partner.

Labels: Art, derviches, divine love, English, islam, museums, mysticism, rumi, sufi masters, sufi people, sufi teachers, sufis, sufism, tasawwuf

Sufismo

Labels: amor místico, derviches, elementos del sufismo, Español, glosario de sufismo, ibn arabi, poema sufí, poemas, tasawwuf

sufism

(Foto: FGP)

Los Derviches del Cairo conquistaron anoche la cartagenera plaza del Ayuntamiento con sus danzas sufíes, que sorprendieron gratamente a un público asistente a un evento con entrada gratuita.

Fundados para salvaguardar y difundir la música tradicional y popular egipcia, llegaron al festival La Mar de Músicas para hacer una demostración de su cultura.

Así, más de cuarenta bailarines tomaron el escenario para practicar la danza tannoura, denominada así por el nombre de la falda que llevan y que les ayuda a girar sobre su propio eje, facilitando estados alterados de conciencia y de éxtasis místico, viendo a Dios en cada giro e identificándose con el movimiento rítmico de todo cuanto existe.

Derviches del Cairo actuaron con una formación compuesta por más de 40 miembros entre bailarines y músicos. Su fuerza y su portentosa capacidad de concentración en la danza, así como la brillante interpretación de la música y los ritmos de trance les ha convertido en uno de los conjuntos de mayor protección dentro y fuera del país.

SEGUIR LEYENDO

sufismo

tasawwuf

poemas sufies

maestros sufies


tasawwuf

Labels: derviches, Español, musica