Along the Original Silk Road, Konya’s Mystic Music Festival

Dedicated to the memory and the spirit of the great Tunisian Sufi poet and scholar, Si Abdelwahab Meddeb, who cherished and admired the works of ‘Hadharat Mawlânâ Jalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî’

There has perhaps never been a greater historical route that has captivated the imagination as much as the Silk Road.  Konya, once the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate between 1071 and 1308, was a major commerce center along the ancient original road or system of camel-borne caravan trails through Turkey, Persia, India and China.  It was also a meeting place for many cultures to interact over centuries and has by now become Turkey’s foremost holy city.  The city is renowned for historical encounters and sojourns by some of the greatest Sufi mystics, poets, and philosophers: Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1274) and his companion Shams of Tabriz, Ibn Arabi and his disciple Sadreddin Konevi.

 

 

Even much earlier, Konya was host to numerous civilizations including the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Macedonians, Seleukos, the Kingdom of Pergamon, Romans, Sassenites, and Byzantines.  The Seljuk and Ottoman empires arose from this city of arts, science, and commerce.  The province is an archeological trove of intangible and tangible heritages and its Silk Road leads eastward to superb discoveries.

 

 

The single most powerful force that draws 2 ½ million visitors and pilgrims each year to the city is the stunningly beautiful mausoleum of Rumi, who migrated there with his family from Balkh in present day Afghanistan when he was about 5 years old.  His mausoleum shrine with its gleaming turquoise green conical tower, once a Sufi lodge for dervishes, is now known as the Mevlana Museum.  It draws 5000 visitors and pilgrims daily.  Upon arrival in Konya, one is struck immediately by the distinctly peaceful, relaxed atmosphere.  Locals attribute this to Rumi’s ‘Baraka’ or blessing.  The periodic muezzin’s musical calls to prayer, the wind’s rustle of leaves, and birdsong intensify the silence and tranquility.  Even the whirring traffic seems muted.

The Festival

How befitting it is that today the city hosts the annual Konya Mystic Music Festival, featuring many of the finest sacred music traditions from the world’s vast cultural diversities.  The festival is a free-to-the-public nine-day evening concert event, held at the Mevlana Cultural Center, a 15 minute walk from the Mevlana Museum and the city’s central marketplace.  Its 11th edition opened this year on September 22nd and culminated on Rumi’s birthday, September 30th.

The festival’s Artistic Director, Dr. Timucin Cevikoglu, a Rumi scholar and ethnomusicologist with the Ministry of Culture, and Programming Director, Feridun Gundes, produced formidable concert evenings to joyous, packed to capacity audiences, of hundreds of locals and many international world music fans.  There were several standing ovations.  This is a growing festival with tremendous potential to deliver occasional scholarly talks, film screenings, and importantly, ancillary concerts by as of yet unknown great folk, traditional, and classical Turkish musicians.  On the other hand, the structural simplicity or direct impact of the nightly concert presentations without programming overload was entirely refreshing.

What impressed me during the festival were two aspects reminiscent of Silk Road glory.  First, many of the musicians arrived early or stayed longer following their performances and were eager to attend concerts by other groups.  Newer friendships were forged. There was a strong sense of congenial cultural exchange as festival motif.  The second relates to the setting of Konya itself, wherein the Central Asian and South Asian musicians in particular were very much at ease and instinctively familiar with a musically sophisticated and knowledgeable audience.

 

 

The festival musical palette was filled with terrific contrasts in scales, harmonies, tonalities, rhythms, and instrumentation.  The invited groups traveled long distances  to share knowledge of mystical traditions to be found in the Comoros, Spain, Tajikistan, Bolivia, India, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia.  Their repertoires embraced folk, traditional, and classical modes, and so often with sublime moments of spiritual ecstasy.

 

 

Persia

One of festival’s great high points was the appearance of Persia’s classical music master and virtuoso kamancheh musician, Kayhan Kalhor with his ensemble: Hossein Alishapour, vocalist, Ali Bahrami Fard on santur, Hadi Azarpira on tar, Alireza Molla Hosseini on tombak, and Nava Soleymani on barbat (oud).  Many of his ardent fans flew in from Tehran, other parts of Turkey and the Central Asia region just for the occasion.

Mr. Kalhor created a special homage to Rumi with original compositions that he plans to record and they are brilliant.  Throughout the performance there was an even balance of Mr. Kalhor’s rapturous cantabile solo kamancheh passages, heterophonic instrumental interludes, and Rumi’s sung poetry by Mr. Alishapour.

Kayhan Kalhor graciously sent me his thoughts about Rumi and his poetry, Sufism in Iran, and his visit to Konya:

Rumi, ‘Mohammad Jalaluddin Balkhi’ as we know him in Iran, is one of the greatest masters and introducers of Persian Sufism and philosophy to the world. I, like others, grew up listening to Rumi, Hafez, Sa’adi and other mystic poets of Iran, recited by our parents at every occasion and in family gatherings.  Sufism is woven into the lifestyle, attitude, and visions of Iranian people.

I’m always more than glad to be a humble presenter of Rumi’s philosophy by giving focus to his poems and playing the related music in my concerts, especially considering the negative political propaganda widely taking place in Western media based on Iran’s politics.  I strongly believe that the true Iranian culture and attitude in every aspect are very different from what is being demonstrated in today’s world.  I have been on a mission to prove and present those aspects as one of the cultural ambassadors of my country.

Poetry is one of the very important cultural components of Iran and people in Iran have greatest regards for their poets and their mystic teachings.  Sufism is still very strong and active in today’s Iran and Rumi’s teachings, especially through his poems, have a great importance in this area.  I chose most of the concert poems as the ones that I really love.  Some were used earlier on or never before by other composers or singers.  I tried to choose pieces of poems that are in contrast to each other and reflect the different faces of his philosophy. However, Divine love is always there as one of the strongest components.

This was my second time in Konya. The first time was in 2004 when I traveled there just to visit his Shrine, which was an absolutely unforgettable experience.  I could actually go there every day for the remaining days of my life and enjoy his presence there more each day.  I can’t really explain what it means to breathe that air and feel so close to his home and where he spent most of his life. Just unbelievable!  I hope there are more opportunities to visit Konya and the Shrine and of course, to play again in Konya’s festival and present more of Rumi’s words in the original language in which he wrote them. — Kayhan Kalhor

According to Persian Sufi scholars, many compilations of English translations of Rumi’s poetry ignore his spiritual dimension.  Many readers only understand the poet to be an ‘earthly love’ poet, nothing of his divine yearnings, contemplation, and passion — and his freedom of thought.  To read Rumi in Persian would be ideal.  Hence, few really know very much about Sufism or Rumi at all.  Mr. Kalhor concurs:  “I do agree with you about the translations.  Unfortunately not many of them are meaningful and most of them do not relay the spiritual essence of the original words.  Rumi is intoxicating in Persian and the words are so powerful that they take you out of yourself.  Like a powerful film that stays with you for weeks.  I too, think that Rumi should only be read in Persian.”

Here, nonetheless, is one of the Rumi poems from his concert in translation that inspires Mr. Kalhor:

LOVE IS THE MASTER

Love is the One who masters all things;

I am mastered totally by Love.

By my passion of love for Love

I have ground sweet as sugar.

O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;

How could I know where I will be blown next?

Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny

Reveals himself a liar and a fool;

What is any of us but a straw in a storm?

How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?

God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection;

How can we pretend to act on our own?

In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack;

Sometimes Love hoists me into the air,

Sometimes Love flings me into the air,

Love swings me round and round His head;

I have no peace, in this world or any other.

The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river;

They have surrendered themselves to Love’s commands.

Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,

Constantly turning and turning, and crying out.

 

 

Mayotte

The festival opening night was elegant and spectacular.  The Sultan Veled Hall stage filled with a long procession of the women Sufi singers known as Deba.  This is a famed Muslim cultural ‘zikr’ music and dance practice exclusively for women and girls, comprising different groups from various villages in the Comoros island of Mayotte.  The Konya performance featured the women from the Boueni Village and they are fascinating to experience.  Dressed in white, silver-sequined robes and glittering regalia, the Deba women of 2 generations, gracefully swayed in choreographic unison as they sang extended praise songs to Allah and the Prophet Mohammed in Arabic dialect.  Seated at their feet, percussion members accompanied the singers with steady trance-like 4/4 beats on hand drums and tambourines.  There was a high sense of shared euphoria rippling through the concert hall as the group left the stage.   This is the Sufi spirit of oneness.

 

 

Spain

From the city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain’s Galicia, one of Christianity’s most important pilgrimage cities during the 12th century, we experienced the luminous beatitude of the extraordinary Resonet group.  Critically-acclaimed for their mastery of medieval, renaissance, and baroque music, Resonet’s concert celebrated the medieval Feast of the Consecration of the Cathedral of St. James by the King of Leon and Galicia, Alfonso IX, April 21, 1211.  The evening’s felicitous songs drew from the group’s deep research into the 12th century illuminated manuscript known as the Codex Calixtinus:

The source that gives us the clearest idea of the liturgy, music and celebration of the feasts in the cathedral in the era of the consecration of the Codex Calixtinus or Liber Sancti Iacobi, which draws together the liturgy and much of the music which at the end of the 12th century were performed in honour of the patron St. James the Greater on the feast days of 25th July and 30th December…. The Codex Calixtinus is enormously rich both in pieces and styles: the nascent polyphony, in different forms, and monody, also the basis for improvised polyphonies, with its varied rhythmic indications, with pieces that are suited to dancing and others that are more narrative…. The direct transcription of the originals opens up for us a rich variety of musical pieces, far removed from the austerity which is sometimes associated with the musical styles of this period and context. — Mercedes Hernández, Fernando Reyes, Resonet CD Liner Notes, ‘Festa Dies’

Sheer delight and marvel were palpable among the rapt audience as we took in medieval instrumental virtuosities by Resonet leader Fernando Reyes as he plucked his ancient citola lute with an ostrich plume, Jordi Argelaga on chalemie (shawm) and flutes, Paulo González on hurdy-gurdy and gaita, Carlos Castro on percussions et psalterion, and Noemí Martínez second citole.  They accompanied the trio of utterly beguiling vocalists who sang in shimmering polyphonic chordal harmonies: high praises are due to soprano Mercedes Hernández, baritone Tomás Maxé, and countertenor David Sagastume.

As they accompanied the singers’ impassioned fervency, the musicians plucked, spun, and wove sinuous strands of contrapuntal melodies, punctuated by dramatic drum rolls.  Resonet carried the magnificent sense of pageantry heard centuries ago in the cathedral with rare finesse.  As we left the concert that night, the starlight high in the skies over Konya seemed to burn with brilliant intensity.

 

 

Tajikistan

Tajikistan’s Badakshan Ensemble traveled all the way from the Pamir Mountains, the mountainous region located on the eastern half of the country and northeast Afghanistan, known poetically as ‘The Roof of the World’.  Their concert presented a variety of musical genres, some for festive occasions as well as devotional songs that are part of the region’s ritualized events.  Those are, for example, wedding festivities, New Year’s Nowruz celebration, weekly prayer meetings, and Ramadan.  An important genre in their repertory is the ‘falak’, a lament-like philosophical music that Badakshanis believe to possess healing properties.

During the festival I had the great pleasure of meeting the scholar and ethnomusicologist, Professor Mirwaiss Sidiqi, The Aga Khan Music Initiative’s Country Coordinator for Afghanistan.  He has been kind enough to send me further details about the music of Pamir:

Pamiri music has its roots on both sides of the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border which, although divided for more than a century, still retains its intrinsic artistic identity and can be heard to this day on both sides of the border.  Pamiri music is part of the moqam tradition, which can be traced hundreds years back and has been passed on by traditional oral instruction through generations. Of the various forms of Pamiri music and the most common is the falak. There are variations of falak, with different rhythms, beginning with the slow (5/8) and medium (7/8) and the fast (2/4). This form is culturally very deep in the Wakhan, Sheghnan and Pamir with everyone from shepherds to housewives singing falak to express sorrow to joy. Another form of Pamiri music is the dafbazm, songs played with two or three notes, often with multiple beat on the daf (drum) accompanying a wooden flute. There are also a range of religious songs, or qasida, which are only played by Madah and Sayed’s (descendant of Prophet), specially sanctioned performers who often inherit the privilege to recite these qasida, accompanied by the daf and Pamiri rubab. Many of the qasida are recite, performed and set to poetry by Nasir Khusraw, Hazrat-e Shams and other Sufi poets.

The group was founded by the lovely singer and dancer, Soheba Davlatshoeva, whose mission is to  preserve and make known the Pamiri music that dates back thousands of years.  It’s a multi-layered, complex music: there are traces of its animistic pre-Islamic past; the preeminent influence of the Persian philosopher, poet, and traveler, Nasir Khusraw who brought Ismaili teachings to Central Asia from Fatimid Egypt in the mid-11th century; and ghazals inspired by the Sufi master poets, Rumi and Hafiz.  There is a shamanistic trance-inducing feel to the rhythmic music.  The musicians accompanied their song and dance with the resonant thump of sacred daf frame drums, flutes, ghijak (spike fiddle), tanbur, and setar.  A high-point was the charm of Ms. Davlatshoeva’s dancing and whirling with exquisite, airborne grace.

 

 

Bolivia

The following evening, the festival producers transported us to the Andean mountains of Bolivia through the presence of the grandly wonderful star Luzmila Carpio and her musicians.  As they entered the stage in solemn procession with measured drumbeats and whistling panpipes, Ms. Carpio’s hauntingly sweet voice pitched to the high ether of birdsong riveted the ear.  The song was ‘Arawi’: ‘Come let us sing, and we will find a better life/ We will fly like the Lord Condor,/  And like the flowers we will bloom/ With our knowledge and wisdom….’

Ms. Carpio is among the few truly authentic indigenous voices of Latin America, unadulterated by western musical forms, whether pop, jazz, or Latin fusion.  Over the years she has diligently avoided singing in Spanish, for the language symbolizes many forms of colonial oppression among Bolivia’s native Indians.  She has struggled fiercely since childhood for her Quechua-Aymara cultural pride and identity.  Her story is one of great epic adventure for her resilience, courage, and determination.  Arising from the fate of impoverished Andean village beginnings and years of education to her major breakthrough in 1971, she was crowned ‘Ñusta Nacional’ (National Royal Princess) at the Festival Nacional de la Canción Boliviana en Oruro, Capital del Folklore de Bolivia.

I use the language and music of my people, that of the Indian land, of our mountains, of our lakes, of the air we breathe. I sing my love for the land which witnessed my birth, the land of my ancestors. I speak of Pachamama, Mother Earth, of harmony and love, of the role of women in our civilization, of coexistence between man and nature within a cosmic order, of our traditions, which must not be lost. — Luzmila Carpio

She has honed to aesthetic purity an astounding beauty in Andean music.  As a child, Luzmila’s culture held strong mystical connections with birds, harbingers of rain and the promise of harvest, or, emissaries of the divine force of Pachamama.  Accompanied by her ensemble of players of panpipes, flutes, wanqara drums, and charango, we were spellbound by her singing and uncanny ability to whistle and trill the ethereal language of birds.  All were stylishly dressed in Bolivia’s finest traditional array.  Yet what splendor lay in Luzmila Carpio’s deep red capelet embroidered with flowers as she flourished it in dance and spread it in wing-like ascent at an epiphanic moment.

 

 

India

Ustad Aashish Khan, the sarode player of tremendous power, is one of North India’s most cherished musicians.  The scion of the sarode lineage established by his grandfather, Acharya Baba Allauddin Khan Sahib, his concert epitomized the serenity and poetic poise inherent in classical Hindustani music.  However, watching and listening to him play made me realize just what a ‘male’ instrument the sarode is.  Although his concert began with gentle thoughtfulness, Ustad Aashish soon dominated it with a leonine presence.  He was accompanied by his dynamic brother Ustad Pranesh Khan, the master tabla player, and by his nephew Shiraz Ali Khan who played his great grandfather Baba Allauddin Khan’s sarode.  Ustad Aashish Khan’s gifted sarode disciple Atish Mukhopadhyay held intense focus on the tanpura.

In the interest of some of the finer points of the concert and traditions associated with Ustad Aashish Khan, here are excerpts of a discussion held with his disciple Atish Mukhopadhyay:

In our Gharana (traditional school of music), we play in the Dhrupad style. There are two to three main styles in Indian classical music: Dhrupad, Khayal and Thumri.  Dhrupad is the oldest form among these and the most orthodox.  Our Gharana is known as the Maihar Seniya Gharana of Baba Allauddin Khan. Please read the “Gharana” page on my website at www.sarod-atish.net for more information.

The traditional Indian music study is known as Guru-Mukhi Vidya.  You cannot learn the music without a guru.  This is not a matter of playing some notes from  notations but involves a deep realization of notes and Rags within you.  It comes over time after several years of studying, practicing in the presence of your guru, and listening to him playing or practicing while teaching.  At a certain level of maturity as you start to feel a Rag as a student, it’s always important to listen to your guru’s live performance.  It helps you to enhance your musical depth and advances your level of playing.  Since it is an improvised music, you always remain alert while your guru is playing.  Each time you hear and learn something new.  This is the traditional system.

Guruji’s father played tanpura many times during his father’s performance and  Guruji himself played tanpura several times with his grandfather and father.  When you are playing tanpura, you are very much into the music with your ears open.  Tanpura is a drone instrument that holds the tonic and serves as the underlying constant pitch for all the instruments on the stage.  Naturally you’ve got to be very attentive while playing tanpura.  You become one with the music, learning and listening at once.  It is an honor for the advanced student to play tanpura with his guru.

Guruji is known as the ‘replica’ of his grandfather, the legendary Baba Allauddin Khan.  He carries the life blood and music of his grandfather as I personally see him.  His temperament, playing style, teaching style, the way he sees music and his capacity to maintain the totality of the sarode (exploring all the technical possibilities of sarode playing) without any gimmick — these are very very significant in his character, instilled in him by his grandfather.

First Guruji played Alap, Jodh and Jhala in Rag “Hem Bihag”, one of the creations of his grandfather.  Alap, Jodh and Jhala are the most powerful characteristic parts in the Dhrupad style. The philosophical here is of meditation and peace.  Slow progression of notes with slide movements gradually unfolds the Rag, as it explores all its possibilities and emotions.  Following, he played Vilambit Gat (composition) in Rag Kirwani.  Originally a South Indian Rag, it became popular in the North Indian style over the last century.  Vilambit Gat in Dhrupad style shows the true musicianship of an artist and his grip over the rhythm.   All possible patterns and combinations of both the left and right hand are seen here.

Then, he played Dadra in Rag Mishra Bharavi.  Bharavi is one of the most powerful Rags in North Indian music, usually played during the morning hours, but it can be played anytime of  the day.  Guruji played Mishra Bhairavi.  Mishra means ‘mixed’.  There, he used his imaginative artistry and brought in some contrasting notes from other Rags without changing the mood of Bhairavi.  Finally he played Drut Gat in Mishra Bhairavi, shifting to different Gats as he increased the tempo.  All of those Drut Gats were the original creations of his grandfather and father as far I know.  Then the Drut Gat reached the high climax (we call it Jhala) as culminative ending.  The whole Drut Gat in Dhrupad style requires consummate mastery and skill in rhythm and reflex.

 

 

Pakistan

If ‘charm’ could ever be associated with a Sufi musician, the descriptive would have to go to Pakistan’s Sindh star, Sain Zahoor.  Born in 1937, at age 13, he began a 9 year journey as a wandering itinerant singer, living in shrines and seeking the meaning  in a recurrent mystical dream, of a beckoning hand from a grave and a shrine.  He finally found his answer in the 18th century Sufi Punjabi poet and philosopher Bulleh Shah’s shrine and sings his poetry to this day.  He had never recorded his music until word of his phenomenal appeal reached the UK.  He captured almost immediately the 2006 BBC World Music Award without a recording.

An aura of solitude and humble quietness emanates from him offstage, and yet while he adorns his embroidered kurtas with opulent necklaces and jewels fit for a royal, topped off by a black turban, he is a sight to behold.  But once onstage, the diminutive figure transforms into a riveting, fiery presence with the command of a regent.  He is featured in Simon Broughton’s BBC moving documentary film Sufi Soul.

Seated silently in front of his group of musicians on harmonium, flute, and percussion who set up an instrumental introduction, he  slowly rose and brandished his sacred ektara (a kind of 3 string lute) festooned with garlands of tassels.  The moment he began to sing his Sufi songs with such emotional nuance, electricity shot through the hall.  Wearing ankle bells, gracefully stamping his feet, he swung round and round, whirling with his ektara, tassels flying.  He has the presence of a Sufi rock star and sure enough, cheering crowds gathered in front of the stage bobbing up and down Punjabi style, dancing in joyful adulation.

 

 

Indonesia

The Seni Budaya Nusantara group of women dancers and instrumentalists were of greater ethnomusicology interest to me than the spiritual aesthetic quality of performance.  They hail from Indonesia’s heart of Islamic culture, the island of Sumatra and its northern province of Aceh.  There were layers of the archipelago’s cultural eras embedded in the performance sound, rhythm, costuming and movement: the prehistoric, the Hindu-Buddhist, and the Islamic.  It would take a detailed thesis to delve into all of those aspects.

There was a curious disjointedness between Aceh’s somber, pentatonic-scale Islamic praise music, sung, chanted, and played with serious mien by the ensemble of traditional musicians — in contrast with the energetic razzle dazzle of the Acehnese Tari Saman dance routines by the cheerful, smiling women.  Admirable enough the rigorous training that must have gone into the perfectly calibrated, highly stylized unison movements by the dancers, although that element came across as more of a ‘show’ type display including several costume changes from song to song.  What was the story?  Program notes could have been useful.

As the tempo quickened two thirds through the performance, there were echoes of the indigenous Ramayana kecak chant rhythmics (whose origins lie in a trance-inducing exorcism dance) mixed with the recent mimetic Arabicization in Islamic music currently taking place in the region.  In Sufi traditions of dance, unified group movement often symbolizes the ‘ocean of love’, of oneness with the divine, and therein ecstatic delight as we saw in the opening Deba performance.  Seni Budaya Nusantara represents another form.

 

 

Turkey

The festival concluded with a ‘sama’ performance by the Konya Turkish Sufi Music Ensemble in the Mevlana Cultural Center’s sleek, main amphitheater.  It was designed for public sama ceremonials and it’s usually filled to capacity (2000 people) on the date of the annual celebration of Rumi’s ‘wedding night’ (reunion with the Beloved Divine or earthly death), December 17th.

The Sufi-inspired dervish sama ritual presentation included a good number of musicians, singers and whirling dancers.  I felt something seemed to be missing: the elevated emotional wonder, the focused and unified intensity one experiences in a true intimate sama. (It’s possible that the amphitheater acoustics could have been improved or better engineered.)

On the other hand, the whirling dervishes were lovely to watch.  After shedding their dark cloaks, they slowly began to whirl faster and faster, turning right to left in the direction of the heart, their trance-like dance as prayer form in motion.  The skirts of their white robes bloomed in Mevlana’s ‘mystical garden of love’ across the colorfully lit circular floor below.  There was no audience participation during the sung Ilahis (sacred hymns of devotional love), but we all watched the event with hope and keen interest.  And above all, with gladness to be in Konya.

Special Festival Moments

The festival organizers made sure that musicians, media, and guests were treated to Konya’s delectable cuisine over leisurely lunches in some of the city’s renowned restaurants.  Baby okra soup, wedding rice, plumpest buttery green olives, tender kebabs, fragrant herbs of dill and arugula, the incredible ‘Tirit’ concoction, delicate halvas, fresh honeycombs, dark, unctuous grape molasses, the ruby-red tart cherry juice and salty Ayran yoghurt drink all still linger on the taste buds.  They added unspoken enjoyment to shared moments of cultural exchange and convivial opportunities for interviews with the artists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the daytime, several of us made visits to a few of Konya’s major historical heritage sites including the inspirational and spectacular Mevlana Museum with the tombs of Rumi and his father; the quietly powerful shrine of Shams of Tabriz; the shrine of Ibn Arabi’s disciple, Sadreddin Konevi; the breath-taking Karatay Madrasa where Rumi reputedly taught; and the great Alaeddin Mosque, the second oldest in Turkey.

 

 

Following the evening concerts, late at night in the Hilton’s garden over several glasses of Turkey’s famed Black Sea region tea with the scent of cloves in the air, there were late night poetry sessions in Turkish and Persian with Dr. Timucin Cevikoglu, Feridun Gundes, a few special guests and musicians, and festival staff.  One evening, Kabul’s ethnomusicologist with The Aga Khan Music Initiative, Professor Mirwaiss Sidiqi, read Rumi’s poetry in the poet’s original Balkh dialect in mesmerizing chant-like cadence.

 

 

It was sheer surprise to sit in on a late night impromptu, informal musical performance by the Meshk Ensemble, led by Dr. Timucin Cevikoglu.  The group played only a few songs.  Those who were present were thrilled to be there, rapt in the peaceful beauty of their artistry.  Certainly one of Turkey’s finest groups, Meshk plays the rare and authentic music with sung poetry attributable to the ‘Spirit of Mevlana’ as well the work of the 13th century Turkish Sufi mystic poet, Yunus Emre.  Their gentle music burns with Sufi-inspired fervor and passion, unforgettable and haunting.  In performance the group and their whirling dervishes are dressed in formal Sufi attire.

The Silk Road to Cappadocia

Along with Simon Broughton, Editor in Chief of the UK’s Songlines Magazine, and a member of Luzmila Carpio’s ensemble, Ivan Ignacio, we made a day trip north eastward from Konya to Cappadocia whose volcanic tufa fairy chimneys formed thousands of years ago rank among the world’s geographic wonders.  The rock sites are inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.  Huge tufa formations in Goreme towering up to 100 metres high are filled with carved homes, churches, and monasteries.  Burrowed caves and rooms hold small Christian chapel sanctuaries with startlingly well-preserved Byzantine religious frescoes.  Those were only part of the intensive experience in Cappadocia.  In retrospect I’d like to spend much more time in the region for in-depth research.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s an exhilarating 238 kilometer drive starting at daybreak along the Silk Road, now a modern highway, with vast vistas of rolling hills, fertile valleys, distant mountains, and ancient caravanserai lodgings spotted every 30 kilometers.  Our knowledgeable and affable guide, Mehmet Donmez, recounted local architectural histories, legend and lore, over stops for glasses of hot Turkish tea, a superb lunch in Goreme, and visits to tempting local artisanal crafts workshops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had detoured during the early morning hours to the small Central Anatolian town in northern Cappadocia, to visit the sacred center for Alevi Sufis, the Haci Bektas Shrine Museum.  Haci Bektas-i Veli, the 13th century Turkish mystic philosopher has had and continues to have a profound influence upon Turkish Islam and far beyond today.  We joined the steady stream of devout visitors, exploring the Sufi complex of courtyards.  There are exceptionally beautiful Sufi artifacts and artworks in the mausoleum in the third courtyard.   At these sites, you will find good historical background about the man worshipped as a saint in the Alevi order: http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5735/ and http://www.goreme.com/hacibektas.php

These are some of Haci Bektas-i Veli’s well-known sayings:

• Seek and find. Do not hurt even if you are hurt yourself.
• Educate your women.
• Control your deeds, tongue, and desires.
• Whatever you seek, look for it in yourself. The adept are both pure and purifying.
• The first step of a talent is modesty. A person’s perfection lies in the beauty of what he says.
• Condemn no nation or person. Do not impose on someone that which is too burdensome for him to bear.
• The end of the road that does not pass through knowledge is darkness. How glad for those who shed light into the darkness of thought.
• Prophets and saints are God’s gift to humanity.

Finally,

To visit Konya’s annual Mystic Music Festival is to experience musical connoisseurship of the highest order.  High kudos and praises to the Directorate of Culture and Tourism of Konya, the festival Artistic Director Dr. Timucin Cevikoglu, and Programming Director Feridun Gundes.  Do make the ‘pilgrimage’ to their annual event, www.mysticmusicfest.com, and take the time to explore the rich historical cultural wealth of the city, its province, and the Anatolian region.  Konya is a revelation.