By Ahmet Kaan Akkaya
In my artwork,
I chose to focus on calligraphy and
Rumi
also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī Mawlānā is a very
popular person in the history of Islam. He was a 13th century Sufi
mystic, poet and an Islamic scholar. His works have been largely studied by
many people throughout centuries all over the world. His spirituality has
influenced many nations among which are the Turks, Greeks, Iranians and Muslims
of South Asia. His works of poems have been studied and translated into various
languages across the globe. He has originally written mostly in Persian,
Arabic, Turkish and Greek. His works have also influenced the literature in
many cultures such has the Persian, Turkish, the Ottoman, Punjabi, Azerbaijani,
Hindi and Urdu.
I
chose to include in my artwork, the symbols of Sufi Dervishes which are
practicing the active meditation commonly known as Sufi whirling. Sufi whirling
is a form of meditation which is active or Sama that the Sufi Dervishes of the
Mevlevi order still practice today. It is a part of a worship ceremony in
which, the dervishes also known as the semazens, aim to reach perfection.
During their ceremony they aim to get in touch by god and the music to let go
of ones ego or selfish desires. It is done by spinning the body by going round
and round in circles, imitating the movements of the planets and how they orbit
the sun in our solar system. The semazens practice many different rituals and
the most important and main one out of all of them is called the Dhikr. Dhikr
means the remembering of Allah. In this practice the semazens recite some
devotional Islamic prayers and some physical movements are then added to the
practice. Mainly it’s the dancing and the whirling that takes part of the
physical aspect of Dhikr to what is believed to be the ascension towards the
meditative trance state of the Sufi Dervishes.
This
practice has originated around the 12th century by the Sufi
fraternities. It was a leadership in which every member would follow a specific
discipline in service of a leader. These members were called Persian Dervishes.
They were responsible for the organization of Islamic expression of life of religion.
It is believed that the Prophet was the original creator of Sufism by whom the
study of Sufism has been passed down from.
I
had a wide range of colors to pick from in the beginning of my project. I chose
to go by the color blue because of its appealing meaning to me. Blue is used in
the Islamic tradition and history in many ways. It is a color that is mainly
used in mosques. There are Blue Mosques in many countries in the Middle East,
one of them being in my country, Turkey. The color blue gives the observer a
feeling of freedom, hope and heavenly paradise. It is also a commonly used for
protection purposes. In my country it is commonly used against what is called
the “evil eye”. It is common belief that wearing at least one piece of blue
item will keep the “evil eyes” away from a person. For these reasons I chose to
include the color blue in my artwork as it adds to the meaning behind my
artwork of Peace in Islam.
