This account of the Sufi order of Mevlevi
dervishes and its founder,
the poet and mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, presents the esoteric
wisdom of the Sufis as it has been handed down from the great
teachers of the past. In addition to Rumi's life story, accounts of
dervishes past and present are included. Featured are excerpts from
Rumi's poetry, teachings of other Sufi masters, descriptions of the
dervish lodges and the symbolism of the dervish ceremony, and an
overview of the music that accompanies the Mevlevis' sacred dance.
Fully illustrated with evocative pictures of dervishes in traditional
dress this book provides a glimpse of ceremonies rarely seen by the
public.
"Shems Friedlander must be congratulated
on composing a book which
reflects the authentic Mevlevi tradition and emphasises the concrete
practices and spiritual attitudes of the Order. He has made it
possible for the general public to understand better the spiritual
ambience and especially the sama or spiritual concert and sacred
dance which provided the immediate context for the composition of
much of Rumi's poetry, a poetry which because of the depth of its
meaning is also of the greatest universal import today."
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
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