Table Of ContentABSTRACT
Title of Dissertation: THE AESTHETICS OF MOTION IN MUSICS
FOR THE MEVLANA CELAL ED-DIN RUMI
Victor A. Vicente, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007
Dissertation directed by: Professor Robert C. Provine
Division of Musicology and Ethnomusicology
School of Music, University of Maryland
This dissertation investigates the concept of motion as a fundamental aesthetic
element in the devotional music, dance, and rituals performed in honor of the celebrated
thirteenth-century Persian mystic poet and saint, the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhammad
Rumi. The main focus of the study is threefold. First, it investigates the prevalence of
the notion of movement in Islamic music and culture, specifically within the Sufi
communities of Turkey, in order to arrive at a broader understanding of the relationship
between music, aesthetics, and worldview. Secondly, it explores how musical
performance functions as a form of devotion or religious worship by focusing on the
musical repertories performed in honor of a single holy figure, the Mevlana Rumi.
Finally, it provides an ethnographic account of contemporary developments in Sufi
musical culture in Turkey and across the world by describing the recent activities of the
Mevlana’s devotees, which includes members of the Mevlevi Order of Islamic mystics as
well as adherents of other Sufi brotherhoods and followers of so-called New Religions or
New Age.
The primary research for this study involved two short one-month field trips to
Turkey and India in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and a longer one year expedition to
Turkey in 2004 and 2005, which also included shorter stays in Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt.
Additionally, the dissertation draws directly from critical theories advanced in the fields
of ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, and ethnochoreology and focuses on the
kinesthetic parameters of music, dance, trance, and ritual as well as on broader forms of
socio-cultural movement including pilgrimage, cultural tourism, and globalization. These
forms of movement are analyzed in four broad categories of music used in worship,
including classical Mevlevi music, music of the zikr ceremony, popular musics, and non-
Turkish musics.
THE AESTHETICS OF MOTION
IN MUSICS FOR THE MEVLANA CELAL ED-DIN RUMI
by
Victor Amaro Vicente
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School
of the University of Maryland in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
2007
Advisory Committee:
Professor Robert C. Provine, Chair
Professor Emeritus Józef M. Pacholczyk
Professor Barbara Haggh-Huglo
Professor Adrienne L. Kaeppler
Professor Madeline C. Zilfi
! Copyright by
Victor Amaro Vicente
2007
DEDICATION
To
The Mevlana Celel ed-Din Rumi,
His devotees,
and
All who helped me in this journey.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Like all similar projects, this dissertation comes as the last step of a long journey
of discovery that has taken me to worlds I could never have imagined. Although some
find the path of researching, writing, and editing to be so grueling that they sometimes
lose their way, I have enjoyed nothing but happy trails thanks to the guidance of a great
many kind souls. Whatever faults or discrepancies afflict this study, none is greater than
my failure to properly acknowledge all those who have helped and encouraged me at
every step. My deepest apologies and most sincere gratitude, therefore, to all those
whose names do not appear in print here.
First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Józef M. Pacholczyk and Dr. Robert
C. Provine for their wisdom and sage advice. Both served as my advisors at various
stages of this project and it is doubtful that it would have ever come to light without their
support, insight, and magical abilities to change deadlines and sign rule waivers. It was
Dr. Pacholczyk who recommended this topic to me and who enthusiastically encouraged
my first ventures into the musics of the Middle East through his detailed lectures and
expansive conversations. Meanwhile, Dr. Provine was not only gracious enough to serve
as my final advisor and give of his own time freely to work through my drafts, but he also
offered me numerous opportunities to lecture and teach in his classes, which helped me
refine my approaches and thoughts on this topic.
Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Barbara Haggh-Huglo,
Dr. Adrienne L. Kaeppler, and Dr. Madeline C. Zilfi for their enlightening seminars and
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for agreeing to serve on my advisory committee. Their attention to detail and suggestions
have been enormously helpful in producing the final version of this dissertation. For help
with early drafts, I also thank Christina Taylor Gibson, whose support and counsel kept
me going and kept me on schedule.
For their insights into Turkish culture, I thank especially Dr. Ahmet Yürür and his
wife Carol Stevens Yürür, who not only generously housed and fed this peripatetic
researcher-backpacker, but also unreservedly shared their wealth of knowledge and
enthusiasm. My stay in Turkey would have been far less rich without them, and I cherish
the times we spent together. Likewise, I am also indebted to all the wonderful people I
met in Konya as well as to Kerem Atalay for his unique perspectives on Turkish culture,
for his endless help with translations, and for agreeing to give me that house in Urla. For
their insights and help with my Turkish, I also owe a deep sense of gratitude to Dr.
Naime Yaramano!lu, U!ur Aybar, Serap Davaz, and Kur"ad Albayraktaro!lu as well as
to Nilgün, Ömer, and Onur for being my tutors and translaters in #zmir and for the
boundless geyik etmek.
I am also indebted to Dr. Natalie Sarrazin and Anand Kumar Dwivedi not only for
their help with Urdu and Hindi translations, but also for their friendship and for having
introduced me to the wonders of South Asia. Along with them, I would like to thank
Debbie Kuckuda and Virginia Wyant for their guidance and all of my teachers and
students from whom I am still learning.
In addition, I am deeply grateful to all my friends and colleagues who have
supported me throughout the years. In the U.S., I would like to thank Dr. Stuart Cheney,
Katie Curtis, Olivia Hauser, Dr. Benjamin Levy, Dr. Jonathan McCollum, Dr. Heather
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Miller, who waited patiently with me in #zmir for the arrival of my spiritual package,
Rachel Muehrer, Dr. Kenneth Schweitzer, Mary Scott, Xóchitl Tafoya, Cheryl Tobler,
Aja Burrell Wood, and Sunmin Yoon. Of my friends in Turkey and elsewhere around the
world, I would like to single out Malin Brodin, Anne Buijtenhek, Amanda Chreptowich,
Florian Henning, Demet Kaygusuz, Antonio Leite de Castro, Carlos Martins, Sebastian
Mehling, Nora Oertel, Jóhanna Rúnarsdóttir, and Gözde Sütçü for all the wonderful
memories. I hope we can all meet again at Cosmo for çay and then saunter over to Köz
for dinner and more çay soon.
Finally, I would like to express my deep thanks and love to my whole family,
especially my father Mario, my mother Maria, my brother Helder, his wife Laura, and
their beautiful baby boy Samuel.
Sizi çooooook seviyorum!
Çok te"ekkür ederim!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ORTHOGRAPHY AND CONVENTIONS ix
LIST OF FIGURES xi
CHAPTER I Introduction:
From Plurality to Unity 1
! Starting in the Middle 1
! Bearings, Directions, and a Roadmap: Introduction 2
! The Journeys of the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhammad al-Balkhi al-Rumi 7
! Advancing after Annihilation: The Cult of the Mevlana 13
! The Mevlevi and Music for the Mevlana 19
! Paths Well Trodden: Previous Scholarship 25
! Fieldwork in Multiple Field Sites 30
! Itineraries to Enlightenment: Structure of the Dissertation 33
CHAPTER II The Geometries of Belief:
Toward an Understanding of the Aesthetics of Motion 36
! At the Shrine of the Mevlana 37
! Music as Culture : Worldview in the Study of Music and Culture 42
! Haram as Aesthetic: The Legality of Music and the Arts 49
! Motion as Devotion: Motion in Sufi Cosmology 53
! Music as Devotion: The Music of the Spheres 65
CHAPTER III Modes of Motion:
The Spirit of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana 71
! The Konya Otogar, A Modern Caravanserai 72
! Global Movement and the World of Islam 77
! Theoretical Wanderings on Pilgrimage and Tourism 85
! Music, Trance, and the Inner Journey 92
! Dance, Musical Motion, and Structured Movement Systems 98
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CHAPTER IV In Perfect Proportion:
The Sacred Sounds of a Secular State 103
! Reviving Rumi: The Mevlana Cultural Center 104
! The Political Economy of the Soul:
The Mevlana in Politics, Tourism, and Ziyaret 111
! The Ottoman-Classical Musical Tradition of the Mevlevi 125
o The Concept of Makam 128
o The Concept of Usul 130
o The Concept of Suite 131
o Performing Forces and Performance Practice 140
o Mevlevi Composers and the History of the Ayin-i !erif 146
! Ethnography of a Whirling Show 153
! Musical Movement in Mustafa Nak"i Dede’s !edaraban Ayin-i !erif 171
CHAPTER V Arcs of Ascent and Descent:
Music, Trance, and Ritual in Zikr Ceremony 184
! “Always Remember God” 185
! Modes of Remembrance: On the Various Types of Zikr 190
! Music, Ecstasy, and the Zikr Ceremony 195
! Ethnography of a Zikr Gathering 208
! Arcs of Ascent and Descent: Analysis of a Zikr Ceremony 214
CHAPTER VI Sounds Like Sufi Spirit:
The Mevlana in Popular Music and Culture 226
! Sufi Spirituality at the Supermarket 227
! Towards a Sufi Popular Music in Turkey 229
! The Mevlana in the New Age 236
! Our Lady of Mysticism: Madonna and the Mevlana 249
! Sufism and Popular Music in South Asia 254
! Mevlevi Sufism and Rock and Roll Music in Turkey 262
! Mercan Dede, Sufi Traveler 273
! Spinning in Circles: Intentionality and the Polemics of Authenticity 278
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Description:between music, aesthetics, and worldview. Secondly, it explores how musical performance functions as a form of devotion or religious worship by focusing on the
