The Symbolısm of the Sama Dance And The Geometrıcal Proporrıons of The Sama'khana ın Cairo

Abstract

The Mevlevi Dervishes, usually described as "whirling" because of their rite, originated in Turkey. Their founder, Jalal al-Din Rumi, was born in Khurasan (modem Afghanistan) in 1207. After various vvanderings he settled in Konya (Turkey), where he died in 1273, and where his tomb is stili a place of pilgrimage for people from ali över the world. Compared with St. Francis of Assisi for his deep sensitivity, he is considered "the greatest mystic poet of ali time". His mastenvorks (the "Divan" and the "Masnavi") are the cultural base of the order owing its origin to him. The rite of the circular dance in an anti-clockwise direction, like the procession around the Ka‘ba, is first attested historically in the dance of Jalal al-Din Rumi after the death of his friend Shamsi Tabrizi. The development of the thought of Jalal al-Din Rumi, in the light of the cosmological doctrines of Ibn Sina, al-Biruni and of some mystical thinkers, defined the Sama1 in its relation to the cosmos and the rotarion of the celestial spheres and planets. With time, also the building devoted to the rite of the sama' developed its special architectural typology, according to a geometric and mathematical symbolism. The Sama'khana in Cairo represents this symbolism in its full expression.