City of love

Sujoy Dhar

He takes all this knowledge from Koran Kareem and Hadith. He takes all these from the love side, the divine love. Because of this it touched our hearts. All the humanity, they need spiritual feeding. Because they are hungry, their soul is hungry,” Esin Chalabi Bayru, the descendant of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, says about the work of her great ancestor. Dignity personified, her words about Rumi permeates through your pores as you listen to her in her Konya, the city where Rumi lived and breathed his last on December 17, 1273.

The Islamic theologian was born to native Persian-speaking parents in the present-day Afghanistan, but he settled down in Konya. It was here he met his spiritual instructor Shams-i-Tabriz or Shams al-Din Mohammad (1185-1248), a Persian poet. Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion for 40 days, before fleeing to Damascus.

Bayru is the vice-president of the International Rumi Foundation (IRF), which sponsors and disseminates research on Rumi. As we walked out of the IRF office after meeting her, we headed for the striking green-tiled mausoleum of Mevlana (Rumi), Konya’s most famous building, to experience the essence of love that Rumi spread in the world.

Attached to the mausoleum is the former dervish seminary, which now serves as a museum with manuscripts of Mevlana's works and various artefacts related to the mysticism of the sect. The tomb of Rumi was built on his grave in 1274 (the complex is called Mevlana Museum now), following his death on December 17, 1273. The conical dome of the building is covered with turquoise faience. The Mevlana Museum is also known as the Green Mausoleum (for the Green Dome) and it is the original lodge of the Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes. However, several sections were added to it until 1854. 

By a decree of Turkey’s founding father and first President Kemal Ataturk on April 6, 1926, a year after he dissolved all Sufi brotherhoods, the mausoleum and the dervish lodge (Dargah) were turned into this museum. Every December, a ceremony is held to commemorate Rumi — a controlled, trance-like turning or sema (the dance) of the white-robed men, creating a fascinating performance for the viewers, is held. 

So if you are in Konya in December, walk across the beautiful city, strewn with oak leaves. All of a sudden, you will stumble on an installation art like monument, which marks the great event of November 30, 1244 — the meeting of Rumi with Sufi master and wandering mystic Mohammad Shams al Din of Tabriz at that place. The meeting is called “The Union of the Two Seas”; it had changed the course of Rumi's life.

Konya is situated on a large and level area in the middle of the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey. Permanent settlement in Konya began in the prehistoric age. Thus, Konya is one of Turkey's oldest and continuously inhabited cities. It was known as Iconium in Roman times. It was the capital of the Seljuk Turks in the 12th and 13th centuries, a period of the cultural, political and religious growth. It was during this time that Rumi founded the Sufi order known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes.

A performance of the whirling dervishes at the Mevlana cultural centre should not be missed if you are in Konya in winter. It represents a spiritual journey to maturity and oneness with God. As the dervishes in white robes and conical caps (sikke) spin and spin, they elevate the audience, too, to a spiritual level.

During daytime in Konya, spend some time in the Alaeddin mosque, which served as the “Mosque of the Throne” for the Seljuq Sultans of Rum and contains the dynastic mausoleum.  Another lovely mosque made with cut Godene stone is the Aziziye mosque that you encounter while wandering around in the city. The Turkish baroque style mosque with twin minarets in Rococo style in the city's business centre was rebuilt in 1874 after it was destroyed in a fire in 1867. It has a lovely chandelier inside.

A visit to Konya is incomplete if you do not visit Sille, a village with another Rumi connection, located only 8km north of Konya. It boasts of the Byzantine era Aya Eleni church and several rock chapels with frescoes. Till 1922, Cappadocian Greek language was spoken there, and the Greeks and the Turks lived together peacefully for almost 800 years, thanks to Rumi who was witness to a miracle at the nearby Orthodox Christian monastery of Saint Chariton. While Rumi’s request to the sultans to protect the Greeks of the village was honoured through all times, the Greeks left in 1923 during the population exchange between Turkey and Greece. Walk through the village with a nicely paved main street by a river and beautiful houses and shops lined on the other side.

In Konya, do not miss tasting some great food. Try Etli Yaprak Sarma (meat stuffed in vine leaves), okra soup (Baumya Corbasi), the kebabs and desserts like Hosmerim Helwasi or Sac Arasi.