Photos from Rumi's 'Wedding Night' in Liverpool

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Here are a couple of photos from Shaikh David Bellak (David Dede)'s visit to Liverpool in December for Rumi's 'Wedding Night', the commemeration of his passing to the Realm of Beauty on Dec 17th 1273. Above, Dede can be seen wearing the tall 'destar' headpiece wound with green fabric at the base, a symbol of the Mevlevi Shaikh holding the place of Rumi on the red sheepskin, the 'place of burning'. The circle are reciting together the Divine Names in Arabic - for example 'La illaha ilallah', Reality is One - counting them on a huge 1001 bead tesbih which Dede commissioned long ago, based on an original at Rumi's tomb/museum in Konya. The ceremony took place in the home of a descendent of another great Sufi master, Shah Nimatullah, and the Persian carpet was beautifully appropriate as our mise-en-scene.


In this second photo, the traditional Mevlevi 'sikke' headpiece can be seen, the same as that worn by the Shaikh, only without the silk wrapping. The tall, honey-coloured sikke is said to represent the shape of tombstones in Ottoman culture, a symbol of the Whirling Dervish surrendering her ego, "dying before death", to be resurrected in a body of purest light.

“O Allâh, place light in my heart, light in my tongue, light in my hearing, light in my sight, light behind me, light in front of me, light on my right, light on my left, light above me and light below me; place light in my sinew, in my flesh, in my blood, in my hair and in my skin; place light in my soul and make light abundant for me; make me light and grant me light.”

The Prayer of Light from the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), recited daily in the traditional liturgy of Mevlevi dervishes.

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