AKM264 fol.282r

Ensemble Hayiran (excerpt), recorded at the Aga Khan Museum on February 15, 2020.

Sama’ – meaning “listening” in Arabic and Persian – is a ritual dance, often accompanied by music, that Sufi mystics perform to come into closer union with God. The most well-known sama’ is the whirling action associated with the Mevlevi order of Sufis, founded in Anatolia (Turkey) by Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273), known as Mevlana in Turkish. The Mevlevi semazans, or “whirling dervishes,” continue to practice the sama’ established by Rumi into the present day, as shown in this video.