Şeb-i Arus

A wedding night

Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, the Sufi poet whose words are still read around the world, was born in Balkh — in present-day Afghanistan — on 30 September 1207, and died in Konya on 17 December 1273. Because he saw death as the moment of reunion with God, the beloved, he called that night Şeb-i Arus, the “wedding night”.

Konya has held commemoration ceremonies every year from 7 to 17 December since 1937. Sema ceremonies, exhibitions, plays, poetry recitals, panels and conferences fill the eleven days, which close on 17 December with the Şeb-i Arus ceremony itself.

The sema

The Mevlevi order was founded in Konya in 1273 and spread across the Ottoman world. Its members are known for their whirling. In the sema ceremony, the semazen turn on the left foot in short twists, driving the body around with the right, their eyes open but unfocused so that the world blurs and flows. The music, called ayin, is played by at least a singer, a ney flute player, a kettledrummer and a cymbal player.

In the past, dervishes trained for 1,001 days in seclusion in a mevlevihane, learning ethics, conduct and belief through prayer, religious music, poetry and dance, before returning to their families and work as members of the order.

Closed, and reopened

All mevlevihane in Türkiye were closed in 1925. Public performances were allowed again in the 1950s, and restrictions were eased in the 1990s. UNESCO notes that many sema ceremonies today are staged for tourist audiences in shortened form, while some groups are working to restore the ceremony’s original spiritual character. The Mevlevi Sema ceremony is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.