We t is the center away from Turkey. Konya, an area out of a million souls, squatting slap in the middle of Anatolia’s crazy plain, in the middle of open, limitless prairie. Turkey’s really culturally old-fashioned town, Konya appears to start with to get an area from rigorous headscarves and you will foreboding beards, out-of ostentatiously seen pieties and you will forbidden beers. But uncovering Konya is simple – having right here, at the heart of the old city, inside the tomb out of turquoise ceramic tiles, was Jelaluddin Rumi.
Rumi is just one of the planet’s extremely realize poets. Throughout the their lives, and because their death into the 1273, pilgrims have come so you’re able to Konya. Today, Rumi’s tomb is Turkey’s 2nd extremely-went along to subscribers interest following the Topkapi Castle from inside the Istanbul. His followers do (but still carry out) eradicate themselves for the hypnotic trance and you can dancing, possibly rotating such as for example passes all day.
These whirling dervishes are actually the brand new icon from Turkey’s tourist tips, and you will sip teas on your own Istanbul hotel lobby watching some poor bloke in a taller beige thought hat whirling for the enjoyment. Into real deal, no matter if, started heree in order to Konya and also you visited Turkey’s spirit. In Rumi’s words:
Discover a giant, unbelievable new municipal auditorium in which it tender spinning individual dancing try performed, and any quantity of charming glossy-eyed mystics in the carpeting sites, cafes and you may medieval bazaars, most of the pleased to ask you to a personal zikhr
“Anyone who you are, started Even though you can be An infidel, a beneficial pagan, or a beneficial fireworshipper, started All of our brotherhood isn’t certainly one of anxiety Though you keeps broken Your own vows from repentance one hundred times, been.”
Every seasons as the 1983, I’ve been coming into the a couple of million-or-therefore travelers who go to Konya a year. Some are Turkish, although many Iranians (who allege Rumi as their own, just like the he had written inside their words and you will grew up in east Persia) as well as result in the pilgrimage.
As opposed to and work out Konya a stop towards the a bus journey, I would suggest becoming for most days, bathing in an impact, food several of Turkey’s finest mutton, enjoying the most useful Seljuk frameworks and you can – perhaps – dropping in love with Rumi. You might travel from inside the cheaply away from Istanbul, from which there is also a beneficial scruffy, atmospheric train, otherwise arrive by road. Konya is within simple come to of your own cave dwellers and you may carpeting suppliers out-of Cappadocia.
Rumi showed up right here because a beneficial kid, when Konya got started a neighborhood for a couple of,000 years. It absolutely was based by the Hittites, who were been successful because of the Phrygians, then the Lydians, Persians, Cappadocians, the fresh new leaders of Pergamon together with Romans, which known as lay Iconium. Saints Paul and you will Barnabus both preached here, but from the 1071 brand new Seljuks, good Turcoman group, have been in control, in addition to their architectural heritage endures.
Its Karatay Medrese away from 1251 try a work of art away from elaborate tiling and you can unified domes. It is today the Art gallery away from Ceramic tiles and you will Ceramics, whose contents take care of the vibrancy and punch that they had when very first fired. Close by, the brand new Ince Minarali Medrese has become the brand new Art gallery out-of Brick and you may Timber Sculpture, that’s a lot less inactive than I’ve managed to get voice. These two property whet your appetite to discover the ornately tiled Sircali Medrese, in addition to magnificent Sahip Ata mosque: as opposed to a lot of the newest Muslim community, from inside the Chicken you’re motivated to visit mosques, whichever your religious choices.
At junction of your old city and its unattractive the newest neighbor is the Alaaddin mosque, the fresh city’s vantage point, whoever stunning dark pulpit and you may painful and sensitive prayer-niche are from 1155 (the newest cutting-edge try finished in 1221). New boulevard radiating from here brings one to Rumi’s tomb, from which so much more later. Rumi could Turks while the Mevlana (the fresh Sainted One), and today Konya is actually thrall to Mevlanamania.
Rumi is actually a mystical, good Sufi saint exactly who liked all the religions, and you can whose own faith try love
Whenever i earliest emerged, Mevlana’s followers, the Mevlevi, was a blocked organization, tolerated just for their “folkloric dancing” and you can whirlings. Meetings happened privately, illegally.
I mentioned dining, too. Konya’s mutton-centric food is superb. Etli ekmek is actually an extended, thin roll-upwards pizza pie spread having delicately spiced mince, and Konya kebab was a mutton shank, very slow roasted and you may offered towards a pillow away from cash that have a sweet reddish onion. The number one is at Konak (Restoran, Akcesme mah. Piriesat Cad. No 5, +ninety 332 352 85 47), whoever soups and you can home made yoghurt are eden-made.
For this reason, wondrously given, with of numerous glasses of nice tannic tea inside you, make your treatment for Rumi’s tomb. You get in on the awestruck, the curious in addition to fervent. A strange twinkly light takes on to your tombs of Rumi and their followers. This new wall space was padded having calligraphy, plus the ceilings are a good kaleidoscope regarding superbly conducted arabesques. Rumi’s tomb is covered in the vastly embroidered content of silver, and you may appears to radiate white and comfort and you will mercy.
The the other pilgrims tend to see Korans, although some Rumi’s poetry. Really simply take images, while this is strictly forbidden. You will find those who cry silently, and those who make fun of aloud; those who reflect all the time, and people who rush through. Are common went, to possess here’s love.
To relax and play on the side and you will insinuating alone in the awareness ‘s the ney, an effective reed flute. It sounds including breathy air, but is truly the sound regarding flames, and this increases and you can falls into the us. This is not certain sullen religious complaining, although voice away from craving, away from communion, of cardiovascular system. You’ve got they – it’s heart sounds, and it also really supplies you with. Therefore been.
Turkish Air companies (020-7471 6666) flies to Konya thru Istanbul from Heathrow, Stansted, Birmingham and Manchester, out of ?219 rtn inc taxation. Istanbul so you can Konya of the railway can cost you from all over ?24 come back, or about ?thirty six go back from the bus. LГ¦re mer Resorts Balikcilar have room or just around ?70 (and have suits cold beers). Lodge Dergah (+90 332 351 76 61) rooms to ?20. Passes observe this new spinning dervishes try free of the latest tourist workplace, about Mevlana’s tomb. Mete Horzum from the SeleneTour (+ninety 532 564 9192, ) organizes individual spinning and you can zikhr out-of ?30pp.