Second half of a very full first day: walk, meshk/zhikr, feast

Meshk at Ismael Baba's ( from left to right: Katherine Golitzen, Dujha, Ismael Baba, Ibrahim Farajaje)



Ishmael Baba (Cimen) is one of the "artists in residence" accompanying us on our trip. He's a hafez and a muezzin who also plays ney and tells a fierce story. He's lived an intense life which includes having been a blind homeless child, an initiate of Muzafer Effendi (Jerrahi), and a muezzin at the Blue Mosque. Everywhere we go in Turkey, they give him the mic! He lives in New York, Istanbul, and Brazil. In clips below, we are walking with him from Sultanahmet to his neighborhood for our first meshk, which is like a zhikr jam session. Further below there are some links to some pretty amazing music and our own semazen whirling.

Dujha is our other artist in residence. She is a Sufi from Mexico City who teaches us illahis in Spanish and pierces hearts with the pure cry of her devotional song.

Walking in Istanbul:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HeDeUkj_lY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncz29udvzqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAXOypYkHf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9lKaimguio


Ishmael Baba told us a story of how this house had been abandoned since the '60s when he bought it 5 years ago at an amazingly reasonable price. He had to cart out 55 truck loads of garbage. The he invested another very reasonable amount in massive renovations, and now he owns this beautiful home. We were all entranced with the stairway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x18ou3lJUP0


View from the window, locals get a shave while we set up for meshk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZeGOLKJ-1E


First I am including highlights from the evening. If you have time for a more realistic flow of the evening, and want more of the meshk experience,I have posted a more chronological sequence further below. First, our highlights (imho):

Pilgrims sing our theme song for the first time together: gel, gel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekD608KU8Yk



Dujha pierces hearts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT0V4XHQMug



Ishmael Baba freestyles at his meshk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQSqQiQ93-g


Dujha's Ikhlas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X14oOyZCph8




A more complete chronology (if human and techno memory serve):
The pilgrims gather for meshk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfBt2u1vpbs
Pilgrims sing our theme song for the first time together: gel, gel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekD608KU8Yk
Pilgrims learn illahis (pre-meshk practice)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SDV9UIIqrE
illahis in Spanish too (more practice)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beHM3ZqMbFs
getting started
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rGvI6Vy6s
Ismael Baba Cimen on the Nay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drzn9dByn-0
Dujha pierces hearts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT0V4XHQMug
whirling hem in 3 movements
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q2O4mSa_Rs
Dujha's Ikhlas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X14oOyZCph8

First half of a full first day: Prayer, Feast, Sacrifice, Feast

Many of us attend special Bayram mid-morning prayer at the Blue Mosque. Because it is a crowded holiday, and the prime minister is in the house, we are not allowed to bring our cameras inside. This is a picture of the interior that I found at http://updatecenter.britannica.com/eb/image?binaryId=95924&rendTypeId=4

We have our first Istanbul chance to experience the challenges of gender-segregation in worship. The two hardest things for me about that were:

1) We were behind a screen and couldn't see much of the amazing room and varied people.

2) We were far from Ibrahim and had little idea what was going on during a VERY LONG talk in Turkish (turns out it was all about with what animals and how to perform the ritual sacrifice).

One thing I liked about it was: being with women from all over the world, speaking many languages, and dressed in various styles and degrees of hijab. Because the Blue Mosque is in Sultanahmet neighborhood, which is very low residentially, the Mosque tends to attract tourists and pilgrims.

After prayer, we breakfast in the Hotel Arcadia's fabulous view rooftop dining room:

Blue Mosque and Marmara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIm5h6uOr28

Cathy reveals the Bodies of Water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BccmMfiZr8

Seminarians try to remember their church history: A chain was placed across the Golden Horn. By whom and when? And who took their boats out of the water and rolled them on greased logs to seize their victory? (featuring Cathy and Darcy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qywfff7M-sw

Cathy & Shams discuss awareness, memory, discipline, and pigeon poop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pKL7vBWpdI

After breakfast, we head over to the Grand Vizer. A profound opportunity arises as a cow is walked through the restaraunt and into the courtyard, and we realize it is going to be sacrificed! Ritual, bewilderment, excitement, reverence, concern. We are the newcomers (strange? foreign?), participating with our witness (or the absence of our witness).

I eat meat all the time, I am in my 40s, and I have never before watched an animal be slaughtered. I am aware that what is transparent here today in this courtyard in Turkey is so much more ritualized and accountable than what happens all the time out-of-site and without ritual in slaughterhouses in my country. Still, emotions and ethical questions are abundant and complex for me during this event.

If you only watch one clip of the cow (actually a bull calf), I recommend this bloodless one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dod4pz9Om9A

Faces of the pilgrims a bit further in the process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVCCwBst2gk

2 more clips of the sacrifice, the second one bloody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WwGrDydMQE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3wX41ICjXY

Meanwhile & afterwards, pilgrims imbibe inside the Grand Vizer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH3FdIMSYso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSa2lsEK9gE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOYPuJ_2e4Y

same Lunch with asr athan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QcJbMB2eYE

Our first full day in Istanbul- Fajr athan

It was the Eid at the end of Hajj, Kurban Bayrami, marking the story in sacred text where Ibrahim is permitted to sacrifice a ram, rather than his son, Ishmael.

Here is the first athan (call to prayer) that I heard in a majority Muslim country.

Fajr athan over the Blue Mosque as viewed/heard from my closed hotel window: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLA82_XaU70

Finally in Istanbul

Though 4 hours late due to trouble with our Air France flight, we arrrive in Turkey, buy our visas, are greeted by Katherine and Issa, and get shuttled to our hotel (Arcadia). We check out the Qur'ans in our closets, and, even though it's rather late, walk with Adib over to Adib's Grand Vizer (geeze this Ibrahim guy is well-connected), where the music is moving and the Nar (fresh-squeezed pomegranite) juice flows. Don't miss the chance to see Glenn shimmy in videos below!

Visas and their prices in Istanbul airport

Qur'an in the Arcadia closet (and the problem with undershirts)

Chow and shimmy at the Grand Vizer (in Sultanahmet neighborhood, Istanbul, next to the Blue Mosque and across from the Hippodrome)

A chance to get me in the frame

and so thus were spent my first hours in Istanbul, Turkey.

Still in transit

We follow Shams, Glenn, Darcy, Cassie, and Mike as we fly from SFO to Paris to Istanbul. What you don't see in the video is that, once well in flight from Paris to Istanbul, we had to turn around and re-land in Paris due to issues with the cockpit windshield. I learned I know a lot more French than Turkish!

Rumi Pilgrims drive to SFO

Shams, Cassie and Glenn drive to airport on 12/6 in the warm company of Paul, who confesses envy and blessings & requests a secret travel gift which we edited from the film in service to his future ministry aspirations! ; - P

3 short film clips in which Shams interviews:

1) Cassie

2) Glenn

3) Paul

another try at that sunset video

Preparing for pilgrimage

Here is a course description of the intention followed by a view of sunset over the SF Bay on the eve prior to my 12/6 departure (from the front yard, Berkeley):


Rumi Immersion in Turkey
December 8-22, 2008
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé

Every year, Sufis from around the world gather for the annual celebration of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi's death. Concerts, symposia, lectures, sema (ceremony of the whirling dervishes), dhikrs (Sufi ceremony of Divine Remembrance), etc. take place throughout the day and late into the night. Rumi Immersion students will participate in sessions focusing on the study of Rumi; Islam in Turkey; dance and music in spiritual practice, etc.. There will be opportunities to meet with members of Jewish, Eastern Orthodox and Muslim Sufi communities in Istanbul and Konya, as well as with professors and students of theology.

[trouble with video, will edit later]