Women and Rumi’s Sacred Dance, Samaʾ By Zahra Taheri

Women and Rumi’s Sacred Dance, Samaʾ By Zahra Taheri

Rumi is among those mystics in the history of Sufism who believed in the sacredness of music and poetry, therefore music and poetry were at the heart of his spiritual practice (see p. 47). His inclination toward the sacred dance, samaʾ is generally considered to be the result of Shams-i Tabrizi’s teachings. Sultan Valad, however, relates a different account indicating that a woman played a significant role in encouraging Rumi to the practice of samaʾ before Shams-i Tabrizi’s arrival in Konya. As one of the loyal murids of Bahaʾ Valad and highly respected by him,33 this woman, namely the wife of Khaja Sharaf al-Din Samarqandi, after the death of her husband emigrated with his master’s family from Khorasan to Anatolia. She married her daughter, Gowhar Khatun, to young Rumi in Larandeh, and later came to be known as the ‘Great Kera’ in Rumi’s family. Aflaki directly quotes from Sultan Valad who considered her grandmother to be Rumi’s first samaʾ teacher: 

Before the appearance (arrival) of Shams, my grandmother Kera-ye Bozorg taught my father how to perform the sacred dance (samaʾ) in the movement of his hands, and thereafter Shams taught my father to dance in the movement of his feet.34 

This woman is believed to be the first to plant the joy of dancing in the garden of Rumi’s mind. 

Rumi’s belief in the sanctity of music had a great impact on his behaviour towards, and respect for, musicians including women musicians. His view of women musicians went beyond the commonly held beliefs and prejudices of religious scholars, and even the religious law, since music was not considered unlawful in his teachings. He believed that the sound of music is equal to the evening prayer in the sense that both call people to the Truth; the prayer calls one’s outer self to the service (presence) of God, and the music calls the inner self to love and knowledge.35 

He described the state of the men of God as a state of deadly thirst which has no cure other than being quenched with the water of music and dance.36 Rumi’s meeting with a female musician and singer named Tavus Khatun, who was residing with her concubines in Ziyaʾ al-Din Vazir’s caravanserai in Konya indicates that he was respectful of women musician’s gift and skill. Accepting Tavus Khatun’s invitation, Rumi entered her room and after saying his prayer there, blessed the woman with a piece of his turban.37 

There are also several accounts in Manaqeb al-ʿArefin indicating that Rumi’s female murids, particularly the above mentioned circle of royal women, had gatherings every Friday night and invited him for preaching and samaʾ. In these gatherings which usually took place in Shaykh-i Kavatin’s residence, after Rumi’s sermons on the meanings and mysteries of the path, women musicians played reed and tambourine for the samaʾ performed in his presence.38 It should be mentioned here that it was common for noble families in Anatolia to have skillful slave girl musicians and singers in their houses. 39 

While, as mentioned in Nizam Khatun’s case, women were allowed to arrange the samaʾ ceremony for Rumi and his murids in their houses, their participation in the samaʾ ceremony, and sometimes even their presence, was not allowed by other Sufis contemporary to Rumi. Awhad al-Din Kermani, a renowned contemporary of Rumi, once performed a samaʾ ceremony in Konya and strongly objected to the presence of a group of women who had performed the sacred dance in a separate section of the khaneqah, and expressed disrespect toward them. 40