tHE DWIRLING DERWISHES OF DAMASCUS

The tradition of the whirling dervishes of Damascus goes back hundreds of years. Accompanied by music and singing, the Sufis dance themselves in a trance to get closer to their God. A person who has carried this tradition with him since his childhood is Noureddine Khourchid, born in Damascus in 1966 and, like his father, sheikh Abu al-Nur, one of the most prominent Sufi mystics of the religious Shâdhiliyya order. Nourredine Khourchid is a concept in the Syrian capital. His voice is called 'deep and heavenly' and forms the perfect basis for the ever-intriguing dance of the dervishes;
Khourchid's ensemble consists of two Mevlevi dancers and seven Munshid (religious singers) from the Shâdhiliyya order;
With their counter-clockwise semah dance, the Sufis strive for harmony with the cosmos. Dance is an expression of desire for reunion with the divine. The ritual arises in the 13th century in Konya in Anatolia with the Mevlevi Order, followers of the legendary mystic Rumi.