{"id":23583,"date":"2013-06-10T22:57:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T22:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=23583"},"modified":"2013-06-10T23:02:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T23:02:54","slug":"the-dervish-and-the-gas-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=23583","title":{"rendered":"The dervish and the gas mask"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — wall art, sufism and poetry in Istanbul ]
\n.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
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I wasn’t altogether sure, when Zeynep Tufekci<\/strong> tweeted a stenciled image<\/a> of a whirling dervish (above, right) the other day, that the dervish was in fact wearing a gas mask. Just the fact that the dervish was showing up on a wall during the events in Turkey was interesting to me — and all the more so since Zeynep pointed out that the accompanying slogan Sen de Gel<\/em> — Come, Come Whoever you are<\/em> is from Jalaluddin Rumi<\/strong>, the great Sufi poet and founder of the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes.<\/p>\n

As the photo of a dervish whirling in the park<\/a> (above, left) shows, however — and I only saw it today — the stencil is indeed the iconization — in protest art — of a dervish in gas mask in real-time Istanbul. <\/p>\n

There’s insight to be had there.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

The version of Rumi’s poetry that I first ran across lo these many years ago, and to which I return:<\/p>\n

AJ Arberry<\/strong>, tr, Mystical Poems of Rumi 1<\/a>
\nAJ Arberry<\/strong>, tr, Mystical Poems of Rumi 2<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rumi’s prose:<\/p>\n

AJ Arberry<\/strong>, tr, Discourses of Rumi<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rumi’s poetry in the versions that have made this thirteenth century Afghan-born, Persian-speaking resident of Turkey “the best-selling poet in America”:<\/p>\n

Coleman Barks<\/strong>, Rumi: The Big Red Book <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rumi’s life, as told within Sufi tradition:<\/p>\n

Idries Shah<\/strong>, The Hundred Tales of Wisdom<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rumi’s life, teachings and poetry, in contemporary context:<\/p>\n

Franklin D. Lewis<\/strong>, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rumi explored with scholarship and depth:<\/p>\n

Anne-Marie Schimmel<\/strong>, The Triumphant Sun<\/a>
\nAnne-Marie Schimmel<\/strong>, Rumi’s World<\/a>
\nWilliam C Chittick<\/strong>, The Sufi Path of Love<\/a>
\nFatemeh Keshavarz<\/strong>, Reading Mystical Lyric<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**<\/p>\n

Come, Come Whoever you are<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — wall art, sufism and poetry in Istanbul ] . . I wasn’t altogether sure, when Zeynep Tufekci tweeted a stenciled image of a whirling dervish (above, right) the other day, that the dervish was in fact wearing a gas mask. Just the fact that the dervish was showing up on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[527,526,93,480,741,19,429,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-charles-cameron","category-iran","category-music","category-poetry","category-recommended-reading","category-turkey","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23583"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23616,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23583\/revisions\/23616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}