dhikr, sofra, and music...

Hu, Erenler...







I thought originally that the above videos were Balkan Rifa'is, but they turn out to be Halvetis (though I'm still thinking they there is some Rifa'i component here.

This one is definitely Rifa'i:



I think these brothers are Halevet-Rifa'i:


I also found this article
http://rrezja.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
about dervishes in Kosovo. Like some of the above videos, the article points to some of the interesting connections between tariqas generally seen as Sunni (like the Halveti and Kadiri) and the Bektashi tradition--note the mentions of Sari Saltik, the Bektashi sofra, etc. There is one wonderful mistranslation though-- the Yeni Ceri (the elite soldiers of the Ottoman military, who always had Bektashi chaplains) are often written in English as "Jannisaries". This article humorous mistranslates the word as "Janitors"!

Lastly-- and this is NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!--- this is incredible documentary footage of Macedonian Rifa'is in 1955. I'll warn you ahead that they use skewers and knives in the film... yikes! Though this is a practice Sherif Baba has outright forbidden, it is certainly a common feature of many branches of the Rifa'i tariqa.



Latif Bolat on Turkish TV


More of Latif:


and mashallah! this video is Latif Bolat is absolutely beautiful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnFipPL6bmQ

footage from a Bektashi sofra in Turkey:


I believe on the same night.. mashallah


Beautiful music from Iran-- is he Ahl-i Haqq?


This one is definitely Ahl-i Haqq-- they are a mostly Kurdish group in Iran, related to the Alevi (but somewhat different)


And one of the most famous Ahl-i Haqq musicians in Iran, Ali Albar Moradi:



and lastly an absolutely beautiful adhan... mashallah!


Huuu.... Ya Ahmed el-Kebirul -Rifa'i, Ya Hajji Bektashi Veli, Ya Hz. Ali, Ya Hz. Muhammad Mustafa, sallahu aleyhi wa sellim