Alevi/Bektashi documentary in English

Elhamdullillah, there is finally a documentary about the Alevi/Bektashi viewpoint in English! I believe this comes from an Alevi organization in Germany. Special thanks to AleviArsiv on Youtube for this one. I'm delighted to see this kind of material coming out in English. I would suggest taking some things here with a grain of salt-- they use some ideas that are not exactly traditional to the Alevi/Bektashi worldview (like Kundalini, etc) in order to explain some ideas to people raised in other spiritual traditions. This is perhaps similar to Sherif Baba's use of the Hindu "chakra" concept to explain the 7 levels of the nefs and their relationship to the lataif , etc. I actually think that can sometimes be helpful, but just recognize that words like kundalini are not part of traditional Alevi terminology and probably reflect a lot of the individual film-makers' interest in connecting Alevi and Bektashi traditions in relation to other forms of world spirituality.













_______

and another one about Alevi semah:









Beautiful videos-- I'm so pleased to see things like this coming out in English

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

some pictures...

Hu, everyone. I just thought I'd stop in briefly to post a few pictures of Hazreti Ali, Hajji Bektash Veli, and Pir Sultan Abdal. The ones with the tall hat are Hajji Bektash, the one holding the saz is Pir Sultan, and the others are Hz. Ali. The last one is a painting by Murat Yagan, who is a sort of Circassian post-modern Bektashi who now leads a church (at least kind of) in Canada. Not quite sure what I think about all of that, but he's an interesting and thought-provoking character. Eyvallah. I love that painting-- with the image of Sayyidina Ali in the center and the baglama of Pir Sultan. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see an Alevi semah on the left and a Mevlevi sema on the right.

Had a nice phone conversation with Cem (in Turkey) a couple of weeks ago.

Not a lot of news here, other than that I am missing Selma very much (she is in Morocco) and I am absolutely stunned and delighted to receive an incredible package of Sufi books and music from my longtime dost
Fr. Justin.

Okay, I'm off to bed before a week-long Myrtle Beach trip. Inshallah, I'll get to the Meher Baba Center while I'm there. Every now and then I find some Rifa'i Marufi folks around there too, which would be a treat.

Lastly, inshallah, we will see the inauguration of our new president next week. Elhamdullillah! I can't even begin to say how happy I am about this. America needs this... and inshallah, he will make the most of this. I truly believe that this last election gave America a chance to decide whether we want to live up the the great promise that is in the spirit of this country. Elhamdullillah, the voters chose to do this. I am so happy for this. Now, let's just hope we have a leader and a government that are really able to bring out the best. Allahu Alim. But I have a lot of confidence and enthusiasm.

So, a fatiha for our new president. May he guide us with siyaset in this new era, inshallah. Allah Hadi Allah Hu.

As-salaamu aleykum...






Hu...

some videos you may enjoy, insha'allah.

Mashallah! This girl from Iran is so impressive at a Qur'an recitation competition:








The best dhikr video of all time:




More later...