Mukabele1: Evolution, Impediment and Return

Abstract

 ¹ Mukabele means, literally, "responding to an action with the same action." In the following sense: if someone hits you, you respond in kind; if someone kisses you, you reciprocate. In the Mevlevi context, mukabele is a type of selam (greeting): a mutual salutation between dervishes. Since the time of Sultan Veled, Rumi‟s son, Mevlevi dervishes have traditionally performed three circular walks in the semahane (Sema hall) before beginning the cycles of whirling. Over time, these walks came to be called devr-i veledi which means "the walk of Veledi." During the circumambulation, each time the dervishes pass in front of the red sheep rug –which represents the Sheikh of the Order and all Sheikhs who came before him, including Rumi –they turn towards each other in the circle, exchanging greetings. This is why the word Mukabele, along with Sema or Samâ’ and Ayin became a common term for referring to Mevlevi ritual.

2 Professor, Dance College (FADAN) and Postgraduate Program in Arts, Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil.

The Mevlevi ceremony – composed of prayer, litanies, singing, music and dance – known, depending on the time, as Sema (or Samâ’), Ayin, Devr-i or Mukabele, has today, in Turkey, the following structure: 1. Nat-i (invocation); 2. Devr-i Veledi (circumambulation with instrumental pesrev); 3. Ney Taksim (ney flute improvisation); 4. Sema or Samâ’ (4 cycles of turns with 4 vocal saddle[s]); 5. Son Pesrev (last instrumental prelude); 6. Son Yürük Semai (last yürük semai); 7. Son Taksim (last improvisation); 8. Kur’na-i Kerim (recitation of the Qur'an). Although the Mevlevi attribute the organization of the Samâ’ to Sultan Veled (?-1312) or Walad (as he is often called in the West), son of Jalaluddin Rumi or Mevlana, neither the writings of Rumi and his son nor other 14th century Mevlevi records give a detailed picture of Samâ’ that matches the current Mukabele. It is assumed, however, that the Mukabele Mevlevi developed more systematically from the 14th and 15th

centuries onwards, reaching its final form in the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Abdülbâki Gölpinarli, the Mukabele, as we know it today, was established by Pir Adil Çelebi (1421-1460) in the first half of the 15th century. Mustafa Itri's Nat-i (invocation) (1640-1712), which is now part of Mukabele, was added to Samâ’ between the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Gölpinarli adds that Pir Adil Çelebi won the title of Pir (master) – a title given only to Sheikhs of the orders of dervishes – for having definitively fixed the Mukabele as a Mevlevi ritual. Recent research tends to confirm this view. The fact is that we do not find in any of the early Mevlevi sources any clear information about the origins of Samâ’ or Sema. Later sources, however, can give us some clues. My intention here is to address some of them.