A musician accompanies Zikr practitioners who use dancing and whirling to achieve ecstatic states.
The thirteenth-century Mosque of Abu al-Haggag was built on top of the ruins of the Pharaonic Temple of Luxor, in honor of the Muslim holy man Abu al-Haggag.
Night view of the Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein in the old Islamic quarter of Cairo, where allegedly the head of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad is buried. His Moulid, or birth, is celebrated by over half a million
devotees.
The Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein is brightly and extravagantly lit during the celebration of his Moulid, or birth.
Inside the Mosque, women pray in front of the shrine asking for blessings of the holy man.
In front of the tomb, women lift their hands in prayer asking for ‘baraka’ or blessings.
Inside the Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein a woman reads from the Koran. In front of the tomb, a Sheikh chants with impassioned emotion.
A pilgrim kneels in front of the shrine and prays through the railing that surrounds the tomb of the saint. Recently born babies are brought to the shrine of Sayyidna al-Hussein to receive his blessing. Touching the metal relief of Quranic verses on the wall of the shrine is believed to add to the benediction.
Women visit the twelfth-century Mosque of Iman al-Shafi’i, one of the holiest shrines in Cairo. Touching the cage around his tomb or the phallic stone pillar is believed to promote fertility and to cure the sick.
Protective trinkets are found in souks lining the narrow streets surrounding the Mosque. The blue eye of Horus is considered protection against evil. The hand-cut
silhouette of the hand of Fatima is a protection of femininity against the evil eye.
A pilgrim smokes from a hubbly bubbly pipe with a long flexible tube connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water.
A bread seller passes through the crowds of pilgrims carrying a tray of freshly baked flatbread on her head.
Renowned glass blower Hassan Arabisc and his wife stand in front of their small three storied house which is literally part of the wall of The City of the Dead. Hassan’s beautiful glass pieces decorate every inch of their home.
Sufi pilgrims travel for days from all over Egypt to attend the Moulid of Sayyidna al-Hussein, held in and around his Mosque in the old Islamic quarter of Cairo.
Large tents are constructed in the streets and alleys surrounding the mosque, where believers, devotees, and Sufis of different sects gather after visiting the shrine.
Mohammed Abo el Nour, a Sufi master revered as a messiah, delivers a blessing for the community who chant and pray with him. Delicate and priestley looking, he has tremendous presence and is seen on posters
throughout the town.
The ritual stick dance that comes from Southern Egypt is performed to the accompaniment of drums, tambourines, and flutes.
At left, the elaborately decorated tent of a Sheikh who looks after his Sufi order. At night, an elder Sheikh attends the Zikr with his walking stick and wooden prayer beads.
A stall in the souk surrounding the mosque is laden with practical commodoties and flashy souvenirs to attract pilgrims day and night.
The Zikr dance is a religious meditation. As men move their bodies, swaying rhythmically from left to right for hours, they believe they are getting closer to God.
A ritual dance of meditation, the Zikr is designed to bring devotees closer to God through a transcendent ecstatic state.
The ecstatic joy of a woman performing the Zikr is summed up by the words of Rumi, a 13th century Persian Sufi poet and mystic: “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving you, a joy”.
During the Zikr, devotees repeat the name of Allah while swinging their bodies rhythically from side to side in a dance meditation.
The whirling dervish meditation is a 700 year old tradition inspired by the famous Sufi poet Rumi. The Persian word “Darwish” literally means the still of the door and describes the Sufi as “the one who is at the door of enlightenment”.
Whirling is considered a powerful form of meditation leading the dancer into an ecstatic transcendental state of becoming one with God.
“We came whirling out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust… The stars made a circle, and in the middle, we dance.”
Rumi
