The Mevlâna Museum
Konya, Turkey. December29, 2015
It is the heart of Turkey. A city of a million souls, Konya, squats slap in the middle of Anatolia's wild plain, surrounded by open, endless prairies. Turkey's culturally most conservative city, Konya seems at first to be a place of tight headscarves and foreboding beards, of ostentatiously observed pieties and forbidden beers. But uncovering Konya is easy – for here, at the heart of the old city, in his tomb of turquoise tiles, lies Jelaluddin Rumi.
Come to Konya and you come to Turkey's soul. In Rumi's words -
"Whoever you may be, come
Even though you may be
An infidel, a pagan,
Or a fire worshipper, come
Our brotherhood is not one of despair
Though you have broken
Your vows of repentance a hundred times, come."
When we were planning our trip to Turkey, Istanbul was an obvious choice, kids asked to include Antalya, our travel agent suggested Cappadocia & I requested my husband that that I wanted to visit 'Mevlana's Shrine' & thus happened Konya!!
To experience the best of Konya, I'd recommend stay here for a few days, soak up the feeling, eat some of Turkey's best lamb, see its best Seljuk architecture and fall in love with Rumi.
I mentioned food. Konya's lamb-centric cuisine is superb. Etli ekmek is a long, thin roll-up pizza spread with delicately spiced mince, and Konya kebab is a lamb shank, very slowly roasted and served on a pillow of bread with a sweet red onion.
Thus, beautifully fed, and with many glasses of sweet tannic tea inside you, make your way to Rumi's tomb. You join the awestruck, the curious and the fervent. A strange twinkly light plays on the tombs of Rumi and his followers. The walls are embroidered with calligraphy, and the ceilings are a kaleidoscope of beautifully executed arabesques. Rumi's tomb is covered in vastly embroidered cloth of gold, and seems to radiate love, light and peace.
Some of the fellow pilgrims will read Korans, and others Rumi's poetry. There are those who weep silently, and those who laugh out loud; people who meditate for hours on end, and people who hurry through. All are moved, for here is love.
Stepping inside Rumi's mausoleum is a different world, strangely beautiful and decidedly holy.
Hazy sunlight filters through stained-glass windows onto the mausoleum's tiled walls creating a kaleidoscope of opulent hues and mysterious patterns.
Rumi's sarcophagus is draped in heavy brocade, embroidered with precious gold threads. Placed upon it is a huge turban, symbolic of Rumi's spiritual authority. The nearby tomb of Rumi's son is similarly decorated. There are more than 60 other sarcophagi here too, the resting places of other family members and eminent Dervishes.
In a side mosque, the light from crystal lamps and ornate lanterns reveals sacred treasures, including a casket holding rose-scented strands of Muhammad's beard, ancient prayer rugs – one of which is said to be the most valuable silk carpet on Earth – and a copy of the Koran so tiny that its creator is said to have gone blind creating it.
Everything is exquisite. Everything is divine. All around is a sense of hushed awe like that shared by a wedding congregation when a beautiful bride walks among them !!
Playing quietly and insinuating itself into your consciousness is the ney, a reed flute. It sounds like breathy air, but is really the sound of fire, which rises and falls inside us all. This is not some sullen religious moaning, but the sound of yearning, of communion, of the heart. You've got it – it's soul music, and it really stirs you.
So come. Come to Konya, once in a lifetime, if u love Rumi, if u love Love...
