Compare And Contrast Essay For Sunni Sema And Alevi Semah (Literature & Language Essay)

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Compare And Contrast Essay For Sunni Sema And Alevi Semah
Contextual Description of Mevlevi Sema and Alevi Semah
(Mehmetcan)
Sunni Sema and Alevi Semah religiously have one identical objective, which is rendering oneself to God as an element of the creator. Both rituals, with different movement structure, gestures, dress code, background, space, order and formulation, have the same ideology of Sufism - the discovery of divine love and guidance. Both reflect the spiritual peace and the increasing intensity of emotions and quest for divine love and assistance. The dancers from both sects move according to the rhythms of saz produced in the background of mystic songs, religious poems or epics by great saints. Alevi Semah, unlike Sema, have no assembly hall to perform their ritual (Saz Evi). They prefer Cem Houses, where they symbolize uniqueness and unity through anti-sexism in response to great political turmoil and massacre in making their religion acceptable with preaching aspect.
Movements of both Dances
(Mehmetcan)
The movements of Sema mostly consist of the whirling of the dervishes. They keep pivoting around on the left foot with the right foot arches over the left instep. They also bow and seem lost in their journey. Most of the time, the dervishes keep their neck downward in reverence with closed eyes and starched imagining them close to God. In some steps, they open their eyes, looked upward with a blissful smile with a searching movement of the foot from here to there on a short distance (Gray 873).
On the other hand, Alevism Semah has many different movements from slow to fast motion each time (Dernegi). They turn around, bend, whirl, starch their arms against the chest, open their arms, stretch one arm against the chest and open the other arm to sway and keep circling a specific sphere of the worship house. The whirling dervish can also while fast, sometimes, but it is not a compulsory part of the ritual like in Mevlevi Sema.
(Mehmetcan "Semah Alevi Bektasi Ritual")
Space Used in Sema and Semah
Semah is done in an octagonal, large assembly hall in Istambul, Semahane based upon Mevlani historical and ideological resources. Various Ottoman Sultans like Mehmed, Suleyman and others had great reverence for whirling dervishes, so they constructed the hall for the specific ritual in Turkey (Gray 874). However, Semah is particular to Cem Houses, as worship houses instead of mosques, because Alevism philosophy of God is ‘within the being’. The Cemevis have primary importance for central Alevi systems who consider these houses a proper worship place (Ajans). Hence, both ritualistic dances spaces are large, with the religious background of each group.
Meaning of Gestures/Movements
(Regis)
In Sema, the dervishes and the Sheikh participate in the dance with a specific set of rules. In the first part, the dervishes bow to each passing by the Sheikh’s post thrice to tribute Rumi’s son. Then, removing their cloaks and kissing them symbolize their departure from the worldly pleasure. After this, they bend heads toward a shoulder and extend right arm upward with an open palm, and left arm downward with open palm while ...