Wednesday, September 24, 2008

the places of our pirs

Hu, Erenler.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Ramadan. Selma and I recently got back from a very nice retreat at Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rasheed's community in Virginia, with Shaykh Rasheed (Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi) and Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee (Shadhili). Elhamdullillah. We could seriously use another one of those! ;)

I found some pictures that may be interesting. I have not been to either of these places yet, so if anyone has please fill me in on any information or corrections. But I was very happy to find these...



The top two are from the tomb of our pir, Hz. Ahmad el-Kabirul Rifa'i in Iraq






The bottom two are masjid and tomb of Hz. Mehmet Fethel Ma'arifi (Muhammad Fethel Marufi), in the Kartal district of Istanbul. He was the "second founder" of the order, who established this particular branch within the larger Rifa'i tariqa.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

A nice version of "Bugun Bize Pir Geldi". This is probably the best known Alevi song-- with the chorus "Eyvallah Shahim Eyvallah, Hak la illaha illallah"



Another version of it, that I may have even posted before--



Illahi-- Abdul-Qadir Geylani:



And another illahi by the same 'ud player:


A beautiful video of a nice medley by my aquaintance Latif Bolat. I played a couple of concerts with him when I was part of a group called Turku-- and that was when I first learned a some of the illahis that are common in Turkish tarikats, including Rifa'i Marufi.


Qadiri-Rifa'i Dhikr from Nevshehir:





A nice look at how selpe playing is done-- this is a young student, but he does it slow enough that you can see the technique. Selpe is a fingerpicked tapping style that is common among Alevi baglama players. It was particularly popularized by Arif Sag, and later developed even further by people like Erdal Erzincan and Erol Parlak.




Some beautiful dutar playing by a Uyghur musician-- probably an instrument that influenced the development of the saz--

Friday, September 5, 2008

I hope that everyone is having a blessed Ramadan, inshallah.

I'm currently amazed at how many people stop by here from EVERYWHERE. Elhamdullillah. We've now had visitors from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, you name it. A couple of people have left comments but no emails, so I wasn't able to write to you, but I'd like to.

Anyway, on with the show...

Here is a vid from the ISRA Convention. Mashallah! Qari Abdul Qadr is bringing the house down! I love his recitations. The choral refrain from the crowd could use a little direction however ;)




And some Rifa'i music, from where I'm not sure... but it's great:

Monday, September 1, 2008

Look up! It's Ramadan!

As-salaamu aleykum!


Just a quick note for now to say Ramadan Mubarak to everyone! I hope that you all have a blessed month and I thank you for reading this site.

May we all become beautiful human beings...
Hand in hand, and hands in Haqq---

Huuu....

Nedim