Rumi-nations

The Mevlana Museum. The green tower on the left is over Rumi's tomb.

We overnighted in Konya for two reasons: (1) to have a break in the long trip from Antalya to Goreme, and (2) to visit the Mevlana Museum which houses the tomb of Rumi. We just finished our visit of the museum and we wanted to note our various thoughts, both charitable and not, before we forgot them.

We apologize to anyone who finds any of the following thoughts blasphemous or sacrilegious or in poor taste or offensive. We haven’t been able to take a deep breath in 24 hours given Konya’s ridiculously bad air quality and we are feeling a tad snarky. So there.

The view from our hotel window. Smoke stacks: the minarets of the industrial age from which come the calls to shortness of breath. Note to Suzy: Kate's fine, we're about to get on a bus to land-of-clean-air. Stop worrying, right now.

Our tour book (Rough Guide) for Turkey describes the museum as “among Turkey’s most rewarding experiences.” It also promised a giant chain hanging from the ceiling carved from a single piece of marble. In the end, the museum was interesting and has prompted us to think, but for us, it may not have been one of the most rewarding experiences, primarily because there was no chain carved from marble. So there, stupid guide book.

Audio Guides

We have paid for the audio guide at a few sites. I believe that they are all put together by the same company “Tuva Turism”? The English version features the same British man who we believe is reading a well made translation of the Turkish version. Fortunately, the grammar is far better than that of most translations from Turkish which we’ve seen in museums. Unfortunately, it assumes a pre-existing knowledge that renders most of the content of the audio guide worthless.

As an example, in a room of the museum next to Rumi’s tomb, there is a glass case containing a beautiful box with inlaid mother-o-pearl. Women stood around this box and prayed. The audio guide described it to us as, paraphrasing: “This (box), one of four from the tombs of the sultans, is a beautiful example of the work of (dude).” And that’s it. Absolutely no explanation about what it is, what it contains or contained, or why people are praying when in its presence. Note: the tour book informs us that the box contains hair from the beard of the prophet.

An even better example is the audio guide section labeled: “Rumi’s Works”. I would have expected a longish description of Rumi’s teachings. Perhaps some explanation of why he was important and what his writings meant, why an entire sect of Islam was created devoted to his teachings. However, what was contained in this section of the audio guide was a pronunciation of the Arabic or Persian titles of the books, the English translation of the title, and the length and form of the writing. The guide does not actually tell you what the books were about. Bad guide, bad.

And in the audio guide’s final blasphemy that almost caused me to tear it from my head and hurl it to the ground and shout and find the evil British man who was paid to read it aloud into a microphone, the word “sarcophagus” was repeatedly pronounced as “saCRophagus”. It drove me mad. Mad, mad, mad. I was definitely not living up to Rumi’s dictum of “Be as night in your covering up of other people’s faults.”

Rumi’s Message of Love

From what little we could pick up in the Museum store scanning the various books about Rumi is that Rumi taught a message of spirituality centered on love: love for god, oneself and the rest of humanity. This seems pretty cool. Also cool is that this museum didn’t contain a single sword, unlike the other Muslim reliquaries which we have seen so far.

Rumi’s “Friends”

The audio guide contained a set of sections devoted to Rumi’s life: Rumi’s Father, Rumi’s Children, and three sections about individual friends of Rumi’s. It seems that Rumi was a serial mono-friendist. He would meet a man, and then shut himself off from the rest of the world with that friend, until the community drove that other man away, either into exile or some other form of disappearance. After each loss, Rumi wrote further on the nature of love.

Now, when Kate and I listened to this, we had somewhat un-orthodox thoughts. I understand that we come from a different culture where men who shut themselves up away from the rest of the world indicate something that is different from what it may have indicated in the mid thirteenth century, but it was very difficult to come up with any other reasoning for the described behavior.

Wooden tomb inscription

“All those who visit this tomb will become happy and lucky. Here lies Rumi, son of Muhammed son of Abdullah, master of Eastern and Western knowledge.” Woo hoo, happiness and luck, here we come!

Sacred Space?

This museum is a sacred space. In it lies the tomb of one of the most important Muslim mystics, a man whose interpretation of spirituality forms the religion’s ‘softer side’. There are a number of relics that prompt prayer. You have to cover your head and your shoes when you enter the space. Women weep. However, the number of people who felt it was appropriate to smoke in this space drove Kate mad.

HUNs

Oddly enough, the security force that roams the halls of the museum to prevent unauthorized photographs and protect these highly important relics go by the acronym: HUN. It seems that while the ancient Byzantines were able to protect their civilization from the Huns, that the Huns have finally been integrated into society, if only in the form, ironically enough, of providers of security.

Your sometimes not so sacred authors.