About Us

Our Community was established in 2018 as a unit of the Istanbul State Turkish Music Research and Practice Ensemble affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Fine Arts, under the name of Sufi Ceremonies Division. On 18.08.2022, it has started to serve as a new unit with the name of "Istanbul Sufi Ceremonies Ensemble". Following its establishment, the ensemble has been performing in various concert halls and cultural centers, as well as restored precincts, madrasahs, lodges, and historic buildings. The ensemble performs the ceremonies of religious orders of our ancient civilization which were inherited but almost forgotten about Sufism, and they are exercised in accordance with their original rituals and ceremonies. This love of God has been expressed throughout in history in lodges (tekkes) as they were the schools of wisdom; and today this love is presented to our nation again with the help of this ensemble established under the auspices of Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Our ensemble, with its expert staff in its field, has been performing the ceremonies of different Sufi orders such as Mevlevi, Halveti, Bektashi, Kadiri, Rifai, Bedevî, Vefai, Sadi, which have been demonstrated in these centers of wisdom on these lands throughout history. These ceremonies have been named in various ways such as Semâ, Semah, Kuud, Kıyam, Devran, Bedevi Güllesi, Vefa Devri, Zenbûrî Zikri, Zikr-i Erre. Thus, some ceremonies that were beginning to be forgotten has come to life again with the support of the Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In addition to the mentioned ceremonies, our ensemble has aimed to introduce people the works that have been composed and performed in palaces, mosques, lodges and other gatherings throughout history through the events called the Traditional Folk & Sufi Music Concerts. It also aims to evoke the spiritual feelings of our nation with ceremonies such as the Sufi March and the Mevlevi Dervishes' Marching. Our community, which aims to reach and engage today's people, attaches great importance to using social media accounts in a professional manner. The events taking place and the compositions which are performed are shared on social media accounts and presented to people living in different cities and countries who cannot attend to our events in person. The videos shared on the accounts of our community has reached more than millions of views. In addition, the mobile application of our community called “Meydan Meşkleri” has been available since 2022.