All Kinds of Magic: One Man's Search for Meaning Across the Material World
“Pale skies and a sharp, restless wind. I stood, quite literally, between East and West. Divided by the Bosporus, a waterway connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, Istanbul both connects and separates Europe and Asia. It is, in fact, the only city in the world spanning two continents.All of which seemed fitting for my own reasons for visiting. I was here to learn more about Sufism, and to see what evidence of it – if any – remained in the country of Rumi’s birth. For although Turkey wa...s the place where the great mystic lived and died, and his image is still used in the glossy pamphlets of the tourist board, the practice of Sufism is illegal in Turkey, punishable by imprisonment. While the rest of the world is experiencing an unparalleled mystical resurgence, Turkey, it seems, harbours old grudges still.I’d come to Turkey to find out more of the poet’s story. He’d lived much of his life in Konya, in the south-central Anatolian steppe. After his death, the Ottoman Empire ruled his homeland for 600 years, sustained and inspired by the Sunni branch of Islam.MoreLess
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