During such gatherings, "People suddenly get up and dance as if on a wind or in a kind of spiritual intoxication," Faouzi Skali, a world-renowned Sufi scholar, told me over mint tea in the lobby of the neo-sultanic Jnane Palace hotel. "It feels like you're in a great expansion of consciousness, in a clear and intense light, and in a proximity to God."
In the early 1990s, in response to the Gulf War, Skali founded the city's Festival of World Sacred Music as a means of celebrating the world's diverse cultures and restoring some global harmony. Held every June, the event has mushroomed into a sort of sacro-palooza, drawing the likes of Turkish dervishes, Japanese drummers, the Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar and the Senegalese pop star Youssou N'Dour (a member of the Tidjani Sufi order). This year, it will celebrate the 800th birthday of the Persian mystic poet Rumi.
This month will also see the launch of another ambitious festival devised by Skali. The new event is even closer to his own heart, and that of his beloved city: The first annual Festival of Sufi Culture, from April 27 to May 2.
RSS