Zikr in Chechnya
Posted by Jim on April 10, 2009 · 2 Comments
This compelling Zikr ceremony on YouTube hooked me. So I did a little research on Chechen style Islam. It appears as though their ecstatic circle zikr is widespread, oft-practiced, and central to the culture.
Here’s a quote from Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus that I found fascinating….
The Qadiriya originated in Baghdad in the twelfth century and was brought to Chechnya by the Dagestani sherpherd Kunta Haji. Qadiri worship is more dramatic; its adepts perform in the loud zikr in which they rush round in a circle, shouting holy prayers even louder and louder in an ecstasy of clapping and stamping. When Jokhar Dudayev seized power in 1991, the zikr became a political spectacle, and dozens of dancers gathered in the central square in Grozny and danced more and more furiously. When the Russians were poised to invade, it became an independence dance as one desperate dancer rand around the circle brandishing a Chechen flag, pressed in by a crowd of rhythmically clapping people.
Really interesting video, thanks so much for posting it!
Added to spiri2al.com
http://www.spiri2al.com/Spirituality/zikr-in-chechnya–opensourcespirit-org/