The Dervish in the Desert

What do you get when you shoot a dervish who has lights all over his outfit during a tourist show?  A spinning top.

A real dervish is not lit, nor is it about entertainment.  The spinning that dervishes do might be best described as a meditation related to Sufism.

I am not a Sufi scholar, but I once read this is a symbolic imitation of the planets orbiting the sun. There are many references out there for Sufism if you wish to read more. If you want to enjoy it in fictional content, then I highly suggest Elif Safak's The Forty Rules of Love.  

The only dervishes I have ever seen in Dubai are in shows like this that focus on a performance.

So for now I leave you with a couple of images of dervish light painting that I took last month at a business outing in the desert.

A Whirling Dervish show in the desert in Dubai

A Whirling Dervish show in the desert in Dubai