The city got a taste of the magical world of Egyptian Sufi performance called Tanoura as part of Jashn-e-Khusrau on Saturday evening at the Chowmahalla Palace forecourt.
The fourth edition of the fest began with a recital by Sabeer Habeeb, but the event looked like an Arabian Night fantasy once the three Sufi whirlers from Cairo, Egypt stepped onto the stage.
“While Sufi whirling from Turkey is well known, the Egyptian form called Tanoura, identified by the multi-coloured skirts worn by the whirlers, is not very well known and it’s a spectacle,” said MuzaffarAli Soofi, the convenor of the event.
True to the word, Muhammad Salah, Ezzdin Rashid and Mustafa Mohsil, the three Tanoura performers, began on a slow note with just whirling as a few local artistes armed with Egyptian Daf (a differently shaped drum) set up a rhythmic Sufi chant.
The audience gawked as the men showed the grace of a ballerina with superb athletism as they whirled while holding drums to a piped recital of ‘Dama dam mast qalandar’.
Then the men danced with small umbrellas stuck to their flowing skirts which opened up colourfully as they twirled. This was followed by a performance by Madan Gopal Singh, a well-known Sufi singer from Punjab.
One more Tanoura performance by the same artistes is scheduled to take place on November 13 at Public Gardens, Nampally.
The other events of the four-day event are Qawwali at Dargah Sahik Ji Hali behind Pathergatti on November 14 and a Mushaira on November 18 at the same location.
