Sufi Dhikr Chant – Turkey (Traditional)
A performative field of devotional agency, where collective repetition, breath, and rhythm activate divine presence, dissolve the ego, and generate transformative enchantment through sonic causality
Thinking Through Alfred Gell (1945-1997)’s Art and Agency
Introduction
Dhikr (or Zikr, “remembrance”) is a central practice in Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. It involves the ritual repetition of divine names, phrases from the Qur’an, or invocations such as “La ilaha illallah” (“There is no god but God”) or “Allah”, often performed in rhythmic unison. In Turkey, Sufi orders such as the Mevlevi, Naqshbandi, and Halveti use chant, breath work, movement, and music to enact dhikr as a spiritual path to annihilation of the self (fanā’) and union with the divine (baqā’).
From Alfred Gell’s perspective in Art and Agency, Sufi Dhikr is not music in the aesthetic sense—it is a ritual system of sonic action, where sound causes transformation, and where each syllable becomes a performative agent of divine alignment. The chant is not symbolic—it is operative, agentive, and cosmologically active.
Art as Index of Divine and Human Agency
Gell asserts that artworks are indexes of intentionality. In Dhikr:
The repetition of “Allah” is not poetic—it is a sonic trace of divine invocation,
The coordinated breath and choral rhythm serve as indexes of submission and purification,
The chant indexes not the divine itself, but the human reaching for the divine, making longing audible.
Each vocalization becomes an intentional act, a verbal offering and ritual breathprint, tracking the worshiper’s journey from fragmentation to wholeness.
Distributed Agency: Voice, Circle, Space, Name
In Gell’s concept of distributed agency, Dhikr is a masterclass:
The individual voice is subsumed into the circle—creating a communal body,
The divine name acts back upon the speaker—not only remembered but remembering,
The ritual space (often dimly lit, austere) acts as an acoustic container for ego dissolution,
The guide (sheikh or leader) facilitates tempo, energy, and theological focus—directing intention.
The chant thus exists in a web of relational agency—each element animated, each sound a conduit of spiritual causality.
Repetition as Ritual Causality, Not Redundancy
Gell shifts us away from symbolic models to focus on causality. Dhikr operates on this principle:
Repeating “Allah” or “Hu” (the Divine pronoun) is not for memory’s sake, but to evoke, stabilize, and install the presence of God in the moment,
Repetition synchronizes the physical and metaphysical—the breath, heart, and mind are tuned through the word,
The rhythm becomes internalized—the body becomes an instrument of remembrance.
Each cycle acts like a ritual algorithm: not expressive, but transformative. The purpose is not to “feel spiritual” but to be changed.
The Human Body as Instrumental Artwork
Dhikr often involves:
Postural stillness or ritual sway, depending on the Sufi order,
Controlled breathing, often from the diaphragm or the belly, creating resonance,
Vocal techniques that range from whispered prayer to powerful chant.
In Gell’s view, the body here is not a passive medium—it becomes the artwork itself, sculpted through chant, synchronized through repetition, refined through discipline.
Dhikr is thus a form of ritual art-making, where the soul is the clay, and the chant the shaping hand.
Tonal and Rhythmic Enchantment
Though not “music” in the formal sense, Turkish Dhikr often uses:
Percussion (daf or bendir),
Melodic recitation aligned to maqam scales (especially in the Mevlevi tradition),
Accelerated rhythmic cycles, creating ecstatic intensity.
This sonic architecture draws the practitioner and listener into a trance-like awareness. Gell would frame this as a technology of enchantment: the structure of repetition and tonal escalation binds attention, alters consciousness, and opens a liminal space.
Time as Eternal Present
Sufi Dhikr is non-narrative. It does not tell a story—it creates a sacred now:
The cycle of repetition suspends chronological awareness,
The group chant collapses individual time into collective sacred flow,
Participants often describe loss of time, entering states of divine intoxication (wajd).
For Gell, this is a temporal artifact: the chant re-orders time, not with plot but through sonic duration and spiritual immersion.
An Artwork That Acts
Unlike aesthetic art, Dhikr is not performed for others. It is a practice that does:
It invokes the divine,
It aligns the inner self with metaphysical truths,
It constructs a spiritual community through sonic presence.
In Gell’s theory, Dhikr is not representational—it is agentive ritual, where each utterance is a micro-action of becoming.
The chant becomes a sonic bridge—between self and God, body and breath, silence and speech.
Conclusion
From Alfred Gell’s anthropological framework, Sufi Dhikr chant is a ritual artwork of enchantment and alignment, where sound, breath, rhythm, and repetition act together to transform consciousness, erase ego, and enact divine intimacy.
It is not “music” as ornament—it is sonic causality in its purest form. A sacred machine of breath and word, chanting God’s name not as praise but as presence. Gell would call it an art of action—not to be admired, but to be enacted, inhabited, and made real.