A Sufi Gathering in Syria

By Issa Touma

Sufis exists throughout the Middle East, with a presence ranging from active large-scale communities to more private, traditional or even underground practices. Major centers of Sufi activity are found in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. As a creed, it is the inward, mystical dimension of Islam focused on purifying the soul while seeking spiritual closeness to the Divine through love and devotion by annihilating the ego, ascetismo and devotion. Herewith a photo-essay which is now part of the V&A permanent collection

For more than a decade, Issa Touma photographed the Sufi procession of the Rifa’i brotherhood, ‘The day of al-Ziyara’, made in honour of the Sufi teacher Al-Sheikh Abou Bakr Al-Huwari in northern Syria. Sufism is a mystical order of Islam. This procession involves pilgrims visiting the shrine of the Holy Marabout, bearing money and other gifts, and accompanied by traditional music, dance, and rituals, often culminating in acts and experiences of religious ecstasy. The culmination of the procession is the spectacle of the mortification of the flesh; a self-inflicted wounding which is seen as an extreme act of faith. While this Sufi meeting is on the margins of mainstream Islamic religious traditions, it nevertheless remains popular. Issa Touma’s photographs shown here were part of the exhibition “Light from the Middle East: New Photography”, which took place at the Victoria & Albert museum of London between November 2012 and April 2013. 

The Victoria & Albert exhibition text reveals Touma’s unique artistic approach to his series: “As Touma became accepted by the group, his photographs began to reveal an increased intimacy. He placed himself at the heart of the activity and his subjects are often shown at close-range. Touma’s use of the panoramic camera, and sometimes wide angle and ‘fish eye’ lenses, appropriately captures the size and energy of the crowd”. 

Those eleven photographs of a Sufi festival are today part of the Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, consequently,  Issa Touma became the first Syrian photographer in V&A Collection. So this significant piece would go towards redressing the international balance and remit of the collection. Touma’s photographs are significant in their documentary as well as their compositional and artistic qualities. They provide a rare glimpse of a religious ceremony that will be unfamiliar to many in the U.K. audiences Touma’s works not only present a view of a contemporary Middle Eastern patriarchal society from a male perspective, but their photographic style would also provide a visual counter-balance to the more conceptual and colour works. 

Issa Touma is a self-taught photographer and film director based in Aleppo, Syria. His work can be found in several international collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the FOMU Museum in Antwerp. His 2016 film, 9 Days – From My Window In Aleppo won Best Short Film at the European Film Awards, Best Short Film at the London Film Festival and the Tribute Award at the International Short Film Festival in New York. 9 Days – From My Window In Aleppo has been screened in over 60 festivals and about 50 cultural events worldwide.