by Oruc Bey’s wife’s at Hikmet Barutcugil’s Ebru Centre (Ebristan8) in Uskudar9. I had a conversation with Kamil Bey over tea and snacks and he told me stories of his family’s migration from Central Asia. On another occasion, a television channel interviewed Kamil Bey and his wife Lady Urkiye at Oruc Bey’s place in Cerrahpasa (the Ethnomusicology Center) about their experiences during the War of Independence.
Kamil Bey displayed a humorous side to his character with his intolerance towards Oruc Bey’s diet10. One time when he came to Cerrahpasa, I accompanied him to the bus stop for his return journey and noticed that he was taking home a nylon bag of Knorr tomato soups, which made me smile inwardly. I heard from others that he would sometimes visit fish restaurants and feast on fish until late in the evening. I should mention here that fish and tomatoes are foods that Oruc Bey never ate.
(From Left to Right) Oruc Bey, Kamil and Urkiye Guvenc, his father and mother) Nejat Guvenc ( his younger brother) and Yasar Guvenc ( his elder brother)
Rahmi Oruc Guvenc, the second son of Ahmet Kamil and Urkiye Guvenc, was born in 1948. Urkiye Guvenc was a housewife and Oruc Bey was the middle of three siblings. Oruc Guvenc completed his primary and intermediate level education in Tavsanli, and his high school education in Kutahya.
Returning to the quotation at the start of this section, Oruc Bey frequently talked about how they grew up listening to pentatonic music and melodies. According to his beliefs and research, children should listen to nothing but pentatonic music until the ages of 9 or 10. As we will see in the following section ‘Oruc Bey and Music’, pentatonic music is the basic tonality of Turkish music. Before the transition to ‘makam11’ music, there was pentatonic music, a structure which is still being preserved especially in Central Asia. Pentatonic music is used in the therapy system applied at the Nordoff Robbins Centre in London, where it is held to induce feelings of self-confidence and self-determination.
3 TRT Vision magazine, August 2017, p.12
4 Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, which was known as the 93 War because it corresponded to the date of 1293 in the Rumi Calendar
5 A township in the province of Kutahya in Western Anatolia.
6 An area in Tavsanli
7 These are poems formed of stanzas (M’ani) - a Turkish tradition
8 A marbling center
9 A neighbourhood in the Asian side of Istanbul
10 I will give detailed information later about the strict diet followed by Oruc Bey .
11 In pentatonic music there are 5 tones whereas in ‘makam’ music there are 7 tones
ORUC BEY’S ACQUAINTANCE WITH SUFISM
If I am not mistaken, we were at Gokcedere for a Sema12 lasting 99 days and nights. I was asked to help with the English sections of a literary work that was later to be sold, in spiral binding and trilingual format, under the title “Dr. Rahmi Oruc Guvenc, Compositions and Lyrics”. I translated 30-35 poems into English for that work. In one of the poems, Oruc Bey poetized and encapsulated his entrancement by a blond, green eyed lady, who was one of his pupils. While Oruc Bey was sitting in his place at the Dergah13, I referred to this lady with a few rather humorous words. My intention was to tease him a bit and create a jolly atmosphere – that is how intimate we were with Oruc Bey. Realizing that my intentions were quite innocent, he added that it was in the same period of his life that he had become “acquainted with Sufism (Tasavvuf)”.
To be acquainted with Sufism, to become informed about these subjects, is a gift that isn’t granted to just anyone. Years ago, in either 1976-77 or 78, when the former head of the Turkish Metapsychic Investigations and Scientific Research Association Ergun Arikdal was still alive, I attended a few of his significant conferences there. At that time, there was no social media, no videos and no smart phones. You could only learn new things through books, magazines or by gathering together somewhere. At one of these conferences, Ergun Arikdal iterated that many people are born, grow up and die without ever knowing or even encountering Sufism, or other such subjects that deal matters beyond the scope of physical cognition. That is why to be acquainted with Sufism means to be bestowed with a gift and it is a significant milestone in one’s life. I have reached this conclusion from my own experiences.
Oruc Bey had already become acquainted with spiritualism through a magazine called ‘Soul and Matter’14 magazine to which their father Kamil Guvenc subscribed. They began their first attempts at hypnosis in Tavsanli with a photographer called Ilhan Birlik. They would either gather in Ilhan Birlik’s photography studio or, if convenient, at his father’s printing house, and carried out hypnotism, spiritism and regression15 practices. These practices went on for approximately 3 years. Oruc Bey’s elder brother Yasar Guvenc, from whom we have acquired these details, was also attending these practices. One day, Yasar Bey took a largish walnut table, that needed at least 4 or 5 people to lift, to the practice of a dentist called Ferhan Bey. The session operator Ferhan Bey, the mediums and other attendees took their seats around the table. The session started. An entity arrived, lifting the walnut table a little and then letting it bang on the floor. The legs of the walnut table were suddenly rising 2 hand spans above the floor and then banging back down to the floor. This was how the entity was making its presence known and answering questions. One strike meant ‘yes’, and two strikes meant ‘no’. When writing words, one strike was taken to be an ‘A’, two strikes a ‘B’, three a ‘C’, and so on. When asked who he was, the entity gave the name of ‘Neyzen Tevfik’16. After a period of questions and answers, a message came from the entity, saying ‘ Compose’. When asked ‘Who should compose?’, they received the name of Neyzen Hayri Bey, who was present at the seance. When asked ‘What should he compose?’, three loud knocks came from behind a portrait of Neyzen Tevfik that hung on the wall. The picture, which depicted him in a trance with a stanza that he had purportedly received while in the trance, shook violently. I give the stanza below:
Don’t judge by looking at the image
That image is contemplating God
So what if you always see Neyzen drunk
He is constructing the Kaaba in the tavern
Oruc Bey’s meeting with his first Master took place around the age of 18. He was informed of the matter at a spiritism session similar to the one I described above and actually met his first Master Fazyl Bey (His Holiness Fazyl Guvey) a few days later. Fazyl Bey was an Imam17 who had undergone special training and worked as an Imam in various neighborhoods, including Dedeler Village. Fazyl Bey provided spiritual guidance to Oruc Bey and Yasar Agabey18 with lengthy narrations. We learn from Yasar Agabey that, after a certain point in their spiritual education, they stopped asking questions and simply listened. Oruc Bey and Yasar Agabey received spiritual instruction from Fazyl Bey for approximately 3 years. Fazyl Bey, was a disciple of His Holiness Seyyid Ahmed Husamettin, a grandson of our Prophet (mPbuH) 40 times removed. His Holiness Seyyid Ahmed Husamettin came to Istanbul with his father from Dagestan during the reign of Sultan Abdulmejid (1839-1861).
