Our colleague Nader Habib captured this image of a young man named Ali Hussein performing with a tanoura, a form of Sufi ritual derived from the whirling dervish dances of Turkey and employing colourful gargantuan skirt to produce beautiful swirling cycles of motions. The idea is to reach inner purity and become one with God. Hussein is a genius of the tanoura, and he can swirl umbrella-like implements besides the skirt he wears. The impression is of a flower in bloom, dazzling...
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 November, 2010 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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