When the Meydan Becomes the Dar : The Martyrdom of Mansur al-Hallaj and the Cem Setting

ABSTRACT: The life and martyrdom of Al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj (c. 857–922), a legal scholar and student-follower of several Sufi spiritual guides in his Persian milieu, are often distilled into a key narrative moment: his exclamation "I am Truth." This was understood by some as a blasphemous pronouncement of his own divinity, and is associated with his execution in Baghdad. For others, his words are a declaration of the unity of all life, including al-Hallaj himself, with the divine singularity. At a key moment in the cem liturgies of the Bektashis and the Alevis, the meydan, the spatial focal point of the cem ceremony, is collectively envisioned as the execution site itself. It becomes the dar (gallows) of Mansur. In known cem iterations, there are no design features that facilitate this conceptual change to the meydan, so that it is through contemplation of Mansur's sacrifice that the spatialization of his martyrdom is shared in movement and verse. In this article, contemporary enactments of the cem, a variety of Alevi ceremonial settings, and written sources including transcribed verse and the Buyruk texts are examined to consider the role of Mansur al-Hallaj in understanding Alevi architecture.