See all Attractions in Istanbul
Whirling Dervishes
Istanbul, TurkeyAbout
The Mawlaw'īyya / Mevlevi Order, or the Mevlevilik / Mevleviye is a Sufi order founded in Konya (then capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate) by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, a 13th-century Persian[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] poet, Islamic jurist, and theologian. They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; the whirling is part of the formal Sama ceremony and the participants are properly known as semazen-s.[8]
