Mevlevi Order
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The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya is a Sufi order that originated in Konya, Turkey and which was founded by the followers of Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi mystic, an
Whirling dervishes, illustrated in Le Livre d'Or des Voyages by Louis Mainard, c. 1890
Mevlevi whirling dervishes, 1887
Hodjapasha Culture Center is a restored Ottoman hamam (bathhouse) in Istanbul's Sirkeci district now used for performances of the Mevlevi (whirling dervish) sema.
Lālā Muṣṭafa Paşa ("Mustapha Pasha") visiting the Mevlânâ ("Rumi") tomb in Konya circa 1580, with whirling dervishes
Sama (Sufism)
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Sama, literally Listening, is a Sufi ritual performed as part of the meditation and prayer practice known as Dhikr. It is discussed by al-Ghazali in his The Alchemy of Happiness.
Mevlevi Order
…of whirling while performing dhikr (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; whirling is part of the formal sema ceremony and the participants are properly known as semazens. Approximately 750 years old, the Mevlevi Order was once a living tradition based on the…
Whirling Dervishes in Istanbul, Turkey
Alevi/Bektashi Sama
Sufis performing Sama before Shaykh Nizam al-Din Awliya. Miniature from the Timurid copy of the Khamsa of Amir Khusrau. Herat, 1485.
Shaykh Safi dancing in a sama. Ṣafvat al-Ṣafā ("life of Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn"), by Ismāʿil bin Bazzāz, completed in September 1582 in Shirāz