The Whirling of the Mevlevi

The most famous form of sama is the whirling ceremony of the Mevlevi order, the followers of the thirteenth-century Persian poet and mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi, known in the West as the "whirling dervishes." In their ceremony the dervishes turn slowly and continuously on one foot, one hand raised to receive grace from above and the other lowered to pass it to the earth, revolving as the planets revolve, in a disciplined and precisely choreographed rite that is at once a meditation, a prayer and a symbolic ascent of the soul toward union with God. The whirling is framed by music, the recitation of poetry and the remembrance of God, and every element carries a symbolic meaning within the order's teaching.

The Mevlevi ceremony has become one of the best-known images of Sufism, and in modern Turkey it is often performed for tourists and audiences as cultural heritage rather than religious rite, a shift that has drawn concern from within the tradition that a demanding spiritual discipline is being reduced to spectacle. In 2005 the ceremony was recognised by UNESCO as an element of intangible cultural heritage, a recognition that both honours the practice and marks its passage, in part, from the lodge to the stage.