Mevlana Festival - Konya

Rumi, Islam’s greatest mystic poet, is honoured in this annual festival in Turkey, featuring the mystical whirling dervishes.

13th Century Sufi poet Mevlana is considered one of the world’s great mystic philosophers, with poetry and writings that have since become some of the most revered in the Muslim world and beyond. Famously, he believed that union with God was possible through dance. After his death on the 17th of December 1273, followers of Mevlana formed the brotherhood of the whirling dervishes, their annual commemoration of Mevlana’s death drawing hundreds of thousands of people to watch the dervishes take part in their trance-like dance. The dance is performed throughout the festival, but it’s the last night which is really special, when the dervishes dance to commemorate Mevlana’s death, or ‘wedding night with Allah.’