Mevlana Sema - Whirling Dervishes

When I was a child, my mother told me about the whirling dervishes, but I have to say that I couldn't understand her fascination with them. However, Iraq being so close to Turkey, I couldn't' pass up the opportunity to see them. On Thursday Evening after dinner, along with friends working in Adana and Antep, Turkey, we visited the modern center built for Sema for the 15 day Şeb-i Aruz' celebration. Spectacular! The stands were filled with Turkish pilgrims who joined the head semazen in prayer as the ceremony ended. The top two pictures below come from the Turkish Airlines in flight magazine. I post these particular photos as they are taken in the Center in Konya where we saw sema... I can even recognize the semazen from being there!


Likewise the next two photos are also of familiar semazen and I found them in a photo bank by Ogun Altun.


Please click on the two links at the top of this post for enlightening information on the whirling dervishes.