MAWLAWIYAH

Turkish Mevleviyah, fraternity of Sufis (Muslim mystics) founded in Konya (Qonya), Anatolia, by the Persian Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (d. 1273), whose popular title mawlana (Arabic: our master) gave the order its name. The order, propagated throughout Anatolia, controlled Konya and environs by the 15th century and in the 17th century appeared in Constantinople (Istanbul). European travelers identified the Mawlawiyah as dancing (or whirling) dervishes, based on their observations of the order's ritual prayer (dhikr), performed spinning on the right foot to the accompaniment of musical instruments. After the dissolution of all Sufi brotherhoods in Turkey by a decree of September 1925, the Mawlawiyah survived in a few monasteries in Aleppo, Syria, and a scattering of small towns in the Middle East. Special permission granted by the Turkish government in 1954 allowed the Mawlawi dervishes of Konya to perform their ritual dances for tourists during two weeks of every year. Despite government opposition the order continued to exist in Turkey as a religious body into the late 20th century. The tomb of ar-Rumi at Konya, although officially a museum, attracted a steady stream of devotees.