Mevlevi Order

The Mawlaw'īyya / Mevlevi Order (Turkish:Mevlevilik or Mevleviyye Persian:طریقت مولویه‎‎) is a Sufi order in Konya (capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate) founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet and founder of the Mewlewiyya order of dervishes. He was a poet, Islamic jurist, and theologian. The Mawlaw'īyya are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; the whirling is part of the formal Sama ceremony and the participants are properly known as semazen-s.