Mevlevi Order

The Mevlevi order formed at Konya around Rumi's successors.

The ney is the lead melodic instrument of the sema, the turning ceremony of the Mevlevi Order founded by Rumi's followers in Konya.

One of the major tariqas of Sufism.

Founded on Rumi's teaching in Konya; formally organised as an order after his death by his son Sultan Walad.

The Mevlevi chelebi girded the incoming Ottoman sultan with the sword of Osman, a role that tied the order to the imperial office until the lodges were closed in 1925.

Mevlevi lodges taught music, poetry and Persian letters, and stood alongside the colleges of law rather than inside them.

The Mevlevi ayin is composed in the Ottoman modal system, and the order's lodges were among the principal conservatories of that music.

The reed flute opens the Masnavi and leads the turning ceremony. Its cry for the reed bed it was cut from is the order's founding image of the soul separated from God.

Honoured across the orders and recited in Mevlevi lodges, though the order's own liturgical music is the ayin rather than the ode.

The turning ceremony is the Mevlevi order's own rite, a whole liturgy of music, poetry and revolving movement that no other order performs, and the order is known across the world by it.

The tomb of Jalal al-Din Rumi at Konya is the order's centre, a lodge until 1925 and a museum since.

The Mevlevi audition is the ayin, a composed suite performed by the order's own musicians, rather than the assembly of hereditary singers the Chishti order keeps.

Trust in God is a station of the path in Mevlevi teaching, the surrender the turning enacts rather than a disposition a believer simply has.

Sultan Walad organized the Mevlevi order formally after his father Rumi's death.

Blessing is held to reside at Rumi's tomb in Konya, which remains the order's centre and its point of assembly.

A Mevlevi dervish completes the roughly thousand-and-one day cile of service and training before joining the sema, the turning ceremony that gave English the phrase whirling dervish.

The turning ceremony is understood as an enactment of the self's annihilation in God and its return, not as a performance for an audience.

The order understands its whole discipline as the cultivation of ihsan under a master.

Authority to lead a Mevlevi lodge passed by licence from the order's centre at Konya rather than by local acclamation.

The Mevlevi equivalent of the order-wide khalifa was hereditary rather than appointed: the Celebi, a direct descendant of Rumi, headed the whole order from Konya rather than a deputized successor.

Mevlevi training is described as a progression of stations and states, with a long period of service in the kitchen preceding any instruction in the turn.

A Mevlevi sheikh trains a dervish through the sema, the turning ceremony; overall headship of the order was hereditary, held by the Celebi, descendants of Rumi based at the central lodge in Konya.

The Mevlevi chain runs from Jalal al-Din Rumi through his son Sultan Walad, and leadership stayed in Rumi's descendants, which makes the order unusual in joining spiritual descent to actual descent.

The Masnavi is Rumi's own foundational text and the Mevlevi order's central devotional and teaching work, expounded in its lodges for centuries.

Founded in Konya, in present day Turkey, where the order's central lodge and Rumi's tomb remain.

The finality of prophethood is affirmed in the Mevlevi order.

Sabr is affirmed in the Mevlevi order as a station of the path.

The Mevlevi order holds the sharia binding, and its position within the Ottoman religious establishment rested on that observance.

Shukr is affirmed in the Mevlevi order as a station of the path.

Taqwa is affirmed in the Mevlevi order as a station of the path.

Tawakkul is affirmed in the Mevlevi order as a station of the path.

Tawbah is affirmed in the Mevlevi order as the first station of the path.

Tawhid is affirmed in the Mevlevi order.