Spend an evening discovering the story of Sufism and learning about Istanbul’s present-day Sufi community. You’ll meet members of the local Sufi community, visit their monastery, hear their music, and experience a Whirling Dervishes ceremony first-hand.

Known to the west as the Whirling Dervishes, the Mevlevi Order was founded by Mevlana Rumi in the 13th century. The Order wrote of tolerance, forgiveness, and enlightenment. Today, they survive as a cultural brotherhood. Their practises are not theatrical spectacles, but sacred rituals.

The ceremony of the Mevlevi Order, known as the sema, is a serious religious ritual performed by Muslim priests in a prayer-induced trance. Mevlevi believe that during the sema the soul is released from earthly ties and able to freely and jubilantly commune with the divine. Dervish literally means ‘doorway’, representing an entrance from the material world to the spiritual, heavenly world.

Ceremonies take place in an authentic Sufi monastery every Thursday evening.