Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as Mevlana, was a Medieval Persian poet and philosopher and the spiritual founder of the whirling dervishes. He delivered his sermons and wrote his religious poetry in literary Persian, capturing the imagination of the intellectual elite amongst the peoples of Central Asia and Asia Minor.

Another contemporary preacher with similar beliefs, Hunkar Haci Bektaş Veli, managed to unite all of Anatolia with simpler teachings. Veli's message, comprehensible not only to poets, scientists, or artists, but also to peasants and soldiers, gave birth to the tradition of the Alevi.

More humane than orthodox Islam and strongly influenced by Mevlana, the Alevi doctrine advocated tolerance, love, and compassion, and also included mystical practices. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries it united the entire central part of the Ottoman Empire in a single religious community. The Janissaries also fell under its sway, thus spreading its influence in the conquered lands, especially the Balkan Peninsula. The Shi’a sect later lost influence in Turkey in favour of orthodox Sunni Islam, and its successors each took their own path of development in the various regions where they remained.

The Alevi are known in Bulgaria as the Alians, a Shi'a order similar to the Sufi Mevlevi, who follow the mystical rituals of the wandering dervishes. The exact origin of the Alians is uncertain, since there are hardly any historical records preserved from that time, but according to the prevailing theory they settled here after the victory won in 1514 by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, a Sunni, over the first Safavid shah of the Persians, the Shi'ite Ismail I.

Althought the Alians' inhabit several regions around Bulgaria, their most sacred shrine in the country is the Demir Baba Tekke (pictured to the left), near the town of Isperih in northeastern Bulgaria. Dramatically located in a deep valley at the foot of Kamen Rid, or Stone Ridge, this seventeenth-century temple is still a major site of worship for the Alians from several dozen villages in the area around Razgrad and Silistra.

In Turkey, Kemal Atatürk – in laying the foundations of the modern secular Turkish republic, banned the dervishes, which had enjoyed considerable power in the Ottoman Empire. During that time, however, the views they held evolved and gradually came to appear conservative, monarchic, and xenophobic.

Though taboo since 1925, two brotherhoods have continued to exist semi-legally, one of them in Istanbul and one in Konya, where the turquoise minaret (pictured above) that dominates the cityscape towers over Rumi’s tomb.



In response to increased tourist interest in recent years, Turkey has begun to look upon the rituals of the whirling dervishes as part of its cultural heritage. Ethnographic societies in Istanbul and Konya stage performances, in which professional dancers replicate the Mevlevi rituals. While they don't provide a truly authentic experience, they do manage to convey the symbolism and beauty of the unearthly, mystical dance.