Whirling Dervishes

Their spellbinding worship service, the Mevlevi sema, has dervishes in long white dresses whirling ecstatically for a quarter hour at a time to the drone of ancient Islamic hymns.
The sema (seh-MAH) is derived from Rumî's habit of occasionally whirling in ecstatic joy in the streets of Konya, capital of the Seljuk Turkish Sultanate of Rum, and his home for the greater part of his life. It is perhaps the most familiar aspect of Sufism (Islamic mysticism).
After the death of Rumî in 1273, the Mevlevi (mehv-leh-VEE) order spread throughout the Seljuk and Ottoman empires.
Though all dervish orders were closed shortly after the foundation of the Turkish Republic, the Mevlevi were soon allowed to reform as a "cultural organization," perhaps because they were not overtly political and reactionary as were some other orders