Sufi Dance! The Whirling Dervishes

Although religious orders were banned in Turkey in the early 1920s with the establishment of the secular republic, the dervishes' rituals were regarded as a cultural heritage and the order was largely tolerated. There are now many Sufi dervish orders around the world, including in the United States. Women have been allowed to join some lodges, although an overwhelming number of dervishes are men.

In 2005, the United Nations' cultural body, UNESCO, proclaimed the dervishes' ritual a masterpiece of "the oral and intangible heritage of humanity." The structure holding Rumi's tomb in Konya is now a museum as well as a pilgrimage site.