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Article: The Mevlana Festival.
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- December 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The annual Mevlana Festival takes place in mid-December in Konya when visitors from far and near travel here to witness the ancient Whirling Dervish (Sema) ceremony.
Konya, the biblical Iconium of Roman times, has been continuously inhabited since the eighth millennium BC. When the Byzantines came to power, Konya became an independent province and was given the name Lycanoia.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, the city acted as the capital of the Seljuk Turks who turned it into a great cultural centre alongside its role as a staging post along the Silk Route.
Today, visitors are drawn by the universal and timeless message of one of Sufism's ...