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From my Eyewitness Travel Guide: The city of Konya has close links with the life and work of Celaleddin Rumi, or Mevlâna, the 13th-century founder of the Mevlevi dervish sect -- better known as the "whirling" dervishes.
Rumi developed a philosophy of spiritual union and universal love. He's regarded as one of the Islamic world's greatest mystics.
He settled in Seljuk-ruled Konya, and is believed to have died here in 1273.
Don dons shower caps for his shoes. Can't walk around this place in your dirty old shoes.
Bill stands in front of an ablution fountain looking stylish in his blue plastic shoe-coverings.
Tombs of important mystics. Those big thimble things are their hats.
More tombs, more hats.
It's a holy place.
I liked this portrait of whirling dervishes. I think it captures the mystical quality of a Sema ceremony.
Muslim prayer beads -- there are 99 of them, and each one represents a prayer.
A beautiful book with gilded pages. I am guessing it was a copy of the Holy Koran.
That little box attracted lots of attention. People would pray before it like this fellow, and then they'd go up to it and press their noses against the area where the glass protective case was set against the wood and they'd kiss the wood. So what was in the box?
It was part of the holy beard of the Prophet himself.
Mohammed's whiskers. No wonder the box evoked such reverence. See the little holes in the glass on the right and left, near the wood? That's why they were pressing their noses against the glass -- they were sniffing the air surrounding the box with the whiskers.
Reverent pilgrims.
This part of the museum shows how the Mevlevi Order once lived here in Konya.
Here they are, beginning to whirl. (No, the mannequins aren't moving. That dress is reinforced with starch or something.)
There were signs everywhere warning, "NO PICTURES," but when I held up my camera to the guard, he nodded. So I took a few pictures and then he started to frown at me, so I stopped.
That's all for the Mevlâna Museum.
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