TURKEY-ISLAM-DANCE-WHIRLING DERVISHES

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands on stage after a speech at the end of a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of Jelaleddin Mevlana Rumi, Sufi mystic, poet and founder of the sufism, on December 13,2013, at Ulker Sports Arena in Istanbul. The dervishes are adepts of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam that preaches tolerance and a search for understanding. Those who whirl, like planets around the sun, turn dance into a form of prayer. Some say the whirling dervishes belong more to the central, conservative city of Konya, where the father of Sufism, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, lived in the 13th century, than to the cosmopolitan modern city. AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)