I neither consider “rotating around an axis”, “a dance”, nor I am a big fan of the ideology that “The whirling dervishes” represent. Nonetheless, I was sickened by how the concept has been commercialized in Turkey. Not only you can buy a whirling dervish, in any conceivable size or format (Ceramic, Clay, Painting, Calligraphy, Stuffed, Glass, and the list seriously goes on!) but also – and as if that’s not enough – an actual Whirling Man is present in almost every cafe and restaurant in the touristic Sultanahmet district, to entertain tourists who are too busy to travel to “Konya” to catch the real ones.
Seen in the Grand Bazar, Istanbul