The Whirling Dervish ceremony is the Ottoman Turks’ answer to the spiritual practice known as samâ’, widely performed in the ninth century among Sufis of what is today’s Iran. The Sema of the Mawlawi Order, better known in the West as Whirling Dervish ceremony, involves mystic chants, music – based on Ottoman art music forms – and the spinning movements of the Dervishes.