Konya: A living tapestry of history and spirituality

Konya in Türkiye remains deeply relevant today, despite its history stretching back to the 12th century, as the birthplace of Mevlevi Sufism. In 2024, a record three million visitors paid respect to the Mevlana Museum, the burial place of the Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi, known to the world as Rumi.

Mevlana passed away on the evening of December 17, 1273, a date revered by his followers as Şeb-i Arus — the “wedding night” of his union with the divine. To mark his 752nd death anniversary on December 17, 2025, people from across the world had come to pay their obeisance.

Men and women prayed side by side during the sacred moment, some standing quietly in reflection with prayer beads in hand, others whirling in devotion.

Outside the burial site, a Sufi from Iran performed the mystic whirling dance, his movements seeming to defy gravity. Nearby, a couple who had travelled from London handed out sweets to passers-by. “It’s a gift from Mevlana, passed from generation to generation,” the woman said, smiling as she offered a piece of local Turkish confection.

Those who attempt to reduce Mevlana to a poet, his path to literary genre, his poetry to a book or a verse or the sema to a dance performance... no one has the power to estrange of what belongs to us, to distort it or strip it of its meaning, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, minister of culture and tourism of the Türkiye government said, addressing thousands present on his death anniversary.

While travelling from Istanbul to Konya, cloudy skies did little to dampen the mood aboard an overbooked flight packed with pilgrims bound for the Mevlevi Museum and football fans heading to a match between Fenerbahçe and Konyaspor. Despite the cold weather, excitement was visible among the passengers.

Located around 400 miles from Istanbul, Konya felt like a step back in time. The city seemed to transport us to the 12th century and earlier, offering a gateway into the origins of Mevlevi Sufism.

Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi came to this city during that time and spread his teachings that widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the world. Upon his death, his followers founded the Mevlevi order, also known as the order of the whirling dervishes.

He travelled a long way — originally from Balkh in modern-day Afghanistan. Later, the family moved from Khorasan to Baghdad, Mecca, Damascus, and Malatya, only to find themselves in Karaman in 1222. Rumi and his family spent seven formative years in Karaman. It was there that he got married and where his children were born.

Later upon invitation from the Seliuk Sulta Alaeddin he and his family moved to Konya, which was then the capital of Seljuk Sulatanate of Rum.

“Konya was the centre of learning at that time, to say the least,” according to Bilal Kuspinar, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Director of the International Rumi Centre for the Study of Civilization at the Necmettin Erbakan University.

Konya is our spiritual capital guided by the teachings of our great masters, said one of the attendees at the gathering.

If you want to travel in time, it’s a fascinating idea to visit Çatalhöyük near Konya where the first human settlement existed 9,000 years ago, a UNESCO world heritage site. Unpaved roads and vast stretches of empty agrarian land lead to what was once a proto–mega city of its age, home to an estimated 3,000 to 8,000 people living in tightly packed mudbrick houses. Çatalhöyük predates the Sumerian civilisation by around 3,500 years and the Indus Valley civilisation by nearly 4,800 years, offering a rare glimpse into life before cities, kingdoms, or written history.

The unique thing about these settlements was the dead in the family were buried below their resting place.

This may mean many things and only left to your imagination. They didn’t want to abandon their dead or expected them to be born again in the same household as the life expectancy was as short as 40 years.

There was no concept of a kingdom, just humans living with animals and hunting some for food,a trait that has been depicted by paintings.

However, the city was later abandoned due to unknown reasons, and the tribe moved to other region, where they laid foundations to agricultural settlement.

In Konya, history doesn’t sit behind glass — it breathes, turns, and invites you to follow its rhythm.