Dervishes are a well-known Sufi brotherhood that belong to the Mewlewi order, or Order of the Dancing Dervishes; it was founded in Turkey by Gialâl-ad-Din Rumi, the greatest mystic Persian poet (1207-1273) and one of the most appreciated spiritual poets of the world’s literature.
Rumi uses a very suitable image, dance, to describe man’s quest for God. The dervishes dance, in order to reach a particular state that allows them to be in communion with God. They whirl with the right hand turned up and the left hand turned down (this means that with one hand they take from God, while with the other they give to the world), moving in circles, as a symbol of the earth and the planets revolving round the sun and of man’s quest for Truth.