The colorful swirling skirts of dervishes create a lively scene, honoring the mystical Sufi poet Rumi at a cultural hub in Konya.

Every year, the "Şeb-i Arus" "Wedding Night" festival honoring 13th-century Islamic poet, scholar, and Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi's death on Dec. 17, 1273, draws so many people that traditional venues are not large enough to contain the crowds.

Pilgrims, tourists, meditation enthusiasts and the curious flock to this vast Anatolian city. His writings have gradually spread well beyond central Asia and won acclaim in the West. Pop legend Madonna adapted one of Rumi's poems and Beyonce named her daughter after him.

"Rumi's works have been translated into almost every language, and in the U.S. alone more than 250 books are dedicated to him," said Nuri Şimşekler, a specialist in literature at Konya's Selçuk University.

"Rumi speaks to all humans, telling us about ourselves," he said Rumi's enduring popularity seven centuries after his death.

Dance ritual

The "sema" rituals that honor Rumi's legacy are performed by whirling dervishes who don tall light brown hats, with their arms elegantly spread.

The order was established after Rumi's death by his son and descendants. To the sounds of reed flutes and tambourines, the dervish removes his long black cloak to dance but keeps his cylindrical felt hat on. The "sikke" represents the tombstone which will one day stand at the head of his grave.

Then the dance begins. Extending his right hand toward the sky and his left towards the ground, the whirling dervish forms a link between the two.

"Rumi is the first person on Earth whose death is not mourned but celebrated," Şimşekler said.

From her office window, Esin Çelebi Bayru has a clear view of the turquoise dome that tops the mausoleum of her illustrious ancestor.

Large crowds from Türkiye and Iran but also Britain and Singapore are expected to celebrate Rumi's 750th "Wedding Night" at his tomb.

Such a major anniversary of his death was "an opportunity to make him even better known," said Çelebi Bayru, a 22nd-generation descendant of the Sufi poet. She and her brother co-chair the Mevlana International Foundation, created in 1996 in Konya to perpetuate Rumi's legacy.

"In these times of war, Mevlana's word is like a light for us," she said of his many appeals for tolerance and peace. "People come here from all over the world."

Prayer or meditation

Çelebi Bayru said she has recently been invited to lecture in places as distant as Hawaii, Australia, India and Pakistan. Every year, she also receives film scripts and hopes one day to see a biopic of Rumi brought to the screen.

Everywhere in Konya, souvenirs bearing the image of Rumi and dervishes fill stalls.

Under a headdress lined with 20 meters of braided green ribbons, he presides over more spiritual "semas" at the Irfan Study and Research Centre in Konya, where prayers are interspersed with music and songs.

"We don't just twirl around all day," laughed the sheik, who was recently invited to perform at Oxford University by its art history department.

"But as long as we stick to our discipline, we don't mind the public," he added, saying that "between art and love, Mevlana offered us a third way. Everyone interprets him in their own way."

"But if he were better understood, would the world be in the state it is in today?" he added.

Tombstones

In Konya, one of the last workshops makes these special "sikke" hats to order.

Yunus Girgiç refuses to sell sikkes to tourists because they are exclusively reserved for real dervish dancers. He makes sure they do not reach amateurs' hands, quizzing potential clients about their motives for wanting the distinctive hat.

"I ask a few basic questions and immediately see who I am dealing with," Girgiç told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

At the start of the "sema" dance ritual, dervishes take off their long black coats but retain the sikke, which signifies the tombstone – the end of life on Earth when the dancer meets God.

The manufacturing secrets of these deeply symbolic felt hats – each one 26 to 27 centimeters (about 10 inches) tall – have been passed down for four generations to Girgiç. Each one is produced from a kilo (half a pound) of goat or sheep wool, which is patiently stretched, dipped several times in soapy water, and then rolled flat, like pie crust.

This centuries-old felting technique allows the fibers to be tightened and strengthened, said Girgiç, who works with two apprentices. The resulting square of wool - now reduced to 350 grams - is molded onto wooden shapes whose size is adjusted to the customer's head size, and left to dry for up to two days.

The material, relatively heavy and itchy on the forehead, is a "reminder of the discomforts of life on Earth," Girgiç said. His workshop produces "80% of the sikkes in the world", the artisan added.

Musician Ashmi Benmehidi comes to collect his first sikke and tries it on with pride. He left an insurance job in Montpellier in the south of France to practice the art of playing the "ney" – a reed flute that accompanies the sema ritual.

"I have just been invited to play in a dedicated group," he said, adjusting his headdress. "I'm very moved," he added.

Girgiç's workshop produces 30 to 80 sikkes a year. Each one sells for 2,000 liras (almost $70) and is designed to last around 45 years.