Fahri Ozcakil
Fahri Ozcakil is a Director of the Turkish Ministry of Culture with a very unusual civil servant role. When he is not dressed smartly and working out of his office in Konya, Turkey he wears long robes and a tall hat with a distinctive green band identifying him as the head of the whirling dervishes. A revered position honoured to him after over 40 years as a whirling dervish he orchestrates his group during their beautiful and mesmerisng Sema dances. In 2008, UNESCO confirmed "The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony" as amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Approximately 750 years old, the Mevlevi Order is a living tradition based on the teachings of Rumi who is Iran and Turkey’s most celebrated poet and a venerated saintly mystic within Islam. So important in Turkey the 100 lira Turkish note even features a Mevlevi figure.
