KONYA - British Crown Prince Charles will arrive in Turkish central Anatolian province of Konya on November 26th upon an invitation of the Municipality.
His spouse Cornwall Duchess Camilla will accompany Prince Charles during his stay in Konya.
Prince Charles and Camilla will visit Mevlana Museum, Ince Minaret and Karatay Madrasa, watch sema (dance of whirling dervishes) performance, and deliver a speech after the performance.
British Crown Prince Charles will then proceed to Catalhoyuk excavation area. British archeology professor Ian Hodder is heading the excavations in the 9,000-year-old neolithic settlement.
-MEVLANA AND SEMA-
Jalal ud-Din Muhammed Rumi, who is also known as Mevlana, was great thinker and founder of the Mevlevi Order.
His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all religions are more or less truth. Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew and Christian alike, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has appealed to men of all sects and creeds.
The "dance" of the Whirling Dervishes is called Sema. Sema is a part of the inspiration of Mevlana as well as part of the Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture.
Sema represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." Turning towards the truth, his growth through love, desert his ego, find the truth and arrive to the "Perfect," then he return from this spiritual journey as a man who reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination of believes, races, classes and nations.