Turkish Sufi music covers non-court Islamic sacred music in the Turkish-speaking world: Mevlevi sema (the whirling ceremony descending from Rumi's 13th-century order), Alevi cem gatherings where deyiş songs are sung to the saz, and Sunni tekke lodges where ilahi hymns are sung around Friday prayer. It shares the makam modal system with Turkish classical, but instrumentation is simpler: ney (end-blown reed flute), kudüm (small kettle drums), sometimes kemençe (bowed) — and in Alevi settings, the baglama (saz) at the centre. Vocal architecture moves from taksim (free-metre improvisation) into peşrev (metrical instrumental prelude) and then into the vocal body, coordinating the ensemble's collective breath. Lyrics are in Turkish, sometimes with Arabic Qur'anic verses or Persian Rumi poetry embedded.

The Mevlevi order was founded by the descendants of the 13th-century Konya-based Persian-language poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207-1273); they developed the whirling sema ritual over the 14th century and continued in mutual influence with Ottoman court music. In parallel across Anatolia, Alevi communities held annual cem gatherings, singing deyiş poems by figures like Hacı Bektaş Veli (13th c.) and Pir Sultan Abdal (16th c.) accompanied by saz — a tradition still living in the 15-25% of Turkey's population that identifies as Alevi. In 1925, the Republic's Tekke Kapatma Law shut all lodges; formally the succession routes were cut, but transmission continued in homes and in Alevi communities. In 1954 the state re-opened the Mevlevi sema as 'secular cultural heritage,' and the Konya sema — held every December at Rumi's tomb on the anniversary of his death (Şeb-i Arus) — became the international face of Turkish Sufi practice. Kudsi Erguner (born Diyarbakır 1952) built the leading contemporary international Mevlevi ney career from Paris. UNESCO inscribed the Mevlevi sema ceremony on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008.

In a Kudsi Erguner ney taksim, the breath itself is the phrasing unit: unlike Western wind instruments' continuous legato, ney treats each breath break as expressive. Phrase endings deliberately thin out, corresponding musically to the Sufi concept of fana (self-annihilation). Ahmet Özhan's 'Aşk-ı Mevlana' (1995) adds orchestral backing while keeping the traditional low-declamatory vocal. Mercan Dede's 'Nar-ı Cehennem' (2004) puts the ney inside electronic synth pads — a contemporary reworking that shows the tradition can co-exist with modern production. The Alevi cem's saz is completely different in register from Mevlevi ney: more grassroots, repetitive, with grounded refrain structures.

Kudsi Erguner's 'Ney Taksim in Hicaz' (1990) is the clearest entry — ney's breath-phrasing and free-metre improvisation at their most direct. Then Mercan Dede's 'Sufi Dreams' (1999) and 'Nar-ı Cehennem' (2004) for the tradition's electronica hybrid. Late night, headphones, other sound off. Reading Rumi's poetry — Coleman Barks in English is the widest-circulating source — alongside the music opens the correspondence between text and sound.

The 1925 Tekke closure was among the strongest secularisation measures of the young Republic and formally severed the succession of Turkey's religious music. The 1954 Mevlevi re-opening only permits the sema as 'cultural heritage,' not as a religious service — a still-unresolved legal ambiguity. The Konya Mevlana Mausoleum operates as a secular museum, and the sema hall next to it holds performances only as 'cultural events.' Kudsi Erguner has lived in Paris since 1975 and worked primarily out of Europe rather than Turkey ever since. His family has produced ney masters for nine generations — his father Ulvi Erguner and grandfather Süleyman Erguner II were also renowned neyzens. Mercan Dede's real name is Arkın Ilıcalı; his brother Cem Ilıcalı is a well-known Turkish TV presenter, making them recognisable as a family within Turkey.