KONYA: But the main reason we had come to Konya was to visit the shrine of the great 13th-century Sufi poet and founder of the whirling derivishes, Celaleddin Rumi (Mevlana). As we were walking toward the Mevlana Museum which houses his body and memorabilia, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic young man who introduced himself as a sufi who had spotted us a fellow seekers after truth. He went out of his way to demonstrate "Turkish hospitality" as he kept calling it, even driving us back to our hotel that evening to save the cost of a taxi; but he grew surly the next day when we declined to visit his carpet shop, though we explained we had only a very short time left to see the sights we had come to Konya to see. But we shall always be grateful that he tipped us off that Rumi's birthday was to be celebrated that very night, September 30, in the garden of the Museum.