Alevi Muslims believe that the Jem has its roots in an original worship and teaching meeting of forty spiritual individuals Kirklar Majlisi (Turkish: Kırklar Meclisi) led by Ali.
It takes place in a Cem Evi The ceremony's supposed prototype is the narration about Muhammad's nocturnal ascent into heaven, where he beheld a gathering of forty saints (Kırklar Meclisi), and the Divine Reality made manifest in their leader, Ali.
A family of ritual dances reminiscent of the Sama ceremony of the whirling dervishes characterized by turning and swirling, is an inseparable part of any Cem.
The dances symbolize (for example) the revolution of the planets around the Sun (by man and woman turning in circles), and the putting off of one’s self and uniting with Allah.
There are twelve services (Turkish: Oniki imamlar) performed by attendees of the Cem: According to the self-taught Turkish Kurd historian Gürdal Aksoy,[1] most Islamic beliefs and practices whether Sunni, Usuli Shi'ah or the Alevi ones, originally come from Zoroastrianism, according to Aksoy some servants of the cem ceremony share some Zoroastrian counterparts like the Pir and Zaotar priest, Atrevakhsh, Aberet, Sraoshavarez and Fraberetar.