Dervish

Religious practice

Dervishes try to approach God by virtues and individual experience, rather than by religious scholarship. Many dervishes are mendicant ascetics who have taken a vow of poverty, unlike mullahs. The main reason they beg is to learn humility, but dervishes are prohibited from begging for their own good. They have to give the collected money to other poor people. Others work in common professions; Egyptian Qadiriyya—known in Turkey as Kadiri—are fishermen, for example.

A study on dervishes among Bedouins reveals the process of initiation. It is believed that one does not choose to become a dervish, but is chosen to be one by God. This happens by receiving barakah, which happens during a dream or a conscious encounter with an angel. Barakah is usually received after an encounter with evil forces, supposedly manifesting in a preceding process of mental suffering. After receiving divine blessing, the gift might be forfeited if the dervish betrays God.

Dervishes also work as exorcists and healers. They are believed to be able to detect the presence of evil spirits, such as jinn and devils, by means of divine gifts. The exorcism can include negotiations or confrontations with the spirit in a spiritual world.

Some classical writers indicate that the poverty of the dervish is not economic. Saadi, for instance, who himself travelled widely as a dervish and wrote extensively about them, says in his Gulistan:

Of what avail is frock, or rosary,
Or clouted garment? Keep thyself but free
From evil deeds, it will not need for thee
To wear the cap of felt: a darwesh be
In heart, and wear the cap of Tartary.

Rumi writes in Book 1 of his Masnavi:

Water that's poured inside will sink the boat
While water underneath keeps it afloat.
Driving wealth from his heart to keep it pure
King Solomon preferred the title 'Poor':
That sealed jar in the stormy sea out there
Floats on the waves because it's full of air,
When you've the air of dervishhood inside
You'll float above the world and there abide...

Whirling dervishes

The whirling dance or Sufi whirling that is proverbially associated with dervishes is best known in the West by the practices (performances) of the Turkish-origin Mevlevi Order and is part of a formal ceremony known as the sama. It is, however, also practiced by other orders. The Sama is only one of many Sufi ceremonies performed to attain religious ecstasy (jadhb or fana). The name Mevlevi comes from the Persian-language poet Rumi, who was a dervish himself. This practice, though not intended as entertainment, has become a tourist attraction in Turkey.

Orders

There are various orders of dervishes, almost all of which trace their origins to various Muslim saints and teachers, especially Imam Ali. Various orders and suborders have appeared and disappeared over the centuries. Dervishes spread into North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Turkey, Anatolia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

Other dervish groups include the Bektashis, who were associated with the janissaries, and the Sanusiyya of the Maghreb, which is comparatively orthodox in theology and otherwise orthoprax. Other fraternities and subgroups chant āyat (Qur'anic verses), play drums, or whirl in groups, all according to their specific traditions. They practice meditation, as is the case with most of the Sufi orders in South Asia, many of whom owe allegiance to, or were influenced by, the Chishti Order. Each tariqa (order) has its own garb and methods of acceptance and initiation, some of which may be rather severe. The form of dervishism practised during the 17th century was centred on esotericism, patience, and pacifism.

In literature and art

Various books discussing the lives of Dervishes can be found in Turkish literature. Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović and The Dervish by Frances Kazan extensively discuss the life of a dervish. Similar works on the subject have been found in other books such as Memoirs of a Dervish: Sufis, Mystics and the Sixties by Robert Erwin. Majdeddin Ali Bagher Ne'matollahi has said that Sufism is a core of being and bridge between religion and science. Winston Churchill uses the term in his autobiography My Early Life. The Whirling Dervishes painting by Mahmoud Sa'id (in 1929) sold in 2010 for USD 2,546,500. A Soviet-Azerbaijani movie from 1976 features a song called Dərvişin mahnısı, 'Song of the Dervish'.

Views on Dervishes

Dervishes and their Sufis practices are accepted by traditional Sunni Muslims but different groups such as Deobandis and Salafis regard various practices of Dervishes as un-Islamic.

Relevant literature

• Xavier, Merin Shobhana. The Dervishes of the North: Rumi, Whirling, and the Making of Sufism in Canada. University of Toronto Press. 2023.