Dervish

thumb|200px|right|Dervish with a lion and a tiger, [[Mughal painting, ]]

thumb|200px|right|[[Ottoman Turks|Ottoman Dervish portrayed by Amedeo Preziosi, , Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României]]

A dervish, darvesh, darwēsh, or darwīsh () is a Muslim who seeks salvation through ascetic practices and meditations. It can refer to an individual or to a member of a Sufi order (tariqah). Their focus is on the universal values of love and service, deserting the illusions of ego (nafs) to reach God. This is usually done by performing a lifestyle which decreases bodily function to a minimum in order to attain what would be called "esoteric knowledge" in Western terminology. In most Sufi orders, a dervish is known to practice dhikr through physical exertions or religious practices to attain the ecstatic trance to reach God.

Etymology

The actual etymology of the term is unknown. Furthermore, there is no essential connection between begging and a dervish, and it is also said that a "true dervish" would abstain from begging.

Given the obscure etymologies in Persian dictionaries, and that it is mostly used in Central Asian, Turkish, and Persian cultures, it has been suggested that the term may be of Turco-Buddhist origin and derive from the terms dharani and arvis (Old Turkic), referring to a "specialist in magic", as they are credited as folk healers, engaged in healing, performance of miracles, protection spells and more.

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.

Rumi writes in Book 1 of his Masnavi:

Whirling dervishes

thumb|180px|right|Whirling dervishes, Rumi Fest 2007

thumb|[[Sama (Sufism)|Sama ceremony at the Dervishes Culture Center in Avanos, Turkey]]

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

thumb|180px|The dance of the dervishes, Athens, [[Ottoman Greece, by Dodwell]]

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.thumb|180px|A [[Mahdist Sudan|Mahdist Dervish from Sudan (1899)]]

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 .

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.

Gallery

File:Dervish rug.jpg|Dervish Azerbaijani rug, XIX c. Tabriz school, State Museum of Azerbaijan Carpet and Applied Art

File:Amedeo Preziosi - Turks.jpg|Ottoman Dervishes portrayed by Amedeo Preziosi in Istanbul, 1857

File:Darvish bazaar.jpg|A Qajar-era Persian dervish, seen here from an 1873 depiction of Tehran's Grand Bazaar

File:Constantinople(1878)-begging dervis.png|An Ottoman Dervish in Istanbul, 1878

File:Wrau-dervishes-damascus-cropped.jpg|Dervishes photographed by William H. Rau near Damascus,

File:Dervish, 1913.jpg|A Palestinian Dervish in 1913

File:Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi.jpg|Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi, leader of the Sudanese Dervishes

File:Keskul GrantBowl.JPG|Sufi kashkuls were often made from a coco de mer which ordinary beggars would have difficulty to find

File:Kashkul, or Beggar’s Bowl, with Portrait of Dervishes and a Mounted Falconer, A.H. 1280.jpg|Kashkul, or Beggar's Bowl, with Portrait of Dervishes and a Mounted Falconer, A.H. 1280. Brooklyn Museum

File:Brooklyn Museum - A Gathering of Dervishes.jpg|A Gathering of Dervishes in the Mughal Empire

File:Brooklyn Museum - A Family of Dervishes.jpg|A family of Dervishes, possibly by Antoin Sevruguin (between 1876 and 1925)

File:Dodwell Dervishes 2.jpg|The dance of the dervishes, Athens

File:Friday afternoon Dervishes (8625532149).jpg|Sufi dervishes in Omdurman, Sudan

File:Mohammed Abdullah Hassan-dj.jpg|Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, head of Darawiish

File:Sheykh_of_the_Rufai_Dervishes.jpg|A Sheikh of the Rifa'i Sufi Order

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References

Relevant literature

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