A Dervish
or Darvesh
[1] (from Persian ?????, Darvish
) [2] is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.
Dar
in Persian means "a door", so Dervish
literally means "one who opens the doors".[ The word is also related to terms for "ascetic" in some languages, as in the Urdu phrase darwaishana thabiyath
, "an unflappable or ascetic temperament".
]
As Sufi practitioners, Dervishes have been known as sources of wisdom, medicine, poetry, enlightenment, and witticisms. For example, Nasrudin became a legend in the Near East and South Asia, not only among the Muslims.
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Religious practice
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 to beg 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.
Some classical writers indicate that the poverty of the Dervish is not merely economic.
Rumi, for instance, says in Book 1 of his
Masnavi [3]
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 prefered 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 dervishood inside
:You'll float above the world and there abide...
Orders
There are various orders of Dervishes, almost all of which trace their origins from various Muslim saints and teachers, especially
Ali and
Abu Bakr. Various orders and suborders have appeared and disappeared over the centuries. Rifa'iyyah Dervishes spread into North Africa,
Turkey, the
Balkans,
Iran,
India,
Afghanistan and
Tajikistan.
[clarification needed]
Other groups include the
Bektashis, connected to the
janissaries, and
Senussi, who are rather orthodox in their beliefs. Other fraternities and subgroups chant verses of the
Qur'an, play drums or dance vigorously in groups, all according to their specific traditions. Some practice quiet 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 fraternity uses its own garb and methods of acceptance and initiation, some of which may be rather severe.
Whirling
The whirling dance or
Sufi whirling that is proverbially associated with Dervishes, is the practice of the
Mevlevi Order in Turkey, and is just one of the physical methods used to try to reach religious ecstasy (
majdhb
,
fana
). The name
Mevlevi
comes from the
Persian [4] [5] poet,
Rumi (born in
Balkh, modern day Afghanistan), whose shrine is in Turkey and who was a Dervish himself. This practice, though not intended as entertainment, has become a tourist attraction in Turkey.
Historical and political use of the term
Various western historical writers have sometimes used the term
dervish
rather loosely, linking it to, among other things, the
Mahdist uprising in
Sudan,
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's ("Mad Mullah")
1920 conflict with British forces in
Somalia and other rebellions against
colonial powers.
Begging
While commonly the term
dervish
is used to describe beggars, a differentiation between mendicant Dervishes and common beggars can be made:
[6]
While they walk around praising the Lord, anyone according to his own desire may voluntarily drop some coins in it (a kashkul
)... a real dervish who wears the proper robe and carries the kashkul
does not beg, nor does he make any demands.
Cultural References
- "Dervish" is a profession in Guild Wars
, a cooperative multiplayer online role-playing game.
- In the Halo series of video games, the Arbiter was originally meant to be called the "Dervish". The name was changed because it could be considered offensive to Muslims.
- In the British sitcom, Dad's Army, Lance Corporal Jones regularly refers to his encounters with the Whirling Dervishes during his military career.
- Is sometimes referenced in American football to describe a runner who spins quickly to avoid tackles. The term is used on the official NFL Hall of Fame site to describe George Hallas as a "whirling dervish runner at Illinois."
- From approximately 1991 to 1995 the Grateful Dead, an American rock band, had a very small percentage of fans whom termed themselves as "spinners", whom would spin similar to dervish spinning to the band's music.
See also
- Fakir
- Warsangeli Daraawiish
- The Tale of the Four Dervishes Qissa Chahar Dervish
References
- Darvesh - Dictionary of Islam
- http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/Dervish
- ''The Masnavi: Book One'', translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0199552313, p63.
- B. Ghafurov, "Todjikon", 2 vols., Dushanbe 1983-5
- http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299621/Rumi
- Memories of Nine Years in 'Akká