Translated from Persian, the dervish is “beggar”, “poor”. The followers of the Turkish philosopher Jallaladin Rumi, who founded the Sufi order, are called dervishes. During the Ottoman Empire, Sufi sects lived in monasteries resembling Christian monasteries. The order was headed by a sheikh who was a religious mentor. Those who entered the dervish order were called murids and became full-fledged dervishes.
Members of the order were supposed to exist in poverty and piety, refraining from material wealth and living on alms. Two significant Sufi orders are still popular: Bektashi and Mevlevi.
Spinning Dervishes Mevlevi
The Mevlevi Order is a group of followers of the great poet Mevlana. Each winter, members of the Mevlevi honor the memory of the founder of the order by hosting the festival. At a religious ceremony, dervishes come in fluttering white dresses and conical hats. They spin to the sounds of mystical music and symbolize death and the final stage of the union of Mevlana and Allah.
Dervishes Bektashi
Bektashi Dervish is a follower of the mystic Haji Bektashi Veli. The movement became quite popular after Ali was declared heir to Muhammad. For the Sufi order of Bektashi, music plays a very significant role. Members of the Bektashi order do not demonstrate their religiosity, they do not read prayers aloud, do not go to the mosque and do not fast. Except for a three-day post in memory of Hussein's torment.
Ceremonial Dervish Dance
The dancing dervish is the embodiment of a special ritual of worshiping Allah. The rhythm of the dance to the magical sounds of reed flute, fluttering clothes of dervishes. This is a special understanding of the world, man on Earth and in the Universe. In the finale of the dance, dervishes are freed from clothes, which symbolizes liberation from worries and earthly hardships, and also shows that before God all people are equal.
Despite the fact that the dervish is a member of an ancient order, which was founded almost eight hundred years ago, his ritual dance has not changed much today. Dervishes slowly go out and spread white rugs and scarlet sheepskin. Then they take off their wraps and kneel, crossing their arms over their chests. They approach their religious mentor and lay their heads on his shoulder, kiss his hand, bow to each other and begin, spinning, to walk in a circle. During the dance, dervishes fall into a trance to receive a blessing from God.
Dervish Monastery
In Northern Cyprus, in the city of Lefkosa, there is a small building built in the Oriental style - this is a monastery of the Order of Dancing Dervishes. Since 1963, the premises of this monastery housed an ethnographic museum. In the courtyard of the building you can see a large number of tombstones that belong to people of various affluence. It is possible to determine to which social layer the owner belonged by the shape of the cap located above the tombstone.
Also in this museum is a painting depicting dancing dervishes. This made them ecstatic for spiritual meditation. The ritual dances of the dervishes took place in the central hall of the monastery. In the hall of the museum there are wax figures of dancing dervishes and mystical music constantly sounds. Therefore, visitors can easily imagine what the ritual dance of the order looked like.
