The mendicant dervishes are mostly foreigners, or lose who have been expelled from the various orders, : impostors, who cheat and bewitch the people under le garb of dervishism. These travelling dervishes re mostly jutrglers, and their skill in trickerj' is truly onderful. They often become wealthy in the prac- ce of their arts. Their power over the common peo- le is very great, wliile the better-informed are beyond lieir readi.
The higher orders of dervishes have come to have an xtensive influence not only with the masses, but with he government itself. This power was acquired (1) hrough the wealth which came into their possession, ^rge legacies were left to them for the benefit of the >oor. These legacies were applied to building up der- Tshism. They soon learned also to impress the people vith a strong belief in the efficacy of their prayers. These came to be purchased at high prices, and thus HJcame a fruitful source of revenue. Their power was ncreased (2) by the popularity of the institution. In aking a stand against the dervishes, the government ^as virtually opposing a large majority of its own mbjeets. Sultan Mahmoud II attempted to break
their power. On the 10th of July, 1826, he massacred the three chiefs of the Betacki dervishes in Stamboul, razed their tekiehs, and drove the most of them into exile. Ten years from this time they were as power- ful as ever. The ulemas have always been their bit- ter enemies, and have afiTected to despise and ridicule them, but popuUir sympathy has been on their side. In Turkey there are three principal orders, viz. : I. The Mevlevy (Molowiyeh), or dancing dcr\'ishes, who claim as their founder Meolana-Jelaleddin-Hoomy- Muliammed, sumamed Sultau-uI-Ulema, or Sovereign of the Learned. Jelaleddin wrote a book called Mes- nevy—a, poetical composition— much of which has be- come proverbial in the East. The chiefs of this order exercise the prerogative of nominating the sheiks of the monasteries, and of girding each newly-made sul- tan with the sword of Osman. The dervishes of tiiis order are humble in demeanor, and keep a fast during the month of Bamazan, in addition to the weekly fast oH Thursday. Candidates desuing to be admitted to the order are placed on probation a thousand and one days, and required to perform the most menial ser- vices in the kitchens of the monasteries. The worship of this order consists in chanting the poems of their founder, reciting a prayer (^trf-Aa), and performing the dance, deor (circle). They have also an orchestra, who sing Persian odes, and play kettle-drums, tam- bourines, and fifes for the dancers. In these dances
-tfiM'j
Dancing DervIsheB.
about a dozen engage at a time, and after a few min- utes they are relieved by others, each set taking their turn three or four times during the service. The master of the dance (timctzenbasky) watches them closely to keep them in their places. A traveller mokes the following computation: '*6y looking at a stop-watch, I ascertained thatvon an average they turned sixty-four times in a minute. After spinning round for about five minutes, at a signal from the high-priest, both music and dancers suddenly stopi'cd, but recommenced in a few seconds. The third time they kept it up for nine minutes and three quarters ; my brain was swimming too, so much fo that I could hardly count their evolutions. The fourth and last time they whirled for five minutes and three quarters, thus making in all 1504 turns in 28J minutes*' (Auldjo, Journal of a Visit to Constaniinopk, Lond. 1885, p. 73). II. The Bedevy (or Bodawy), or howling dervishes, as travellers call them, have a convent at St. Dimitry, near Constantinople. Their religious exercises con- sist of prayers (namoz), chants, and vociferations of the name of God, accompanied with a rocking motion of their bodies. This motion attempts to imitate the rolling of a ship on the water, and indicates their rela- tion to Grod — Allah being the ocean and they the ships, They recite the attributes of God in a loud voice, put- ting a terrible emphasis on the word ABah as often as it occurs ; and this they keep up with a kind of frenzy until voice and strength are gone, when many of them, covered with perspiration and foam, fall senseless to
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the floor. In the midst of their fury they cat them- selves with knives and other sharp instraments ; bat there is method in their madness, and they seldom make deep wounds.
III. The Rufal, who had for their founder Seid-Ah- med-Rofal. Their exorcises are much like those of the Bedevy. Their highest ambition seems to be to make rapid motions and loud noises. Their leader chants the hctmdey-Muhammedff, or hymns in honor of Moham- med, while the rest join in the chorus Ya Allah! Ya Hu ! and this chorus increases in violence until it be- comes a roar. At the height of the excitement they seize red-hot irons prepared for the purpose, and hold them in their teeth until the glow disappears. They also hack their flesh with swords and knives. These wounds the sheik blows upon and anohits with his saliva, which, it is said, effects a cure in a few hours. The excited state of their liodies produces a profusion of Mood fh>m very slight woundk, and their trickery deceives the people into the belief that wonderful mir- acles are wrought in the healing of these wounds.