Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/62



1. Dervishes and Their Doctrine. Dervishes belong to a religious class or order professing self-denial and abstinence from worldly connections and luxuries, and spending their time in worship and religious meditation. Candidates of this order must prove themselves worthy by serving several months or years the Sheikh or the elder of the brotherhood, and by practicing at the same time the strict ordinances of the society. Dervish or Fakir means poor, and they glory in calling themselves "poor for the sake of the Truth (God)." But all dervishes are not poor. Some of them are really poor and destitute; they are called beggar dervishes, who go from town to town having nothing of their own but a patched robe and a lamb's or tiger's skin for their outer garment, sometimes barefooted and almost always bareheaded and wear long hair; in their hands a short stick with a battle-ax-shaped badge on one end; also a "Keshgoor," an oval dish, a large tambourine, a horn and long rosaries and some trifling relics or charms. For their daily bread they entirely depend upon the charity of the people. Some of them go silently in the market places and give thanks for anything that may be put in their oval dish. If they don't have enough they never