DERVISE

(From a Persian word signifying pooj-.) The name of certain cla es of religious persons among the Mohammedans of Turkey and Asia. They live partly in monasteries, partly alone, either stationary or wandering; and belong to a great variety of orders, of which there are thirty-two (it is said) within the Turkish empire only. It is impo ible to determine the period to which the origin of the dervises is to be referred. As in most other countries, there has existed in Persia from time immemorial a cla of enthusiasts, who, impre ed j with the conviction that poverty is the only pa port to I virtue, and that the privations of this world will be conimensurately compensated in the wodd to come, have voluntarily renounced all the comforts, luxuries, and charities of this life, and devoted themselves entirely to religious exercises. In most instances, however, such enthusiasts have been more famed for the theory than the practice of sanctity; and the dervises do not appear to form an exception to the rule. Their public religious [s. 341]