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Sufism is the esoteric aspect of Islam. Its purpose is to convey direct knowledge of the eternal. The Sufis impart knowledge through lineages that go back to the Prophet Muhammud. In these various Sufi orders, the zikr, the repetition of "la illaha illa'llah" (There is no God but God), is part of initiation ceremonies. In fact, the method of the Sufis is zikr, and the manner in which zikr is performed is the essential difference among the various orders. The Dervishes repeat their zikr as they turn. They empty their hearts of all but the thought of God and whirl in the ecstatic movements of His breath.
The rediscovery of this almost forgotten book in which the author, the Danish publicist and anthroposophist Carl Vett, is telling of a forgotten time is a lucky coincidence. "In 1925 I was in Constantinople, and was, so it was generally said, the first non-Mohammedan to be allowed to live for a time as a dervish in a Sufi monastery . Many years of study had made me familiar with the phenomena of psychic research, and I wanted to observe at first hand the ecstatic states attained by the dervishes in their way of initiation - for the dervish orders of Islam are schools of initiation. Before and during my stay with the dervishes I kept a diary. It was not intended for special publication, but in view of the execution of twenty-nine men, most of whom were sheiks or members of the Naqshbandi order . it has seemed that these experiences might be of more general interest; and so I have decided to offer them to the public."(From the author's foreword) Even now, more than 70 years after its initial publication, this book is a valuable read for anybody interested in the Islamic aspect of the mystical heritage of mankind.
This brings together, in English, for the first time a number of articles in one volume that have been published in various books and journals and are reprinted with permission. Through this work, Rumi and his poetry as well as the whirling dervishes, will hopefully become more widely known in Western countries than they are at present. The whirling dervishes are famous for their ecstatic dance and but here it is hoped that their role within Sufism will become more clearly understood. The book is an attempt to suggest a renewed manner of thinking about one of the most celebrated trends in the mystical dimension of the Islam, the religion of love of Rumi and the cosmic dance of the dervishes. The theology is at the back of all the itinerary and the all five chapters represent the possibility to rethink the dynamic relation between disciples and their Founder, institution and charisma, politics and mysticism.
Thus Spake the Dervish explores the unfamiliar history of marginal Sufis, known as dervishes, in early modern and modern Central Asia over a period of 500 years. It draws on various sources (Persian chronicles and treatises, Turkic literature, Russian and French ethnography, the author’s fieldwork) to examine five successive cases, each of which corresponds to a time period, a specific socially marginal space, and a particular use of mystical language. Including an extensive selection of writings by dervishes, this book demonstrates the diversity and tenacity of Central Asian Sufism over a long period. Here translated into a Western language for the first time, the extracts from primary texts by marginal Sufis allow a rare insight into their world. The original French edition of this book, Ainsi parlait le dervice, was published by Editions du Cerf (Paris, France). Translated by Caroline Kraabel.