DERVISHES. - The word d., from the Persian darwāf, is commonly explained as "beggar" (from dār = "door"), but its etymology is in reality rather uncertain. In most of the Islamic world this word denotes the member of a religious confraternity: in Persian and Turkish it is also used in the narrower sense of mendicant monk.
Religious confraternities began to arise in Islam only in the 6th century of the Hegira, whereas before that time the mystical life rested on an individualistic basis. The first confraternity, among those still existing, that has a well-defined historical origin appears to be that of the Qādiriyya, founded by 'Abd al-Qādir Gilānī (d. in 561 of the Hegira). The origin of the formulas and rites proper to each confraternity is usually traced back, through a long chain (silsilah) of saints, to the Prophet and to God himself. Every d. is required to know it and is also required to believe that the faith professed by his confraternity is the inner essence of Islam. The aspiring dervish (murīd) is "initiated" by his spiritual father (šefh, pir, ustād) by means in which hypnotism sometimes plays a part, and introduced into the confraternity by means of a contract ('ahd), consisting of a profession of religious faith and of vows that vary according to the confraternities. The theological systems of the various confraternities vary from an ascetic quietism to a more or less total pantheism. The same confraternity can, moreover, take different forms according to the different countries: in general the Persian and Turkish confraternities are further from orthodox Islam than those of Syria, Arabia or Africa. The religious rites proper to the confraternity are varied and often produce hypnotic phenomena and ecstatic crises. A rite common to all is the dīhr, whose purpose is to inspire in the believer the thought of the world of the hereafter and of his dependence upon it. The dīhr provokes a strong religious exaltation, which is further increased by other means used by certain orders of mystics (circular dances among the so-called "whirling" d., whose order was founded by the famous Persian poet Galāl ad-dīn Rūmī, shouts, etc.).
Some d., for example, perform extraordinary acts such as swallowing burning coals, live snakes and scorpions, thrusting long needles into the body and nails into the head, etc.
Besides the regular members of the orders, who are few and live in monasteries (hangah, ribāt, zāwījah, tekkh) or who travel as mendicant monks, there are adherents comparable to those of our "third orders," bound to recite certain daily prayers and to attend from time to time a dīhr in the monasteries.
The d. are generally recruited from the lower classes of the population, and in recent times governments have exercised and do exercise a control over the confraternities. Women too can be d., and in the Middle Ages they had special convents, whereas now they seem to belong only to the third orders.
The number of Muslim religious confraternities is enormous. One of the best known in Italy is the Cyrenaican one of the Senussi.