dervish

Originally the Persian word meant beggar, later it became the general name of Muslim monks. Dervishes were the members of the Islamic world who were not satisfied with the Orthodox view of life, and who dressed in clothes made of hard frieze and retired to peaceful monasteries where they meditated trying to achieve spiritual perfection. Because of their undemanding clothes (suf) they were called sufies, and the religious-theological movement started by them was called sufism. These gazing monks of the Islam had their own different methods to achieve the final goal, nirvana, when the sufi becomes one with the perfect Him. The way the sufi can achieve his goal is called tarika (it is an Arabic word) in the Islam mysticism. In Europe the various mystic trends - called dervish generally in Europe - were called Tarikat by the Osman Turks, referring to the Arab name of the 'way which led the sufi to God'.

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