SECTARIANISM.
Besides the Koran, there are other sacred and traditional books
called the Sonnah, the productions of Abubekir, Omer, and Osman, the
successors of the Prophet. The ancient caliphs of Egypt and Babylon
have also added their own. These books have numerous commentaries upon
them, which constitute the principal part of the Mohammedan literature,
and have been the source of much dissension. Sectarianism, therefore,
prevails among the Mussulmans as in every part of the world. We will
only mention those sects with whom the traveller in the East is apt
to come in contact.
The principal schism which divides the Mohammedan nation is that of
the Sünnees and the Sheyees.
The Sünnees are the orthodox party, and believe in the traditions
attributed to the Prophet and his successors, and are strict in all
their observances. Whereas the Sheyees reject all traditions and
are strict legitimists, adhering to Aali, who married the Prophet's
daughter, as the rightful successor, and rendering their homage to
his descendants.
The Turks are all Sünnees, and the Persians Sheyees, the one is more
fanatical, the other more superstitious, and as the difference between
them is small, so is their mutual hatred proportionably intense.
The Sünnees repudiate Aali, the infallible director of the Sheyees,
who, in their turn, decapitate the representatives of the Prophet,
Abubekir, Omer, and Osman in effigy. For they erect these persons in
sugar at their festivals, and when merry over their wine, cut the
respected friends of Mohammed into pieces and actually drink them
in solution.
The Turks elevate the sacred color, green, to their heads and
turbans with the greatest respect, but in contradistinction, the
Persians choose this hue for their shoes, trowsers, and every other
disrespectful use their ingenuity can devise. When the one shaves, the
other does not, and scorns the thorough ablutions of his rival. Indeed
no matter how or what, so it be vice versâ.
Most ingenious and vituperative are their mutual curses. "May your
fatigued and hated soul, when damned to Berzak (purgatory), find
no more rest than a Giavour's hat enjoys upon earth." Doubtless
alluding to the peculiar custom of the Franks in uncovering their
head in saluting, and the wear and tear that head-gear has to
undergo. "May your transmuted soul become in hell a hackney ass,
for the Jews themselves to ride about on," and many such emphatic
compliments are the height of fashion among the zealous adherents of
each adverse party.
Not only in the West, but in the East,
"'Tis strange there should such difference be,
'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee."
Apart from the foregoing, the very meaning of the word Islam, or
resignation to the service and commands of God, has been a source of
much dissertation and dissension, and has produced a variety of sects,
of which the Hanefees, Mevlevees, Rifayees, and Abdals, are the most
noted in Turkey. The Hanefees are the contemplative philosophers,
Oriental spiritualists or transcendentalists; and to this class the
sultan and the principal part of the people belong. The Mevlevees are
the dancing or whirling dervishes, and they may therefore be considered
as the Oriental Shakers. Their object is practical resignation to
God, which state of mind they think they attain, by whirling round
and round until their senses are lost in the dizzy motion.
They conform to the general tenets and observances, but their form
of worship is peculiar.
Their religious edifices are called Tekkés, which are open every
Tuesday and Friday, and are frequently visited by the sultan and
Europeans in general.
A large square space, which is surrounded by a circular railing,
constitutes the scene of their ritual, or ceremonies. A gallery
occupies three sides of the building, in which is the latticed
apartment of the sultan, and the place for the Turkish ladies.
In every mosque, and here also, there is a niche opposite the entrance,
called the Mihrab, which indicates the direction of Mecca. The walls
are adorned with entablatures, ornamented with verses from the Koran,
and with ciphers of sultans, and mottos in memory of other benevolent
individuals, who have endowed the Tekké.
The Sheikh, or leader of the community, sits in front of the Mihrab,
on an Angora goat-skin, or a carpet, attended by two of his disciples.
An attenuated old man, with a visage furrowed and withered by
time, bronzed by many successive suns, his long and grizzly beard
witnessing to the ravages of age, while his prominent eyes sparkling
like lightnings amid the surrounding darkness, are the only symbols
of animation or life, in his worn-out frame.
The dervishes, as they enter, make a low obeisance with folded hands
to this patron saint, with an air of mystic veneration, and take
their stand with their faces towards Mecca. The old sheikh arises,
and presiding over the assembly commences the services.
Their peculiar head-gear, called sikké, of thick brown felt, in the
shape of a sugar loaf, and long and flowing robes of varied hues,
make them seem like fantastic representations of some other sphere,
particularly, when they commence the slow and measured prostrations
of Mussulman worship.
Prayers being over, each dervish doffs his mantle, and appears in a
long white fustanella, trailing the polished floor, and of innumerable
folds, with a tightly fitting vest of the same pure color.
They now defile two by two before the sheikh, who extending his hand
towards them, seems to diffuse a sort of magnetism, which irradiates
every countenance.
As they stand immovable, the wild and thrilling music slowly pervades
every sense, until suddenly one of the number extends his arms,
and begins to revolve noiselessly, with slow and measured step. The
folds of his ample skirt now gradually open like the wings of a bird,
and with the swiftness of his motion, expand, until the dervish
only appears like the centre of a whirlwind. The rest are all alike
in motion, arms extended, eyes half closed as in a dream, the head
inclined on one side, they move round and round to the measured time
of the music, as if floating in ecstasy.
The calm and unimpassioned chief, with slow and stealthy step,
wanders among their evolutions. Suddenly they cease, and march around
the circle. The music increases its measure, and the dervishes again
commence their giddy motions; old and young seem to be in a visionary
rhapsody. Perhaps transported in the bewildering whirl to the regions
of the blest, they languish with rapture in the arms of the houris
of Paradise; or lose their earthly senses amid the glories which
surround the throne of Allah; till suddenly they stand transfixed,
their outspread and snowy drapery folding around them like the marble
investment of an antique statue.
They are all prostrated, exhausted by their ecstasies, and immovable,
until the sheikh recalls them to the realities of time by his holy
benediction, when they slowly rise again, compass the building, and
enveloping themselves with their cast-off mantles, silently disappear.
HOWLING DERVISHES.
There is an intoxication in the very motions of the whirling dervishes,
but the horrible ceremonies of the Rifayees are really distressing
to the beholder.
A long, empty hall, much like that of the Inquisition, as its walls are
adorned by an infinite variety of instruments of torture, constitutes
their temple of worship.
The fanatical disciples of this sect assemble every Thursday at
their Tekké, which is in Scutari, and after the performance of the
usual ritual of the Mussulmans, commence their ceremonies by ranging
themselves along the three sides of the apartment and within the
balustrade, which serves to separate them from the spectators.
Their sheikh takes his stand before the Mihrab facing the assembly,
and three or four of the members furnishing themselves with instruments
of music place themselves in the centre of the hall.
The performance then begins, by a monotonous chant, accompanied
with music, and the waving of their heads to and fro, which seems to
create a sympathetic vertigo in the Mussulman bystanders--for they
often are irresistibly drawn into the ranks.
By degrees, the motion increases, the chant grows louder, and their
countenances become livid, and their lungs seem to expand with the
noise and excitement.
The line becomes a solid phalanx as they place their arms on each
other's shoulders, and withdrawing a step, suddenly advance with a
tremendous and savage yell, Allah--Allah--Allah--hoo! which divine
appellative is to be repeated a thousand times uninterruptedly.
This strenuous effort renders them perfectly hideous, their very eyes
seem ready to start from their sockets, and their lips foam as the
inspiration possesses them. Thus retreating and springing forward,
they, each time, with increasing energy, renew their invocations of
Allah, Allah, Allah, hoo! until the distinctness of their articulation
is lost, and their exclamation becomes, in reality a complete howl,
as if proceeding from a pack of enraged dogs--thus meriting the
sobriquet of the "Howling Dervishes."
The movements and cries increase in swiftness until a mist of dust
pervades the dim apartment, and the wild and pale enthusiasts,
drenched with perspiration, seem like fantastic demons in the realms
of discord. Suddenly some of them, stripped to their waists, rush
forward and seizing the poignards and stilettoes, commence a wild,
infuriated dance, jumping, leaping, and lacerating themselves--fixing
the weapons into the hollow of their cheeks, and twisting them round
and round, as if on pivots, until, exhausted from exertion, they fall
to the ground in a spasmodic fit.
"Only to show with how small pain,
The sores of faith are cured again,"
Now the enthusiastic mothers approach, and cast their children
before the presiding sheikh, who, as they lie extended before him,
deliberately plants his heavy feet upon their frail bodies, and
so stands for some seconds. Old men and maidens, lay themselves low
before this saint, who is supposed to be by this time so inspired as to
have a miraculous power of expressing all ailments and maladies from
the human frame, and to have become so etherealized by the ecstatic
ceremonies as to lose all his specific gravity.
The Abdals include the various classes of the stoics, who generally
pretend to a total renunciation of all worldly comforts. Sometimes
clothed in the coarsest garments, and again half naked, and even
with lacerated bodies, they wander through the Mohammedan dominions,
a miserable set of frantic, idle, and conceited beggars. They may,
in fact, be considered the "communists" of the East, who despising
honest pursuits, live upon the community at large.
They commit the worst extravagances under the pretence of heavenly
raptures, and are even supposed to be divinely inspired. Idiots and
fools are esteemed by the Mohammedans as the favorites of Heaven;
their spirits are supposed to have deserted their earthly tenements,
and to be holding converse with angels, while their bodies still
wander about the earth.
It would be wearisome to go into further details; for infinite is the
diversity of the orthodox theologies of the Mohammedans, with the 235
articles of the creed, on which all the doctors of divinity differ;
hopeless must be the task of the student to surmount the commentaries
of the 280 canonical authors, not to mention the innumerable heretical
tenets of other sects, which must be studied to be controverted.
Verily we would suggest the recipe of a certain Molla, who must have
given up in dire despair, "Whenever you meet with an infidel, abuse him
with all your might, and no one will doubt you are a staunch believer."
As long as war and its exciting scenes occupied the restless minds
of the Arabs, there was no time for religious or party intrigue. The
simple "La Illah-Illallah," satisfied the momentary breathings of
their souls heavenward.
The turmoil of their life, the glitter of their arms and dreadful
carnage of all infidels, sufficed to ease their fancy, and satisfy
the thirst for excitement.
It was as they wiped their blood-stained scimitars, and during the
reaction which comparative peace and luxury created, that their minds,
free from more substantial food and activity, sought greater refinement
of spirituality.
In the absence of the real, the speculative began to grow, until Imams
and Ulema found that they could turn the tide of human affairs to their
own advantage, by exciting polemical and theological controversies.
A comparative study of the niceties of Mussulman doctrine, and
hair-breadth distinctions with those of more refined and enlightened
creeds, while it displays many and striking similarities, only
illustrates, with startling vividness, the time worn maxim, that
"there is nothing new under the sun."