DERVISE, or DERVISH, a name given to a kind of Turkish priests or monks, who lead a very austere life, and profess extreme poverty, though they are allowed to marry. The word is originally Persian, and signifies a beggar, or one who has nothing; and because religious persons, particularly the followers of Mevelava, pretend not to possess anything, the religious in general, and the Mevelavites in particular, are called Dervises or Dervishes.

The dervises called Mevelavites are a Mohammedan order of religious persons, the chief or founder of which was one Mevelava. They are now exceedingly numerous. Their chief monastery is situated near Cognia, in Natolia, where the general has his residence, and where the assemblies of the order are held; the other houses being all dependent on this, by a privilege granted to the monastery under Ottoman I.

The dervises affect a great deal of modesty, patience, humility, and charity. They go bare-legged and open-breasted, and frequently burn themselves with hot irons, in order to inure themselves to patience. They fast regularly on Wednesdays till after sunset; and on Tuesdays and Fridays they hold meetings, at which the superior of the house presides. One of them plays all the while on a flute, and the rest dance, whirling their bodies round with the greatest rapidity imaginable. This practice they observe with great strictness, in memory of Mevelava, their patriarch, having turned miraculously round, as they pretend, for the space of four days, without any food or refreshment, his companion Hamsa playing all the while on the flute; after which he fell into an ecstasy, in which he received wonderful revelations for the establishment of his order. They believe the flute an instrument consecrated by Jacob and the shepherds of the Old Testament, and that the latter sang the praises of God accompanied by this instrument. They profess poverty, chastity, and obedience, but seldom practise these virtues. For the most part they are either fools, fanatics, or knaves; most generally the last.