The Baqtāshīs 1 —Their Costume—Their Twelve Imāms—The Initiation of a Baqtāsh

The Darvishes bearing this denomination derived it From thename of the founder of the tarīq, or ‘path‘. He was a native of Bukhāra. it would seem that there were two persons of this name. Baqtāsh, the preceding one adding to his name qūlī, or ‘servant ‘(of God), and was the author of a mystical work called Būstān-al-Khiāl (‘The Garden of Mental Reflection’), in much repute among spiritual Mussulmans. The other is called Hājī Baqtāsh, and lived ² in Asia Minor during the reign of the Ottoman sovereign, Sultān Murād I. [1360–89] in 763 H. AS this Order of Darvishes was intimately connected with the Ottoman militia ¹ known as the Janissaries, now destroyed, some particular notice of him seems necessary, even in a work like the present.