ABSTRACT
ONE of the most interesting and correct writers on the East, Mr. M. A. Ubicini, devotes a chapter in his book entitled Letters on Turkey, to the subject of the Darvishes. I should commit an act of injustice did I not mention the valuable statements it contains. This author says :-
" If the ' Ulma [of Turkey] in its actual condition represent on the one side the secular clergy, the Orders of the Darvishes may also be assimilates' , on the other, to the regular clergy of our own ecclesiastical society. Spread, from the Atlantic to the Ganges, over a vast space, under the name of Darvishes, Santons, SUfis, and jaqT:rs, they are the religious members of Islamism, in the same manner as the 'ulmtl are its theologians, and form, with these latter-although they be irreconcilable enemies to each other-the opposing force in Turkey.
