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.