Dervish Diary: Two Weeks in a Sufi Monastery in Istanbul

by Carl Vett, Elbridge Hathaway (Translator)

In 1925, the Danish publicist and anthroposophist Carl Vett became the first non-Muslim to be granted permission to live for two weeks as a dervish in a Sufi monastery in Constantinople (Istanbul).

Many years of study in psychic research and esoteric traditions had awakened his deep interest in the ecstatic states and inner experiences cultivated by the dervish orders — widely regarded as schools of spiritual initiation within Islam. During and after his stay in the Kelami Tekke, Vett kept a detailed diary of his observations and personal encounters.

Originally not intended for publication, the manuscript gained new significance in light of the turbulent political events of the the execution of twenty-nine men, many of them sheikhs and members of the Naqshbandi order. What began as a private record became a rare and valuable eyewitness account of a spiritual world on the brink of disappearance.

More than a century later, Dervish Diary remains a fascinating and illuminating document — an intimate glimpse into the mystical heritage of Sufism and one of the last authentic testimonies of traditional dervish life in Istanbul before the closure of the tekkes.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007