Sufi

   The Arabic word suf literally means "wool," so a sufi is a man of wool or an ascetic, wool being a material worn by such people. Sufi and dervish are terms used throughout the Islamic world for men who belong to mystical brotherhoods (tariqa, plural turuq) that emphasize the immanence of God rather than His transcendental aspect. The sufi orders in the Muslim world rose during the 12th and 13th centuries and were somewhat analogous to the monastic orders of medieval Christendom.

   In Kurdistan, there are only two basic sufi orders, the Naqshbandi and the Qadiri. The term sufi is used for the murids, or followers of the Naqshbandi order, while dervishes are followers of the Qadiri. To the Naqshbandi, the term dervish possesses pejorative connotations of backwardness and superstition involving ecstatic utterances, trances, fire-eating, and self-mutilation.

   The sufi orders serve both to strengthen and divide Kurdish society. Those who belong to the same tariqa order possess an obvious bond regardless of their tribal affiliation. On the other hand, different orders or even different tariqa networks of the same order often experience tensions and conflicts of authority. A well-known example was the conflict between the two Naqshbandi families — the Sadate Nehri and the sheikhs of Barzan in the latter half of the 19th century.

   Mustafa Kemal Ataturk banned the sufi orders in Turkey following the uprising of the Naqshbandi sheikh Said of Palu in 1925. The orders continued to exist underground, however, because they gave their adherents an identity and way to deal with the changing world, especially after the abolition of the caliphate. When the Democrat Party of Adnan Menderes came to power in Turkey in 1950, it allowed the revival of many traditional Islamic values. Thus there was ironically a certain amount of sufi resurgence in Turkey, while in Iraq, Iran, and Syria the sufi orders remained in decay.