The Science of Dervish Geography

I to the hills lift up mine eyes/from whence shall come mine aid.
--Bay Psalm Book, 121.


The great precursor of Dervish geography was none other than the founding figure of civilizational studies, Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406 CE). In a manner similar to (but with greater sophistication than) Ibn Khaldun, Dervish geography explores the subtle interrelationships that subsist between the earth's terrain and human ways of being-in-the-world.

Dervishes recognize these subtle interrelationships because they experience ("taste") them: believing themselves to be cutting a path (tariqa) through this world, they locate their position on this path by reference to various "stations" (maqaamat). In turn, they observe how the shaped qualities of space (both natural and humanly manipulated) appear to mimic (or even induce) the Dervishes's own "inner" or subjective experiences (ahwal) at each station.

Adepts of bewilderment (itself a station), Dervishes naturally gravitate towards wilderness spaces; the relative impoverishment of mountainous locales, for instance, appeal to them: they feel at home in hardscrabble environments.

A topographical map of the world (such as the one above) reveals how hospitable this planet is to supporting Dervish Lebensformen. Their relative marginalization in urban contexts corresponds to their relative absence from elite literary memory; the latter phenomenon creates a false impression of demographic under-representation or even absence. But the Dervish-type (think Max Weber) has long been (and continues to be) present through time and across human cultures. In North America, for instance, expect to find Dervishes in mountainous regions (here):

Or here:

And expect them to appear like this:

Rather than this:

The science of Dervish geography protects us from being misled by appearances.