Enrique Simonet

Berlin, Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, 1895, no. 1615 (as Der Muscheltanz)

Dervishes in Islam were members of a Sufi fraternity, religious mendicants who chose or accepted material poverty. Their lives were dedicated to the universal values of love and service, and on the renunciation of ego to reach God, and the alms they received were not for their own good but to help others in need. In most Sufi orders, a dervish was known to practice the ritual prayer of dhikr through dance or religious practices to attain the ecstatic trance to reach God. Their most popular practice was Sama, which is associated with the thirteenth-century mystic Rumi. In folklore, dervishes are often credited with the ability to perform miracles, including healing powers. In the present work, a dervish performs his dance before a captivated audience, all of whom have removed their shoes for this quasi religious experience.