Dervish’s staff, steel
Iran; 18th-19th century
L: 68.5 cm
A dervish’s staff like this one was commonly used by members of Sufi brotherhoods. In certain Sufi orders, members practiced “the remembrance of God” and asceticism on long retreats, keeping a vigil as they prayed. During these vigils, the dervish used the staff to rest his head or arm as he warded off sleep.
At one end, the staff forms a calligraphic ornament that elegantly spells out the name Ali, referring to Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Shiites’ most important religious figure after the Prophet Muhammad.
Inv. no. 15/1994
Published in:
Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk and Peder Mortensen (eds.): Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal: the history and culture of the Islamic world, The National Museum, Copenhagen 1996, cat. 283;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat. 528;
James W. Allan: “”My father is a sun, and I am the star”: Fatimid symbols in Ayyubid and Mamluk metalwork. The C.L. David Lecture 2000” in Journal of the David Collection, 1, 2003, p. 28, fig. 6;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (eds.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston 2006, cat. 31;
Joachim Meyer and Peter Wandel: Sufisme: islams mystiske vej, Davids Samling, København 2011, s. 38;
Stig T. Rasmussen (ed.): Verdens skrifter, København 2011, fig. 4, pp. 154-155;
Alina Kokoschka: “Reading between the lines: Arabic script, Islamic calligraphy, and the question of legibility” in Bettina Gräf [et al.] (ed.): Ways of knowing Muslim cultures and societies: studies in honour of Gudrun Krämer, Leiden [2019], pp. 257-258, ill. 11,8;
Joachim Meyer, Rasmus Bech Olsen and Peter Wandel: Beyond words: calligraphy from the World of Islam, The David Collection, Copenhagen 2024, cat. 59, p. 200;
