Look at the picture. They stand with their backs to the viewer — two men, silent, almost faceless. Not distinguished by features, but by folds, fabrics, outlines. These are dervishes, wanderers of the spirit, ascetics of the heart. And within these two figures lies the entire world of nineteenth-century Central Asia, captured through the eyes of Russian artist and witness, Vasily Vereshchagin.
Patchwork as Symbol
Their robes, sewn from hundreds of vivid fabric pieces, are not merely decorative. This is the jubba al-fuqara — the garment of the poor and the mystic. Each patch represents a journey, a memory. These garments were made from donations, scraps, gifted cloth — each fragment holding its own story.
In Sufi culture, such robes symbolise a renunciation of worldly wealth and ego, a life lived in complete submission to the divine. The colours, though bright, speak not of splendour but of surrender.
Tashkent: Crossroads of Empires and Orders
The year is 1869. Tashkent is newly absorbed into the Russian Empire, yet it still breathes with the rhythms of the East — the madrasa, the bazaar, the mosque. Sufi brotherhoods thrive: Naqshbandiyya, Qadiriyya, perhaps even Yasawiyya. Their sheikhs teach in khanqahs, lead zikrs, heal, guide. Dervishes are not mere beggars — they are chosen ones.
Vereshchagin does not paint the exotic. He records a spiritual reality, woven quietly into the fabric of society. These dervishes are not theatrical figures. They are bearers of an invisible power, humble and profound.
Vereshchagin: An Artist at the Edge
A soldier and painter, Vereshchagin had the rare ability to see meaning rather than simply scenery. His “Dervishes” is not a genre scene but a sacred portrait of the East, stripped of pomp, filled with respect. He omits the faces — because what matters is not the man, but his path.
There is no drama in the pose — only silence, reserve, modesty. Yet within that silence lies an entire era, a prayer, a cultural crossroads.
“What is true is always modest. And so it remains invisible to those who seek only brilliance.”