A Comparative Study of Medieval Begging Monks and Wandering Dervishes

Abstract

During the end of the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, there have been important transformations in religious and social life throughout Europe, the Middle East, and India. Apart from official religious authorities, different religious communities including begging monks and wandering dervishes emerged and played important roles in medieval religious and social life. However, historians generally have dealt with this phenomenon locally. For example, while medieval European historians have focused on begging monks in the Catholic World, medieval Islamic historians have worked on dervish communities in the Middle East. Yet, we need to analyze the religious commonalities more broadly. Therefore, in this article, emphasizing common motives and shared trends, I will examine begging monks in Medieval Europe and wandering dervishes in the Islamic
World in a comparative way. Thus, disregarding local dynamics and religious boundaries, I will highlight how religious transformations took place in Medieval Europe and the Islamic World in a similar vein.