Khanqah

A Tekke ( Ottoman تكيه tekke, tekye; Bosnian tekija; Albanian Teqe; Arab زاوية Zawiya; persian درگاه Dargah or خانقاه chāneqāh, from the latter also transcribed Khanqah, khaniqah or Khanqa, the Tekken pl. ) is a center of a Sufi brotherhood ( dervish orders, or tariqa ) and means something like " retreat ", " protection" and " asylum ". Rare is by a convention speech, because you can not compare with the Christian conception of a monastery, a Tekke.

It hosts mainly dhikr ceremonies take place, where dervishes invoke God with his best names. However, the place can also serve to study or to other works.

Formation

The age of the Islamic prophet Muhammad is considered the Muslims as the "golden age of Islam", in which the former Muslims have lived in harmony with the laws of even the young religion. However, this situation changed fairly soon after the Prophet's death, when Islam was spread by conquest in North Africa and Asia. Islam then suffered the fate of many a religion and has been increasingly in the general population for lip service.

In protest against this situation, the Sufis began to lead an ascetic life. Chance exist already reports of Muslim ascetics from the time of Muhammad, but only decades, if not centuries after Muhammad's death began the Sufis, to organize themselves into ever larger orders. At that time they met in larger houses or just outdoors in the country to hold joint worship services. As these places were not protected against disturbance from outside, gradually emerge the first Tekken.

The establishment of the first Tekke was of the accepted opinion in the year 150 H / 767 AD in Damascus. There were other start-ups in Iraq and Khorasan before they established themselves throughout the Islamic world.

Different types of Tekken

In the various cultural regions have different names Tekken and sometimes slightly different functions.

In the eastern region, as well as in medieval Islamic Egypt called the meeting places chānegāh. They were there cultural and theological centers and were mostly supported by the government. In other cases, they consisted of foundations and were entertained by influential benefactors.

The term Zawiya literally means " angle". This type of meeting is used for smaller buildings, also called as the home of a Sheikh, in the meet for the dervishes dhikr. In addition, they were in earlier times often at intersections large travel distances and therefore serve the wandering dervishes as a resting place. The Turks call the Sufi tekke centers or Dargah (Persian ), the latter means " threshold " or " something that is between two places ."

Building a Tekke

The architectural style of a Tekke is simple and undemanding usual. All Tekken, even the smallest, have a large main room which, depending on the Tariqa, sama'hane is called Tevhidhane or Zikrhane. In this find the dhikr ceremonies at the Mevlevi Sema, as well as the Community ritual prayer (Arabic: salat) instead.

Larger Tekken often have additional rooms. For example, have some sama'hananen a partitioned area, Mutrib, for musicians Mutriban that accompany the musical as dhikr in the Mevlevi.

In some Tekken there are also small living spaces for the Sheikh ( leader of a Tekke or Order), for his wife, his daughters and younger sons. Sometimes also hujras ( "cells" ) is present, which may be occupied by dervishes.

Some Tekken who work for charitable purposes, but have extra large rooms or even separate buildings. An example of this is the Miskinler Tekkesi in Istanbul, which is known for their great leprosy hospital.

Within the Tekken complex there is next to the sama'hana still a place called chilakhana, which serves chila ( Turkish çile ) exercise. For this, the dervish for the period of 40 days goes into absolute seclusion to follow certain mental tasks and exercises. For large Tekken, which for example, represent the center of a Tariqa ( dervish orders, companionship ), is often also a tomb of the Founder ( Pir ) part of the building. This is usually a "place of visit " Ziyaret devout Muslims.