The Dance of the Kadri Dervishes and Two Veiled Women, 1842

This is an original antique lithograph, hand colored, from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). The upper image shows a gray walled hall with two windows, an arched niche with a hanging lamp and an inscribed panel high on the wall. On the floor turbaned men in long robes of green, yellow, crimson, violet and blue join hands in a wide circle, with an inner ring and boys among them, while other men watch from benches at the side and from a railed gallery at the left. The lower image shows two veiled women standing outdoors. The woman at the left is wrapped from head to foot in a crimson mantle, a white veil covering her head and lower face. The woman at the right wears a long gray blue robe with a white veil that falls in a point over her shoulders. Behind them at the left is a domed building with a crescent finial, with grass and a few trees in the open ground.

The plate is lettered "Tav. 119" at the upper left, "TURCHIA EUROPEA" in the center and "Tom. IV" at the upper right. The upper caption reads "Danza dei Kadry" (dance of the Kadry), and the lower caption reads "Maometana Siriaca ëd Europea velata" (Syrian Muslim woman and veiled European woman).

The Kadri, or Qadiri, order is one of the oldest Sufi brotherhoods, and its gatherings included the dhikr, the rhythmic remembrance of God, sometimes performed with movement.

A plate of real interest for a collection on religion, dance or the Ottoman world.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.