Dervish

Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from Persian: درویش, romanized: Darvīsh)[1] in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (tariqah),[2][3][4] or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty.

[2][4] Their focus is on the universal values of love and service, deserting the illusions of ego (nafs) to reach God.

In folklore and with adherents of Sufism, dervishes are often credited with the ability to perform miracles and ascribed supernatural powers.

Saadi, for instance, who himself travelled widely as a dervish, and wrote extensively about them, says in his Gulistan: Of what avail is frock, or rosary, Or clouted garment?

Other fraternities and subgroups chant verses of the Qur'an, play drums or whirl in groups, all according to their specific traditions.

[14] Various western historical writers have sometimes used the term dervish rather loosely, linking it to, among other things, the Mahdist War in Sudan and other conflicts by Islamic military leaders.

[citation needed] During the Mahdist War, Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Mahdī decreed that all those who came to join him should be called anṣār, after the Prophet's earliest followers.

While some Britons used the term to denigrate the followers of the Mahdī, it was also used with a sense of admiration in accounts by British soldiers which describe the fearlessness and bravery of the lightly armed 'dervishes'.

[16][17] Similar works on the subject have been found in other books such as Memoirs of a Dervish: Sufis, Mystics and the Sixties by Robert Erwin.