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Text File  |  1992-09-02  |  482b  |  13 lines
  1. In Iran and Turkey, a religious mendicant;
  2. throughout the rest of Islam a member of an
  3. Islamic religious brotherhood, not
  4. necessarily mendicant in character. The
  5. Arabic equivalent is fakir. There are various
  6. orders of dervishes, each with its rule and
  7. special ritual. The `whirling dervishes'
  8. claim close communion with the deity through
  9. ecstatic dancing; the `howling dervishes'
  10. gash themselves with knives to demonstrate
  11. the miraculous feats possible to those who
  12. trust in Allah.
  13.