Alma Benson, age 15. of Jackson, Miss., for her question:

WHAT I S A DERVISH?

A dervish is a member of one of the mystical religious orders of the Islamic religion. Most dervishes lead wandering lives of  self denial and survive by begging. Dervish is a Persian word meaning beggar or religious mendicant.

In the 1000s and 1100s, Muslim mystics organized the first dervish orders. Each order lived in a center resembling a monastery and had its own ritual.

One order is known commonly as the whirling dervishes because they whirl and dance to the music of a reed pipe as part of their worship. Other orders offer special prayers or practice unusual forms of devotion, such as wearing rough clothing, fasting and keeping vigils.

Many Muslims look upon dervishes as holy men and believe them capable of miracles and predicting the future.

Dervishes are sometimes called fakirs.