Korosko

about a group of tourists in Egypt captured by marauding Dervish tribesmen

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I haven't read the book however the interesting part is a Dervish would never capture someone or steal or act as a marauder. Dervish is a person who believes in universal love and lives in poverty (by choice), thus given up worldly pleasures.

Aquadoc, there is nothing wrong with the information you found, that's historically correct. A religious guy named Muhammed Ahmad proclaimed to be Mahdi (the person prophesied in Islam to rule together with the Jesus in his Second Coming against the antichrist) and fought against the rulers. He was a dervish and his followers thought to be dervishes and according to the same source (Wikipedia)

Later, in order to distinguish his followers from adherents of other Sufi sects, he forbade the use of the word darwish (commonly known as "dervish" in English) to describe his followers, replacing it with the title Ansar

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The point is there is nothing wrong with a dervish uprising and the word "dervish" could be used in a pejorative manner, however stealing or marauding cannot be associated with a dervish.

Authors use creative license to abuse or bend common words to their will with different meanings and it can lead to a colloquial and common misuse.

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Totally agree with this one. That's what I was trying to say.

For instance, the term whirling dervish and dust devil can refer to a small sand vortex

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Wow, didn't know that they used whirling dervish as a term. Interesting.

or a Magic card that depicts swordsmen on horses wielding scimitars in a dust storm. The latter being marauders, which whirling dervish is now a simile in a metaphorical sense that has strayed far from the intended or original meaning.

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That's what I don't understand. I mean there are tons of words in Persian that could have been used for marauders. The word assassin for instance, it originates from the word hashshashin (some claim it to be asasiyun) and used for the same purpose in both English and Persian. Probably someone found the word dervish very exotic and used it for his own reputation

Which translates as "hashish eater"!

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Totally right Jay, however it is more complicated. A guy named Hasan Sabbah captured a castle (today's Iran, south of Azerbaijan) and created his own group of killers in 11th century. It was a religious group and drug use was not common in those kind of groups. Hasan Sabbah was calling his followers "asasiyun" which means "believers of Asas". Asas means main, basis in Persian (also in Azerbaijani). Hasan Sabbah was a shia muslim who was the member of a Persian sect called Nizari Ismailis which split from Ismailis. Simply:
Islam -> Shia Muslim -> Ismaili -> Nizari Ismaili -> Hashashin
According to their belief each of the messengers was sent to the world with an Asas (an Ismaili dawa [dawa means invitation to Islam] hierarchy). Prophet Muhammed had Ali for instance or Jesus had Simon Peter (Saint Peter) as an Asas. The conflict between Sunnis (orthodox of Islam) and Shias began after the death of the Prophet Muhammed. Sunnis claimed that they should vote for the successor of the prophet (voted for Abu Bakr - close friend of the prophet), however Shias claimed that the heir is chosen by God therefore it should be someone from the prophet's family (Ali). That's where all that Asas thing comes from.
So those killers were calling themselves Asasiyuns (believers of Asas) and their enemies were calling them hashashins (drug addicts) by changing few letters to insult and belittle Hasan Sabbah and his followers. Some foreign travellers misunderstood the word and thought it to be hashashin as well. It was Marco Polo who wrote about them, saying "Hasan was drugging his followers and taking them to the valley with the rivers of wine, milk, honey and lots of fruit trees and girls. Once the follower done what Hasan has ordered, he was promised to be taken back to that heaven." The thing is Marco Polo has never been to the castle while Hasan Sabbah was alive and it is thought that while being in prison in Italy he heard this legend from the sailors. An archaeological excavation done by some Germans revealed no trace of such things and it was mentioned that there wasn't even enough space for that kind of things.
Sorry for the long post, I hope you will enjoy reading it

Poor Hasan Sabbah, you fight to earn a reputation and create the best army of the killers and then after 1000 years someone claims that you were a drug addict and dedicates a song to you. I enjoyed the music though.

How else to discredit someone's work than to attribute deeds considered nefarious, illegal, or damning in some sense. It is done everyday in American media where the victim of some crime becomes the guilty one because he might have smoked pot or been arrested in his prior life, thereby deserving death or injury. A poor metaphor but the gist.....

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True and sad, Aquadoc.
And thanks for the picture. You see, they did the same thing to the dervish

Fnord, I think I have to tell you something about Santa
I have no problem with a writer creating a character with a weird background but calling a dervish as a marauder is like calling a monk as a hipster Actually dervishes are like the monks of Middle East.