The Damirdāshiyya is a Cairo branch of the Khalwatiyya Ṣūfī order, whose founder was Muḥammad Damirdāsh (or Damirdāsh al-Muḥammadī, d. 929/1523) (the Khalwatiyya was founded during the eighth/fourteenth century in northwestern Persia, and prominent initiates of the order went on to establish separate branches, especially in Turkey, eastern European lands under Ottoman rule, and across North Africa). Damirdāsh was originally from Azerbaijan but pursued his career in Egypt. He had arrived as one of the many young slaves imported every year into Mamlūk Egypt. He rose rapidly