Fakir

Fakir, pronounced fah-KEER or FAY-ker, is a misnomer for an Indian conjuror.

Originally Hindustani (from the Arabic word fakir meaning poor) and applied to Moslem religious mendicants, not conjurors, as most Westerners do in ignorance of Eastern customs and languages.

It has become an advertising synonym for magician.

As a stage title, it was adopted sometime before 1860 by Isaiah Hughes as "The Fakir of Ava" and later followed in 1873 by Alfred Sylvester as the "Fakir of Oolu".

In the early 1880s a minor American named Robinson called himself "The Fakir ofVishnu" and in 1896 a troupe of Indian magicians toured the United States billed as "The Elite Hindoo Fakeers."

By 1945 by Al Flosso was billing himself as "The Coney Island Fakir".