“In the first year of the Hijrah, forty-five citizens of Makkah joined themselves to as many others of al-Madīnah. They took an oath of fidelity to the doctrines of their Prophet, and formed a sect or fraternity, the object of which was to establish among themselves a community of property, and to perform every day certain religious practices in a spirit of penitence and mortification. To distinguish themselves from other Muḥammadans, they took the name of Sūfīs. [[SUFIISM].] This name, which later was attributed to the most zealous partizans of Islām, is the same still in use to indicate any Musulmān who retires from the world to study, to lead a life of pious contemplation, and to follow the most painful exercises of an exaggerated devotion. To the name of Sūfī they added also that of faqīr, because their maxim was to renounce the goods of the earth, and to live in an entire abnegation of all worldly enjoyments, following thereby the words of the Prophet, al-faqru fak͟hrī, or ‘Poverty is my pride.’ Following their example, Abū Bakr and ʿAlī established, even during the life-time of the Prophet and under his own eyes, religious orders, over which each presided, with Ẕikrs or peculiar religious exercises, established by them separately, and a vow taken by each of the voluntary disciples forming them. On his decease, Abū Bakr made over his office of president to one Salmānu ʾl-Fārisī, and ʿAlī to al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī, and each of these charges were consecrated under the title K͟halīfah, or successor. The two first successors followed the example of the K͟halīfahs of Islām, and transmitted it to their successors, and these in turn to others, the most aged and venerable of their fraternity. Some among them, led by the delirium of the imagination, wandered away from the primitive rules of their society, and converted, from time to time, these fraternities into a multitude of religious orders.

“They were doubtlessly emboldened in this enterprise by that of a recluse who, in the thirty-seventh year of the Hijrah (A.D. 657) formed the first order of anchorets of the greatest austerity, named Uwais al-Karānī, a native of Kārū, in Yaman, who one day announced that the archangel Gabriel had appeared to him in a dream, and in the name of the Eternal God commanded him to withdraw from the world, and to give himself up to a life of contemplation and penitence. This visionary pretended also to have received from that heavenly visitor the plan of his future conduct, and the rules of his institution. These consisted in a continual abstinence, in retirement from society, in an abandonment of the pleasures of innocent nature, and in the recital of an infinity of prayers day and night (Ẕikrs). Uwais even added to these practices. He went so far as to draw out his teeth, in honour, it is said, of the Prophet, who had lost two of his own in the celebrated battle of Uḥud. He required his disciples to make the same sacrifice. He pretended that all those who would be especially favoured by heaven, and really called to the exercises of his Order, should lose their teeth in a supernatural manner; that an angel should draw out their teeth whilst in the midst of a deep sleep; and that on awakening they should find them by their bedside. The experiences of such a vocation were doubtless too severe to attract many proselytes to the order; it only enjoyed a certain degree of attraction for fanatics and credulously ignorant people during the first days of Islām. Since then it has remained in Yaman, where it originated, and where its partisans were always but few in number.”

It was about A.H. 49 (A.D. 766), that the Shaik͟h Alwān, a mystic renowned for his religious fervour, founded the first regular order of faqīrs, now known as the Alwanīyah, with its special rules and religious exercises, although similar associations of men without strict rules had existed from the days of Abū Bakr, the first K͟halīfah. And although there is the formal declaration of Muḥammad, “Let there be no monasticism in Islām,” still the inclinations of Eastern races to a solitary and a contemplative life, carried it even against the positive opposition of orthodox Islām, and now there is scarcely a maulawī or learned man of reputation in Islām who is not a member of some religious order.

Each century gave birth to new orders, named after their respective founders, but in the present day there is no means of ascertaining the actual number of these associations of mystic Muslims. M. D’Ohsson, in the work already quoted, gives a list of thirty-two orders, but it is by no means comprehensive.

No. Name of the Order. Founder. Place of the Founder’s Shrine. Date. Date.
A.H. A.D.
1 Alwaniyah Shaik͟h Alwan Jeddah 149 766
2 Adhamiyah Ibrahim ibn Adham Damascus 161 777
3 Bastamiyah Bayazid Bastami Jabal Bastam 261 874
4 Saqatiyah Sirri Saqati Bag͟hdād 295 907
5 Qadiriyah Abdu ʾl-Qadir Jilani Bag͟hdād 561 1165
6 Rufaiyah Saiyid Ahmad Rufai Bag͟hdād 576 1182
7 Suhrwardiyah Shihabu ʾd-Din Bag͟hdād 602 1205
8 Kabrawiyah Najmu ʾd-Din Khawazim 617 1220
9 Shaziliyah Abu ʾl-Hasan Makkah 656 1258
10 Maulawiyah Jalalu ʾd-Din Rumi Conyah 672 1273
11 Badawiyah Abu ʾl-Fitan Ahmad Tanta, Egypt 675 1276
12 Naqshbandiyah Pir Muhammad Qasri Arifan 719 1319
13 Sadiyah Sadu ʾd-Din Damascus 736 1335
14 Bakhtashiyah Haji Bakhtash Kīr Sher 736 1357
15 Khalwatiyah Umar Khalwati Cæsarea 800 1397
16 Zainiyah Zainu ʾd-Din Kufah 838 1438
17 Babaiyah Abdu ʾl-Ghani Adrianople 870 1465
18 Bahramiyah Haji Bahrami Angora 876 1471
19 Ashrafiyah Ashraf Rumi Chīn Iznic 899 1493
20 Bakriyah Abu Bakr Wafai Aleppo 902 1496
21 Sunbuliyah Sunbul Yusuf Bulawi Constantinople 936 1529
22 Gulshaniyah Ibrahim Gulshani Cairo 940 1533
23 Ighit Bashiyah Shamsu ʾd-Din Magnesia 951 1544
24 Umm Sunaniyah Shaik͟h Umm Sunan Constantinople 959 1552
25 Jalwatiyah Pir Uftadi Broosa 988 1580
26 Ashaqiyah Hasanu ʾd-Din Constantinople 1001 1592
27 Shamsiyah Shamsu ʾd-Din Madīnah 1010 1601
28 Sunan Ummiyah Alim Sunan Ummi Alwali 1079 1668
29 Niyaziyah Muhammad Niyaz Lemnos 1100 1694
30 Muradiyah Murad Shami Constantinople 1132 1719
31 Nuruddiniyah Nuru ʾd-Din Constantinople 1146 1733
32 Jamaliyah Jamalu ʾd-Din Constantinople 1164 1750

A BASTAMI SHAIKH. (Brown.)

Three of these orders, the Bast̤āmīyah, the Naqshbandīyah, and the Bak͟htāshīyah, descend from the original order established by the first K͟halīfah, Abū Bakr. The fourth K͟halīfah, ʿAlī, gave birth to all the others. Each order has its silsilah, or chain of succession, from one of these two great founders.

The Naqshbandīyah, who are the followers of K͟hwajah Pīr Muḥammad Naqshband, are a very numerous order. They usually perform the Ẕikr-i-K͟hafī, or silent devotions, described in the account of [ZIKR].

The first duty of the members of this Order is to recite, daily, particular prayers, called the k͟hātim k͟hāwjagān; once, at least, the Istīg͟hfār (Prayer for Forgiveness); seven times the salāmāt; seven times the Fātiḥah (first chapter of the Qurʾān); nine times the chapter of the Qurʾān called Inshirāh (Chapter xciv.); lastly, the Ik͟hlāṣ (Chapter cxii.). To these are added the ceremonies called Ẕikr. [[ZIKR].]