Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

400 страница из 560

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.