Fodheil died in the year 187 of the Hegira. His disciple was _Ibrahim Ebn Adhem_, son of noble parents and also a Persian by birth, and he is an example upon the forbearance under injury and reluctance to have their right manifested, so prominent amongst the disciples of Fodheil. After the death of Fodheil the supreme direction of the brotherhood was vested in _Bishar el Hafi_, a native of Meron and inhabitant of Bagdad. When young he had, like Fodheil, led a reckless life, till one day walking in the streets he saw written on a piece of paper, torn and trampled on by the feet of the passers-by, the name of God. He picked it up and, having cleaned it to the best of his ability, took it home and placed it out of the reach of further profanation. The same night he heard a voice saying to him; “Bishar, thou has honoured my name. I will accordingly render thy name honourable in this world and in that to come.” He awoke from sleep a changed man, and began a new life of penance and virtue. The name Hafi signifies _barefoot_. He walked barefooted. His greatest trial was from the veneration of man: “O God,” he used to say, “save me from this honour, the requital of which may perchance be confusion in another life.” Our space forbids us to dwell upon the Egyptian ascetics who helped to lay the foundation for the future Sufism. We pass by them and dwell mainly with the Persian representatives. About this time—the beginning of the fourth century—two events occurred of greatest importance in the history we are narrating. The Samanide princes had gained ascendency in the empire over the Abbaside Caliphs. All the princes of the Samanide race were remarkable for their piety and patronage of learning. _Nasser Ebn Ahmed_, signalized himself by his love of retirement and religious meditation. He founded an oratory at Bokhara which soon became the resort of the now numerous ascetics, and soon other similar institutions arose throughout the country and _the dervishes of the East now took on them their permanent name and manner of life_. The other event which characterized this era was the outbreak of open heterodoxy among the ascetics. Hitherto they had concealed their tenets and practices, opposed as they were to the prevailing system, much after the fashion of Ali Zein el Abidin, grandson of the famous Ali, grand-master of the secret order: “Above all things I conceal the precious jewel of my knowledge, Lest the uninitiated should behold it, and be bewildered; Ah, how many a rare jewel of this kind, should I openly display it, Men would say to me: ‘Thou art one of the worshippers of idols;’ And Zealous Muslims would set my blood at price, Deeming the worst of crimes an acceptable and virtuous action.”