It is generally conceded among the Sufis that one of the great founders of their system, as found in Islam, was the adopted son and son-in-law of the Prophet, Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib. But it is also admitted that their religious system has always existed in the world, prior to Mohammed. It is known that a tribe, Sufah, from whom possibly the name is derived, in “the time of ignorance” separated themselves from the world and devoted themselves to spiritual exercises like those of the present Sufis. Sufism in its best known forms must thus be considered to be the philosophy of Mohammedanism and to represent the protest of the human soul against the formalism and barrenness of the letter of the Quran. Still there is much in favor of Schmölder’s assertion (Essai sur les ecoles philos. chez les Arabes) that Sufism is neither a philosophical system nor the creed of a religious sect, but simply a way of living. Perhaps the simplest statement is this: _Sufism is theosophy from the standpoint of Mohammedanism_. Said-Abul-Chair (about A. D. 820) is often called the author of Sufism. Abu Hashem (A. D. 767) has been called the first Sufi. The _Dabistan_ maintains the identity of the pure Sufis and that of Platonism and it has popularly been supposed that Sufism has borrowed very much from the Vedanta and from Plato and Aristotle; it has even been confidently asserted that the similarity is so striking to the student, that it is a most easy matter to find identical statements in either of them. We must confess that our study does not prove the assertion. The similarity is to be accounted for by the universality of truth. ETYMOLOGY. The root of the word implies wisdom, the Greek Sophia, purity, spirituality, etc. Some have connected it with sûf, wool, on account of the woolen garment worn by the devotees. Graham[43] maintains that “any person or a person of any religion or sect, may be a Sûfi. The mystery lies in this: a total disengagement of the mind from all temporal concerns and worldly pursuits; an entire throwing off not only of every superstition, doubt, or the like, but of the practical mode of worship, ceremonies, etc., laid down in every religion, which the Mohammedans term _Sheriat_, being the law, or canonical law; and entertaining solely mental abstraction, and contemplation of the soul and Deity, their affinity, etc.” In short, Sufism may be termed the religion of the heart, as opposed to formalism and ritualism. “Traces of the Sufi doctrine exist in some shape or other in every region of the world. It is to be found in the most splendid theogonies of the ancient school of Greece and of the modern philosophers of Europe. It is the dream of the most ignorant and the most learned, and is seen at one time indulging in the shade of ease, at another traversing the pathless desert.” (Malcolm Hist. of Persia.)