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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1270
sources, but it shows its direct descent from the Hindus too plainly to admit
of doubt.
The great Sufi, teachers lived in the early days of the Mahommedan era.
The authorities gave the names of Dhun-Nun (a.d. 859); Sirri Sagvait (a.d.
867); Junaid (a.d. 910); Al-Nallaj (a.d. 980); Gazali (a.d. 1111); Jalal-ud-Din
Rumi (a.d. 1273); as being the great teachers of their times. And among the
great poets who have versed the Sufi teachings under the familiar disguises
should be mentioned Omar Khayyam; Nizami; Farid-ud-Din Attar; Sadi;
Shamsi; Hafiz; Anvari; Jami; and Hatifi. Sufiism flourished under the teachings
of the early sages and poets, but about the Sixteenth Century it began to
yield to the overwhelming influence of the orthodox Mahommedan church,
and a decline set in, from which the sect never has entirely recovered. But,
although the sect suffered this reverse in point of numbers and popularity,
it has recently experienced a new life, not drawing to itself great numbers,
but in the sense of attracting to it many Orientals of education and culture,
to whom its mysticism proved congenial. For about the last fifty years it has
been making quite a headway among the cultured Persians and Turks, and
among a few in Egypt and Arabia, the work, however, being conducted in
secret and being in the nature of secret-society work rather than religious
ceremony or worship. A few Europeans and Americans have been attracted
to the sect, particularly those who have been able to read between the
lines of Omar Khayyam’s “Rubaiyat,” seeing the mysticism appearing behind
the apparently materialistic expressions as interpreted by Fitzgerald, which
interpretation is generally held to contain more of Fitzgerald’s expression
than Omar’s conceptions—but still, the mystic teaching may be discerned
when one has the key, as we shall see presently.
In Persia, Egypt, Arabia, and Turkey, the word “Sufi” has been as much
abused as has the word “Yogi” in India. Both words originally meant “wise
men” and spiritual teachers, whereas in India the term “Yogi” has been
applied by Westerners and some Hindus, to the hordes of ignorant fakirs
who are on a very low plane of mentality and spirituality as well as of