fakir , [Arab.,=poverty], in Islam, usually an initiate in a Sufi order. The title fakir is borne with the understanding that poverty is the need to be in relation to God. This term, along with its Persian equivalent, dervish, was extended in Western usage to Indian ascetics and yogis, and incorrectly used generally for itinerant magicians and wonder-workers. Each Sufi order ( tariqa ) traces its ancestry to a mystic teacher and, beyond him, through a chain of transmission ( silsila ) to the Prophet Muhammad and ultimately, to God. Sufi orders began to organize in the tumultuous 12th cent.... Read more