Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

صُوفِىٌّ

Root: صوف

Full Definition

صُوفِىٌّ , a post-classical word, A man of the people called the صُوفِيَّة: [formerly applied to any devotee: afterwards, particularly, to a mystic; one who seeks to raise himself to a high degree of spiritual excellence by contemplation of divine things so as to elicit the mysteries thereof:] the صُوفِيَّة may be so called [from the Greek σοφο͂σ: or] in relation to the people called آلُ صُوفَان, [see صُوفَةٌ,] as resembling them in the devotion of themselves to religious exercises: or in relation to those called أَهْلُ الصُّفَّةِ, wherefore they are also called الصُّفِّيَّةُ: or in relation to الصُّوف [i. e. wool], which is proper to devotees and recluses: this last is the derivation commonly received.


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