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sheikh and Murshid. They had schools attached to the
Mispha, where the Law, the religion, the Hebrew literature
and other branches of knowledge were taught. But over
and above this educational work, the Sophi was the
supreme head of a community of initiates whom he used
to instruct and teach the esoteric or mystic religion which
we know under the name of Sophia. Indeed, what we term
to-day Suphees (súfees or sufís) were then called nbiyim
or “prophets,” and what is called, in Islamic takkas, zikr
or invocation in prayer; they used to term “prophesying.”
In the time of the Prophet Samuel, who was the head of
the State as well as that of the Mispha institutions, these
disciples and initiates had become very numerous; and
when Saul was anointed and crowned, he joined the zikr
or religious practice of invocation with the initiates and
was announced everywhere: “Behold Saul also among the
Prophets.” And this saying become a proverb; for he was
also “prophesying” with the group of prophets (1 Sam.
x. 9-13). The Suphism among the Hebrews continued
to be an esoteric religious confraternity under the
supremacy of the Prophet of the time until the death of
King Solomon (pbuh) . After the division of the kingdom
into two, it appears that a great schism had taken place
among the Sophis too. In the time of the Prophet Elias
(pbuh) , about 900 B.C., we are told that he was the only
true Prophet left and that all others were killed; and
that there were eight hundred and fifty prophets of the
Baal and Ishra who “ate at the table of Queen Izabel”
(1 Kings xviii. 19). But only a few years later, Elias’s
disciple and successor, the Prophet Elisha, at Bethel and
at Jericho is met by scores of the “sons of Prophets” who
foretell him about the imminent ascension of his master
Elias (pbuh) (2 Kings ii.).