riter an account of a monastic establishment near
Malaga.[9] The writer says: "I saw on a mountain, close to this city, a
convent, which was the residence of several religious men living in
community, and conversant with the principles of Sufism: they have a
superior to preside over them, and one or more servants to attend to
their wants. Their internal regulations are really admirable; each
faquir lives separately in a cell of his own, and meets his comrades
only at meals or prayers. Every morning at daybreak the servants of the
community go round to each faquir, and inquire of him what provisions he
wishes to have for his daily consumption.... They are served with two
meals a day. Their dress consists of a coarse woollen frock, two being
allowed yearly for each man--one for winter, another for summer. Each
faquir is furnished likewise with a regular allowance of sugar, soap to
wash his clothes, oil for his lamp, and a small sum of money to attend
the bath, all these articles being distributed to them every Friday....
Most of the faquirs are bachelors, a few only being married. These live
with their wives in a separate part of the building, but are subject to
the same rule, which consists in attending the five daily prayers,
sleeping at the convent, and meeting together in a lofty-vaulted
chamber, where they perform certain devotions.... In the morning each
faquir takes his Koran and reads the first chapter, and then that of
the king;[10] and when the reading is over, a Koran, previously divided
into sections, is brought in for each man to read in turn, until the
whole is completed. On Fridays and other-festivals these faquirs are
obliged to go to the mosque in a body, preceded by their superior....
They are often visited by guests, whom they entertain for a long time,
supplying them with food and other necessaries. The formalities observed
with them are as follows:--If a stranger present himself at the door of
the convent in the garb of a faquir, namely, with a girdle round his
waist, his kneeling-mat suspended between his shoulders, his staff in
his right hand, and his drinking vessel in his left, the porter of the
convent comes up to him immediately, and asks what country he comes
from, what convent he has resided in, or entered on the road, who was
the superior of it, and other particulars, to ascertain that the visitor
is not an impostor.... This convent was plentifully endowed with rents
for the support of its inma