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PIERRE ANDRE DE SUFFREN SAINT TROPEZ (1729-1788), French admiral, was the third son of the marquis de Saint Tropez, head of a family of nobles of Provence which claimed to have emigrated from Lucca in the 14th century. He was born in the Château de Saint Canat in the present department of Aix on the 17th of July 1729. The French navy and the Order of Malta offered the usual careers for the younger sons of noble families of the south of France who did not elect to go into the Church. The connexion between the Order and the old French royal navy was close. Pierre Andre de Suffren was destined by his parents to belong to both. He entered the close and aristocratic corps of French naval officers as a "garde de la marine"- cadet or midshipman, in October 1743, in the "Solide," one of the line of battleships which took part in the confused engagement off Toulon in 1744. He was then in the "Pauline" in the squadron of M. Macnemara on a cruise in the West Indies. In 1746 he went through the duc D'Anville's disastrous expedition to retake Cape Breton, which was ruined by shipwreck and plague. Next year (1747) he was taken prisoner by Hawke in the action with the French convoy in the Bay of Biscay. His biographer Cunat assures us that he found British arrogance offensive. When peace was made in 1748 he went to Malta to perform the cruises with the galleys of the Order technically called "caravans," a reminiscence of the days when the knights protected the pilgrims going from Saint John d'Acre to Jerusalem. In Suffren's time this service rarely went beyond a peaceful tour among the Greek islands. During the Seven Years' War he had the unwonted good fortune to be present as lieutenant in the "Orphee" in the action with Admiral Byng (q.v.), which, if not properly speaking a victory, was at least not a defeat for the French, and was followed by the surrender of the English garrison of Minorca. But in 1757 he was again taken prisoner, when his ship the "Ocean" was captured by Boscawen off Lagos. On the return of peace in 1763 he intended again to do the service in the caravans which was required to qualify him to hold the high and lucrative posts of the Order. He was, however, named to the command of the "Cameleon," a zebec - a vessel of mixed square and lateen rig peculiar to the Mediterranean - in which he cruised against the pirates of the Barbary coast. Between 1767 and 1771 he performed his caravans, and was promoted from knight to commander of the Order. From that time till the beginning of the War of American Independence he commanded vessels in the squadron of evolution which the French government had established for the purpose of giving practice to its officers. His nerve and skill in handling his ship were highly commended by his chiefs. In 1778 and 1779 he formed part of the squadron of D'Estaing (q.v.) throughout its operations on the coast of North America and in the West Indies. He led the line in the action with Admiral John Byron off Grenada, and his ship, the "Fantasque" (64), lost 62 men. His letters to his admiral show that he strongly disapproved of D'Estaing's half-hearted methods. In 1780 he was captain cf the "Zele" (74), in the combined French and Spanish fleets which captured a great English convoy in the Atlantic. His candour towards his chief had done him no harm in the opinion of D'Estaing. It is said to have been largely by the advice of this admiral that Suffren was chosen to command a squadron of five ships of the line sent out to help the Dutch who had joined France and Spain to defend the Cape against an expected English attack, and then to go on to the East Indies. He sailed from Brest on the 22nd of March on the cruise which has given him a unique place among French admirals, and puts him in the front rank of sea commanders. He was by nature even more vehement than able. The disasters which had befallen the navy of his country during the last two wars, and which, as he knew, were due to bad administration and timid leadership, had filled him with a burning desire to retrieve its honour. He was by experience as well as by temperament impatient with the formal manoeuvring of his colleagues, which aimed at preserving their own ships rather than at taking the English, and though he did not dream of restoring the French power in India, he did hope to gain some such success as would enable his country to make an honourable peace. On the 16th of April 1781 he found the English expedition on its way to the Cape under the command of Commodore, commonly called Governor, George Johnstone (1730-1787), at anchor in Porto Praya, Cape de Verd Islands. Remembering how little respect Boscawen had shown for the neutrality of Portugal at Lagos, he attacked at once. Though he was indifferently supported, he inflicted as much injury as he suffered, and proved to the English that in him they had to deal with an admiral of quite a different type from the Frenchmen they had been accustomed to as yet. He pushed on to the Cape, which he saved from capture by Johnstone, and then made his way to the Isle de France (Mauritius), then held by the French. M. D'Orves, his superior officer, died as the united squadrons, now eleven sail of the line, were on their way to the Bay of Bengal. The campaign, which Suffren now conducted against the English admiral Sir Edward Hughes (1720?-1794), is famous for the number and severity of the encounters between them. Four actions took place in 1782: on the 17th of February 1782, south of Madras; on the 12th of April near Trincomalee; on the 6th of July off Cuddalore, after which Suffren seized upon the anchorage of Trincomalee compelling the small British garrison to surrender; and again near that port on the 3rd of September. No ship was lost by Sir Edward Hughes in any of these actions, but none were taken by him. Suffren attacked with unprecedented vigour on every occasion, and if he had not been ill-supported by some of his captains he would undoubtedly have gained a distinct victory; as it was, he maintained his squadron without the help of a port to refit, and provided himself with an anchorage at Trincomalee. His activity encouraged Hyder Ali, who was then at war with the Company. He refused to return to the islands for the purpose of escorting the troops coming out under command of Bussy, maintaining that his proper purpose was to cripple the squadron of Sir Edward Hughes. During the north-east monsoon he would not go to the islands but refitted in the Malay ports in Sumatra, and returned with the south-west monsoon in 1783. Hyder Ali was dead, but Tippoo Sultan, his son, was still at war with the Company. Bussy arrived and landed. The operations on shore were slackly conducted by him, and Suffren was much hampered, but when he fought his last battle against Hughes (April 20, 1783), with fourteen ships to eighteen he forced the English admiral to retire to Madras, leaving the army then besieging Cuddalore in a very dangerous position. The arrival of the news that peace had been made in Europe put a stop to hostilities, and Suffren returned to France. While refitting at the Cape on his way home, several of the vessels also returning put in, and the captains waited on him. Suffren said in one of his letters that their praise gave him more pleasure than any other compliment paid him. In France he was received with enthusiasm, and an additional office of vice-admiral of France was created for him. He had been promoted bailli in the Order of Malta during his absence. His death occurred very suddenly on the 8th of December 1788, when he was about to take command of a fleet collected in Brest. The official version of the cause of death was apoplexy, and as he was a very corpulent man it appeared plausible. But many years afterwards his body servant told M. Jal, the historiographer of the French navy, that he had been killed in a duel by the prince de Mirepoix. The cause of the encounter, according to the servant, was that Suffren had refused in very strong language to use his influence to secure the restoration to the navy of two of the prince's relations who had been dismissed for misconduct.

Suffren was crippled to a large extent by the want of loyal and capable co-operation on the part of his captains, and the vehemence of his own temperament sometimes led him to disregard prudence, yet he had an indefatigable energy, a wealth of resource, and a thorough understanding of the fact - so habitually disregarded by French naval officers - that success at sea is won by defeating an enemy and not by merely outmanceuvring him; and this made him a most formidable enemy. The portraits of Suffren usually reproduced are worthless, but there is a good engraving by Mme de Cernel after an original by Gerard.

The standard authority for the life of Suffren is the Histoire du Bailli de Suffren by Ch. Cunat (1852). The Journal de Bord du Bailli de Suffren dans l'Inde, edited by M. Mores, was published in 1888. There is an appreciative study in Captain Mahan's Sea Power in History. (D. H.) Sufiism ( ta g awwuf ), a term used by Moslems to denote any variety of mysticism, is formed from the Arabic word Sufi, which was applied, in the 2nd century of Islam, to men or women who adopted an ascetic or quietistic way of life. There can be no doubt that SUP is derived from guf (wool) in reference to the woollen garments often, though not invariably, worn by such persons: the phrase labisa's-guf (" he clad himself in wool") is commonly used in this sense, and the Persian word pashminapush, which means literally "clothed in a woollen garment," is synonymous with ufi. Other etymologies, such as Safa (purity) - a derivation widely accepted in the East - and a04 os, are open to objection on linguistic grounds.

In order to trace the origin and history of mysticism in Islam we must go back to Mahomet. On one side of his nature the Prophet was an ascetic and in some degree a mystic. Notwithstanding his condemnation of Christian monkery (rahbaniya), i.e. of celibacy and the solitary life, the example of the IJanifs, with some of whom he was acquainted, and the Christian hermits made a deep impression on his mind and led him to preach the efficacy of ascetic exercises, such as prayer, vigils and fasting. Again, while Allah is described in the Koran as the One God working his arbitrary will in unapproachable supremacy, other passages lay stress on his all-pervading presence and intimate relation to his creatures, e.g. " Wherever ye turn, there is the face of Allah" (ii. 109), "We (God) are nearer to him (Man) than his neck-vein" (1. i 5). The germs of mysticism latent in Islam from the first were rapidly developed by the political, social and intellectual conditions which prevailed in the two centuries following the Prophet's death. Devastating civil wars, a ruthless military despotism caring only for the things of this world, Messianic hopes and presages, the luxury of the upper classes, the hard mechanical piety of the orthodox creed, the spread of rationalism and freethought, all this induced a revolt towards asceticism, quietism, spiritual feeling and emotional faith. Thou s ands, wearied and disgusted with worldly vanities, devoted themselves to God. The terrors of hell, so vividly depicted in the Koran, awakened in them an intense consciousness of sin, which drove them to seek salvation in ascetic practices. Sufiism was originally a practical religion, not a speculative system; it arose, as Junayd of Bagdad says, "from hunger and taking leave of the world and breaking familiar ties and renouncing what men deem good, not from disputation." The early Sufis were closely attached to the Mahommedan church. It is said that Abu Hashim of Kufa (d. before A.D. 800) founded a monastery for Stills at Ramleh in Palestine, but such fraternities seem to have been exceptional. Many ascetics of this period used to wander from place to place, either alone or in small parties, sometimes living by alms and sometimes by their own labour. They took up and emphasized certain Koranic terms. Thus dhikr (praise of God) consisting of recitation of the Koran, repetition of the Divine names, &c., was regarded as superior to the five canonical prayers incumbent on every Moslem, and tawakkul (trust in God) was defined as renunciation of all personal initiative and volition, leaving one's self entirely in God's hands, so that some fanatics. deemed it a breach of "trust" to seek any means of livelihood, engage in trade, or even take medicine. Quietism soon passed into mysticism. The attainment of salvation ceased to be the first object, and every aspiration was centred in the inward life of dying to self and living in God. "O God !" said Ibrahim ibn Adham, "Thou knowest that the eight Paradises are little beside the honour which Thou hast done unto me, and beside Thy love, and Thy giving me intimacy with the praise of Thy name, and beside the peace of mind which Thou hast given me when I meditate on Thy majesty." Towards the end of the 2nd century we find the doctrine of mystical love set forth in the sayings of a female ascetic, Rabi`a of Basra, the first of a long line of saintly women who have played an important role in the history of Sufiism. Henceforward the use of symbolical expressions, borrowed from the vocabulary of love and wine, becomes increasingly frequent as a means of indicating holy mysteries which must not be divulged. This was not an unnecessary precaution, for in the course of the 3rd century, Sufiism assumed a new character. Side by side with the quietistic and devotional mysticism of the early period there now sprang up a speculative and pantheistic movement which was essentially anti-Islamic and rapidly came into conflict with the orthodox ulema. It is significant that the oldest representative of this tendency - Ma`ruf of Bagdad - was the son of Christian parents and a Persian by race. He defined Sufiism as a theosophy; his aim was "to apprehend the Divine realities." A little later Abu Sulaiman al-Darani in Syria and Dhu'l-Nan in 'Egypt developed the doctrine of gnosis (ma`rifat) through illumination and ecstasy. The step to pantheism was first decisively taken by the great Persian Safi, Abu Yazid (Bayezid) of Bistam (d. A.D. 874), who introduced the doctrine of annihilation ( fatal), i.e. the passing away of individual consciousness in the will of God.

It is, no doubt, conceivable that the evolution of Sufiism up to this point might not have been very different even although it had remained wholly unaffected by influences outside of Islam. But, as a matter of fact, such influences made themselves powerfully felt. Of these, Christianity, Buddhism and Neoplatonism are the chief. Christian influence had its source, not in the Church, but in the hermits and unorthodox sects, especially perhaps in the Syrian Euchites, who magnified the duty of constant prayer, abandoned their all and wandered as poor brethren. Sufiism owed much to the ideal of unworldliness which they presented. Conversations between Moslem devotees and Christian ascetics are often related in the ancient Sufi biographies, and many Biblical texts appear in the form of sayings attributed to eminent Stiffs of early times, while sayings ascribed to Jesus as well as Christian and Jewish legends `occur in abundance. More than one Safi doctrine - that of tawakkul may be mentioned in particular - show traces of Christian teaching. The monastic strain which insinuated itself into Sufiism in spite of Mahomet's prohibition. was derived, partially at any rate, from Christianity. Here, however, Buddhistic influence may also have been at work. Buddhism flourished in Balkh, Transoxiana and Turkestan before the Mahommedan conquest, and in later times Buddhist monks carried their religious practices and philosophy among the Moslems who had settled in these countries. It looks as though the legend of Ibrahim ibn Adham, a prince of Balkh who one day suddenly cast off his royal robes and became a wandering Sufi, were based on the story of Buddha. The use of rosaries, the doctrine of fana, which is probably a form of Nirvana, and the system of "stations" ( magamat ) on the road thereto, would seem to be Buddhistic in their origin. The third great foreign influence on Sufiism is the Neoplatonic philosophy. Between A.D. Soo and 860 the tide of Greek learning, then at its height, streamed into Islam from the Christian monasteries of Syria, from the Persian Academy of Jundeshapur in Khuzistan, and from the Sabians of IHarran in Mesopotamia. The so-called "Theology of Aristotle," which was translated into Arabic about A. D. 840, is full of Neoplatonic theories, and the mystical writings of the pseudo-Dionysius were widely known throughout western Asia. It is not mere coincidence that the doctrine of Gnosis was first worked out in detail by the Egyptian Safi, Dhu '1-Nan (d. A.D. 859), who is described as an alchemist and theurgist. Sufiism on its theosophical side was largely a product of Alexandrian speculation.

By the end of the 3rd century the main lines of the Safi mysticism were already fixed. It was now fast becoming an organized system, a school for saints, with rules of discipline and devotion which the novice was bound to learn from his spiritual director, to whose guidance he submitted himself absolutely. These directors regarded themselves as being in the most intimate communion with God, who bestowed on them miraculous gifts (karamat). At their head stood a mysterious personage called the Qutb (Axis): on the hierarchy of saints over which he presided the whole order of the universe was believed to depend. During the next two hundred years (A.D. 900-1100), various manuals of theory and practice were compiled: the Kildb al Luma ` by Abu Nasr al-Sarraj, the Qut al-Qulub by Abu Talib al-Makki, the Risala of Qushairi, the Persian Kashf al-Malhjub by 'Ali ibn `Uthman al-Hujwiri, and the famous Ihya by Ghazali. Inasmuch as all these works are founded on the same materials, viz., the Koran, the Traditions of the Prophet and the sayings of well-known Safi teachers, they necessarily have much in common, although the subject is treated by each writer from his own standpoint. They all expatiate on the discipline of the soul and describe the process of purgation which it must undergo before entering on the contemplative life. The traveller journeying towards God passes through a series of ascending "stations" ( magamat) : in the oldest extant treatise these are (I) repentance, (2) abstinence, (3) renunciation, (4) poverty, (5) patience, (6) trust in God, (7) acquiescence in the will of God. After the "stations" comes a parallel scale of "states" of spiritual feeling ( ahwal ), such as fear, hope, love, &c., leading up to contemplation (mushahadat ) and intuition (yaqin). It only remained to provide Sufiism with a metaphysical basis, and to reconcile it with orthodox Islam. The double task was finally accomplished by Ghazali ( q v.). He made Islamic theology mystical, and since his time the revelation ( kashf) of the mystic has taken its place beside tradition ( nagl ) and reason ( ` aql ) as a source and fundamental principle of the faith. Protests have been and are still raised by theologians, but Moslem sentiment will usually tolerate whatever is written in sufficiently abstruse philosophical language or spoken in manifest ecstasy.

The Sufis do not form a sect with definite dogmas. Like the monastic orders of Christendom, they comprise many shades of opinion, many schools of thought, many divergent tendencies - from asceticism and quietism to the wildest extravagances of pantheism. European students of Sufiism are apt to identify it with the pantheistic type which prevails in Persia. This, although more interesting and attractive than any other, throws the transcendental and visionary aspects of Sufiism into undue relief. Nevertheless some account must be given here of the Persian theosophy which has fascinated the noblest minds of that subtle race and has inspired the most beautiful religious poetry in the world. Some of its characteristic features occur in the sayings attributed to Bayezid (d. A.D. 874), whom Buddhistic ideas unquestionably influenced. He said, for example, "I am the winedrinker and the wine and the cup-bearer," and again, "I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, ` 0 Thou I.'" The peculiar imagery which distinguishes the poetry of the Persian Sufis was more fully developed by a native of Khorasan, Abu Said ibn Abi'l-Khair (d. A.D. 1049) in his mystical quatrains which express the relation between God and the soul by glowing and fantastic allegories of earthly love, beauty and intoxication. Henceforward, the great poets of Persia, with few exceptions, adopt this symbolic language either seriously or as a convenient mask. The majority are Sufis by profession or conviction. "The real basis of their poetry," says A. von Kremer, "is a loftily inculcated ethical system, which recognizes in purity of heart, charity, self-renunciation and bridling of the passions the necessary conditions of eternal happiness. Attached to this we find a pantheistic theory of the emanation of all things from God and their ultimate reunion with him. Although on the surface Islam is not directly assailed, it sustains many indirect attacks, and frequently the thought flashes out, that all religions and revelations are only the rays of a single eternal sun; that all prophets have only delivered and proclaimed in different tongues the same principles of eternal goodness and eternal truth which flow from the divine soul of the world." The whole doctrine of Persian Sufiism is expounded in the celebrated Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi (q.v.), but in such a discursive and unscientific manner that its leading principles are not easily grasped. They may be stated briefly as follows: God is the sole reality (al-I;iagq) and is above all names and definitions. He is not only absolute Being, but also absolute Good, and therefore absolute Beauty. It is the nature of beauty to desire manifestation; the phenomenal universe is the result of this desire, according to the famous Tradition in which God says, "I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known, so I created the creatures in order that I might be known." Hence the Sufis, influenced by Neoplatonic theories of emanation, postulate a number of intermediate worlds or descending planes of existence, from the primal Intelligence and the primal Soul, through which "the Truth" ( al-Hagq ) diffuses itself. As things can be known only through their opposites, Being can only be known through Not-being, wherein as in a mirror Being is reflected; and this reflection is the phenomenal universe, which accordingly has no more reality than a shadow cast by the sun. Its central point is Man, the microcosm, who reflects in himself all the Divine attributes. Blackened on. one side with the darkness of Not-being, he bears within him a spark of pure Being. The human soul belongs to the spiritual world and is ever seeking to be re-united to its source. Such union is hindered by the bodily senses, but though not permanently attainable until death, it can be enjoyed at times in the state called ecstasy (lial), when the veil of sensual perception is rent asunder and the soul is merged in God. This cannot be achieved without destroying the illusion of self, and self-annihilation is wrought by means of that divine love, to which human love is merely a stepping-stone. The true lover feels himself one with God, the only real being and agent in the universe; he is above all law, since whatever he does proceeds directly from God, just as a flute produces harmonies or discords at the will of the musician; he is indifferent to outward forms and rites, preferring a sincere idolater to an orthodox hypocrite and deeming the ways to God as many in number as the souls of men. Such in outline is the $ufi theosophy as it appears in Persian and Turkish poetry. Its perilous consequences are plain. It tends to abolish the distinction between good and evil - the latter is nothing but an aspect of Not-being and has no real existence - and it leads to the deification of the hierophant who can say, like Husain b. Mansur al-Hallaj, "I am the Truth." sun fraternities, living in a convent under the direction of a sheikh, became widely spread before A.D. I 100 and gave rise to Dervish orders, most of which indulge in the practice of exciting ecstasy by music, dancing, drugs and various kinds of hypnotic suggestion (see Dervish).

BIBLIOGRAPHY. - Tholuck, Sufismus sive theosophia Persarum pantheistica (Berlin, 1821); Bliithensammlung aus der morgenlandischen Mystik (Berlin, 1825); E. H. Palmer, Oriental Mysticism (Cambridge, 1867); Von Kremer, Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Islams (Leipzig, 1868); Goldziher, "Materialien zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des Sufismus" in W.Z.K.M. xiii. 35 sqq. "Die Heiligenverehrung im Islam" in Muhammedanische Studien, ii. 277 sqq. (Halle, 1890), "The Influence of Buddhism on Islam" in J.R.A.S. (1904), 125 sqq.; and Vorlesungen fiber den Islam, 139 sqq. (Heidelberg, 1910); E. H. Whinfield, the Gulshan-i-Riiz of Mabmud Shabistari, edited with translation and notes (London, 1880), and Abridged translation of the Masnavi (London, 1898); E. G. Browne, A Year amongst the Persians (London, X893); Merx, Ideen and Grundlinien einer allgemeinen Geschichte der Mystik (Heidelberg, 1893); H. Ethe, "Die mystische and didaktische Poesie" in Geiger and Kuhn's Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, ii. 271 sqq. (Strassburg, 1896-1904); Gibb, History of Ottoman Poetry, especially i. 33 sqq. (London, 1900-1907); D. B. Macdonald, "Emotional religion in Islam," in J.R.A.S. (1901-1902); Development of Muslim theology (New York, 1903) and The religious attitude and life in Islam (Chicago, 1909); R. A. Nicholson, Selected poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (Cambridge, 1898). "Enquiry concerning the origin and development of Sufiism" in J.R.A.S. (1906), 303 sqq., and Translation of the Kashf al-Malhjub (London, 1910); Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia (London, 1908). (R.A.N.)