Primordial Traditions by Gwendolyn Taunton

Prayer in the City: The Making of Muslim Sacred Places and Urban Life. Sajjada-nishin signifies a holder of a shrine. A pir is the title for a Sufi master, often translated saint. this was a direct attack on the traditional role of the Sufi leaders. Intended to undercut the political power of both the hereditary pir families (the sajjada-nishins, or hereditary administrators) and the ulama. Sponsoring Sufism: How Governments Promote 'Mystical Islam' in Their Domestic and Foreign Policies. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. ^ Stausberg, Michael Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw, eds.Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. In other cases, as with the Druids of the Celtic world and the shamans of ancient Eurasian nomads, the position within the caste may have depended more upon apprenticeship the exact nature of the 'caste' in these cases is difficult to ascertain due to our lack of primary sources. Within the lands of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest Eastern Catholic Church, priests' children often became priests and married within their social group, establishing a tightly-knit hereditary caste. In 1867, the Synod abolished family claims to clerical positions.

Marrying outside of these priestly families was strictly forbidden indeed, some bishops did not even tolerate their clergy marrying outside of the priestly families of their diocese. In the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, the clergy, over time, formed a hereditary caste of priests. In Sufism, the spiritual guide is also often a hereditary leader, while the Sayyids of South Asia, who claim descent from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, have been described as a priestly caste.

Zoroastrianism also has a hereditary priesthood, as does Alevism, Yezidism and Yarsanism. In some cases, as with the Brahmins of India and the Kohanim and Levites of ancient Israel, the caste was a hereditary one, with a person's position as a priest depending on his biological descent. The priestly caste is a social group responsible for officiating over sacrifices and leading prayers or other religious functions, particularly in nomadic and tribal societies. ( January 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.

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Primordial Traditions by Gwendolyn Taunton