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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fakir
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It does not encourage religious authorities to sink into meditation, as do the Hindu fakirs.
▪ It was the golden age of the fakirs.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fakir

Fakir \Fa"kir\, n. [Ar. faq[=i]r poor.] an Oriental Muslim or Hindu religious ascetic or begging monk who is regarded as a holy man or a wonder worker. [Written also faquir anf fakeer.]

Fakir

Fakir \Fa"kir\, n. [Prob. confused with Fakir an oriental ascetic.] See Faker.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fakir

c.1600, from Arabic faqir "a poor man," from faqura "he was poor." Term for Muslim holy man who lived by begging, supposedly from a saying of Muhammad's, el fakr fakhri ("poverty is my pride"). Misapplied in 19c. English (possibly under influence of faker) to Hindu ascetics. Arabic plural form fuqara may have led to variant early English forms such as fuckeire (1630s).

Wiktionary
fakir

n. 1 (context Islam English) A faqir. 2 (context Hindu English) An ascetic mendicant, especially one who performs feats of endurance or apparent magic.

WordNet
fakir

n. a Muslim or Hindu mendicant monk who is regarded as a holy man [syn: fakeer, faqir, faquir]

Wikipedia
Fakir

A fakir, or faqir (; (noun of faqr)), derived from faqr (, "poverty"). The word 'fakir' refers to the one who is self-sufficient and only possesses the spiritual need for God. Faqirs are Muslim ascetics and Sufis who have taken vows of poverty and worship, renouncing all relations and possessions.

Faqirs are characterized by their attachment to dhikr, (a practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers) and asceticism. Sufism gained adherents among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE). The term may refer to a Muslim Sufi ascetic in the Middle East and South Asia. Though, Sufis have spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, originally expressing their beliefs in Arabic, before spreading into Persian, Turkish, Indian languages and a dozen other languages.

From the Mughal era, faqir was applied idiomatically to Hindu and Buddhist ascetics (e.g., sadhus, gurus, swamis and yogis). Calanus, a Hindu Naga sadhu of the 4th Century B.C., is often called a faqir by historians.

There is also a distinct clan of faqirs found in North India, descended from communities of faqirs who took up residence at Sufi shrines.

Fakir (disambiguation)

A fakir or faqir is a Sufi who performs feats of endurance or apparent magic.

Fakir may also refer to:

  • Fakir (name)
  • Faqir (caste), an ethnic community found in North India
Fakir (name)

Fakir is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:

Given name:

  • Fakir Alamgir (21st century), Bangladeshi singer
  • Fakir Aziao-Din (16th century), one of Akbar's chief advisors
  • Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843–1918), Indian writer
  • Fakir Musafar (born 1930), American photographer

Surname:

  • Ajan Fakir (17th century), Sufi saint and poet
  • Allan Fakir (1932–2000), Pakistani folk singer
  • Jamal Fakir (born 1982), French rugby league footballer

Usage examples of "fakir".

First Acolyte Fakir sat most uncomfortably in a very unaccustomed place--the wrong side of his own field desk.

Should the Army of the Lord assign a lesser imam to take command of the 157th Defense Garrison, the command position Fakir had been filling for several months now, he could fully understand and accept it.

This First Acolyte Fakir did not fully understand, nor could he fully accept it.

First Acolyte Fakir burst into what had been his office, which, now that he shared it, he mostly avoided.

Two minutes after Fakir ran in with the message, the last Soldiers of the Lord were scrambling into the company formation, urged on by the Marines.

He told Fakir which map he was using and updated him on what was happening in the village.

Then he told him to have the vehicles keep the Martyrs Mounts between them and the village until they were as close to it as they could get, and he gave Fakir the coordinates.

Distant cities asked the reason of that appearance, and the cunning fakir interpreted it, and the fervent dervish expounded from it, and messengers flew from gate to gate and from land to land in exultation, and barbers hid their heads, and were friendly with the fox in his earth, because of that light.

And would old Fakir Carmichael thank him for making a song and dance about the matter.

Jimmy was not the man to sit still under the charge of being a fakir, no matter whether his accuser had been sober or drunk.

Can you tell me how the Indian fakir can make himself to die and have been buried, and his grave sealed and corn sowed on it, and the corn reaped and be cut and sown and reaped and cut again, and then men come and take away the unbroken seal and that there lie the Indian fakir, not dead, but that rise up and walk amongst them as before?

I care not whether you think I am a fakir and a showman, for it is not important.

He at once mounted a table, and, in the voice of the traditional side-show fakir, began to dilate upon the fat woman and the snakes, upon the wild man from Borneo, upon the learned pig, and all the other accessories of side-shows.

I, a fakir, may then deceive the people who are as ignorant as the children.

India met a fakir laden with chains, naked as a monkey, lying on his stomach, and having himself whipped for the sins of his compatriots, the Indians, who gave him a few farthings.