Definition of "Sofi"

The devout Mahometans charge the Sofis with atheism; while the latter not only deny the accusation, but pretend to hold intercourse with God: they assemble at night, and perform the exercises of turning round, jumping and shouting, till they drop down from weakness and exhaustion.

1828, Frederic Shoberl, Persia, page 95

He called himself a Safavi, from Safi, an ancestor illustrious for piety; and hence to contemporary Europe he was known as the Sofi.

1902, John Bagnell Bury, “The Ottoman conquest”, in Adolphus W. Ward, George W. Prothero, Stanley M. Leathes, editors, The Cambridge Modern History, volume 1, New York [u.a.]: Macmillan, page 88