eafily as the French do, could have changed that 
letter of the Perfian Verb Netchinem, into à Z/w, as it 
is very ill fuppofed in th^Book of tht Coronation of 
Solyman. 
The Author of the fame Book takes it ill alloj 
that one iliould fay the Great Sofi, fpeaking of the 
King of Perfia : Indeed that term were to be blamed, 
if ufed in fpeaking or writing to a King of Perfia, or 
even to a Perfian. Texeira ^nd others have long 
ago written, that it is a term noj:to be ufed ; but 
they have not laid, that no King of Pc-ry^^ ever car- 
ried that namOi, as the Book of the Coronation does. 
Thefe Perlons were too well acquainted with the 
Oriental Hiftory, to dofo. And when Monfieur de 
Thevenot writes Ifmael Soft , he makes it apparent 
enough, that he hath read the Eaftern Authors, 
♦nd knew that the name of Sofi hath been on^ of the 
chief means which railed the Family that at pre- 
fent Reigns in Perfia^ to the Throne. The fîrfl: 
King of it joyned the Name or Sirname of Soji^ to 
that of IfmaeU and took it in imitation of his Father 
and Grandfather, who had already made feveral 
Attempts to raifethemfelves by Power, abdve the 
reft of their Gountry-men : And both thefe Perfons 
afFeded to be called Sofies^ that they might preferve 
in their Family the Reputation and number of 
Friends, which their Anceftors, whom they aver- 
redtobe defcenxled of J/y, by one of the Imams, had 
acquired to them, when they were Chief of that 
Order and Se£t of Sofies , in later times grown 
formidable. That Sedt, which in the time of its 
Piety, applied itfelf -particularly to Myftical Theo- 
logy and Contemplation,w^s in Mahometanifm the 
moft Puritanical of all the Seds of the Eaft* ; and in 
the French Kings Library, there are entire Manu- 
fcripts of the Rules that it obferved. 
The great efteem that Ifmal knew his Forefa- 
thers had acquired under that Name, made him . 
think it would be much for his advantage to take 
it ; and he was not miftaken, for he was fir ft fol- 
lowed 
