In some cases, as with the BrahminsofIndia 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. Zoroastrianism also has a hereditary priesthood, as does Alevism, Yezidism and Yarsanism.[1][2][3]InSufism, the spiritual guide is also often a hereditary leader,[4][5][6][7] while the Sayyids of South Asia, who claim descent from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, have been described as a priestly caste.[8]
In other cases, as with the Druids of the Celtic world and the shamans of ancient Eurasiannomads, 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.[citation needed]
^Warwick Ball (2002). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge. p. 434. ISBN9781134823871.
^Stausberg, Michael; Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw, eds. (2015). The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 502–3. ISBN9781118786277.
^Fait Muedini (2015). Sponsoring Sufism: How Governments Promote "Mystical Islam" in Their Domestic and Foreign Policies. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 103. ISBN9781137521071.
^Jocelyne Cesari (2014). The Awakening of Muslim Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN978-1-107-04418-0. Intended to undercut the political power of both the hereditary pir families (the sajjada-nishins, or hereditary administrators) and the ulama ... this was a direct attack on the traditional role of the Sufi leaders ... A pir is the title for a Sufi master, often translated saint. Sajjada-nishin signifies a holder of a shrine.
^Desplat, Patrick A.; Schulz, Dorothea E., eds. (2014). Prayer in the City: The Making of Muslim Sacred Places and Urban Life. Verlag. p. 294. ISBN9783839419458.
^Arthur F. Buehler (1998). Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh (illustrated ed.). Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 230. ISBN9781570032011.
^Kenneth David (1 Jan 1977). The New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 343–4. ISBN9783110807752.
^The Russian Clergy (Translated from the French of Father Gagarin, S.J.), C. Du Gard Makepeace, p. 19, 1872, [1], accessed 3 November 2018
^The Russian Clergy, Andrea Mate, [2], accessed 3 November 2018
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