Lit. ‘one who seeks’. Sufi ṭarīqas developed around the relationship between the murīds and a spiritual master (called murshid, pir, shaykh or quṭb). The first Nizari Imams after the Mongol conquest of Alamut lived as clandestine Sufi masters, while their followers adopted the designation of murīds, which is still in use today. principality was founded in around 958.
