Khirqa
The dervish's patched frock: the garment the master hands the disciple as a sign of attachment to the path.
Khirqa denotes a piece of cloth, a rag, then the patched frock worn by the first Sufis: a garment of accepted poverty, made of pieces sewn together. Some authors have even tried to attach the very name of Sufism to this cloth, alongside the derivation from suf, wool.
Usage made the garment a rite: ‘receiving the khirqa’ meant being admitted into the path by the master, who handed the disciple his own robe or a blessed garment. The investiture materialised the pact and the filiation. Al-Hujwiri, in the Kashf al-mahjub (11th century, the first great Persian treatise on Sufism), already discusses the conditions and abuses of the practice.
The gesture has grown rare in the modern paths: the Qadiriya Boutchichiya requires no garment of its disciples, who live their belonging in the world, without outward sign. What counts is the inward attachment, not the livery. See also faqir, the name of poverty the disciple bears.