In the early part of the Thirteenth Century, Pope Innocent III, convinced of the validity of St. Francis’ mission, granted permission for the foundation of the Minor Brothers, or Franciscans. The “Lesser Brothers,” considered to be a title assumed from pious humility, might lead one to ask whether there was any order known as the “Greater Brethren.” If so, what might the connection be?

The only people known in this way who were contemporary with St. Francis were the Greater Brothers, an appellation of the Sufi order founded by Najmuddin Kubra, “the Greater.” The connection is interesting. One of the major characteristics about this great Sufi teacher was that he had an uncanny influence over animals. Pictures of him show him surrounded by birds. He tamed a fierce dog merely by looking at it—just as St. Francis is said to have cowed the wolf in a well-known tale. Najmuddin’s miracles were well known throughout the East sixty years before St. Francis was born.

From Idries Shah’s The Sufis, London: Jonathan Cape, 1969 (first published in 1964), pp. 230-231.