684 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 18J0. 



the Mussulmans, to Futeh Aly 



Shah, king of Persia." 



" Since the death of the pro- 

 phet Mohammed, son of Abd Al- 

 lah, polytheism and idolatry have 

 been promulgated amongst his fol- 

 lowers. For instance ; at Nejif 

 and Kerbela, the people fall down 

 and worship the tombsandshrines, 

 which are made of earth and 

 stone, and address their supplica- 

 tions and prayers to the persons 

 contained therein. As it is evi- 

 dent to me, the least of the ser- 

 vants of God, that such practices 

 cannot be agreeable to our Lords 

 Aly and Hussein, I have used 

 every exertion to purify our holy 

 religion from these vile supersti- 

 tions, and, by the blessings of God, 

 have long since eradicated these 

 pollutions from the territory of 

 Nejid, and the greaterpart of Ara- 

 bia ; but the attendants on the 

 mausolea, and the inhabitants of 

 Nejif, being blinded by covetuous- 

 ness and worldly interest, encou- 

 raged the people to a continuation 

 of these practices, and would not 

 comply with my exhortations : I 

 therefore sent an army of the 

 Faithful (as you may have heard) 

 to punish them, according to their 

 deserts. If the people of Persia 

 are addicted to these superstitions, 

 let them quickly repent ; for 

 whosoever is guilty of idolatry 

 and polytheism, shall in like man- 

 ner be punished. 



" Peace be to him who obeys 

 this direction." 



Vindication (if the Liberties of the 

 Asiatic Women. 



[From the Same.] 



One day, in a certain company 



the conversation turned upon li- 

 berty, in respect of which the Eng- 

 lish consider their own customs 

 the most perfect in the world. 

 An English lady, addressing her- 

 self to me, observed, that the wo- 

 men of Asia have no liberty at all, 

 but livelike slaves, without honour 

 and authority, in the houses of 

 their husbands ; and she censured 

 the men for their unkindness, and 

 the women, also, for submitting 

 to be so undervalued. However 

 much I attempted, by various 

 ways, to undeceive her (and in 

 truth, said I, the case is exactly 

 the reverse, it is the European 

 women who do not possess so 

 much power) , yet it did not bring 

 conviction to her mind. She how- 

 ever began to waver in her own 

 opinion ; and falling into doubt, 

 requested me to write something 

 on the subject, the purport of 

 which she might comprehend at 

 one view, and be enabled to dis- 

 tinguish the truth from falsehood. 

 Since the same wrong opinion is 

 deeply rooted in the minds of all 

 other Europeans, and hasbeen fre- 

 quently before this held forth, I 

 considered it necessary to write a 

 few lines concerning the privileges 

 of the female sex, as established, 

 both by law and custom, in Asia 

 and in Europe; omitting what- 

 ever was common to both, and 

 noticing what is principally pecu- 

 liar to each, in the manner of com- 

 parison, that the distinction may 

 be the more easily made, and the 

 real stale of the case become evi- 

 dent to those capable of discern- 

 ment. 



It must be first laid down as a 

 general maxim, that, in social 

 order, respect to the rules of equi- 

 ty and politeness, and forbearance 



