SECTARIAN FIGHT AT HYDERABAD. 185 



are no less persuaded that the Callphas Aboo- 

 bukur, Oomur, and Hoosmaun, are equally with 

 All to be acknowledged as their leaders, each 

 in his turn ; and accordingly the two sects hold 

 each other in deadly hatred, and bottle up their 

 quarrels, feuds, and animosities for settlement 

 at the next Mohurrum. 



At Hyderabad in the Dekkan I once wit- 

 nessed a fight between the Shiahs and Soonees, 

 in which some hundreds lost their lives, al- 

 though it merely commenced in a dispute re- 

 garding the exposition of a portion of the 

 Koran. Three of one sect happened to be 

 passing the Mecca Mosque, in which a Moollah 

 of the opposite persuasion was expounding some 

 portion of the sacred volume of the Mahomedans, 

 and his views not suiting those of the three, 

 they grossly insulted him, for which two of 

 them were cut down, but the third escaping 

 gathered round him a tumultuous multitude. 

 In the scuffle that ensued several lives were 

 lost. The originators of the affray were Puthans 

 from Chinchilghora, a village belonging to that 

 tribe, about two miles distant from the Resi- 

 dency; the Puthans, on learning the death of 

 their brethren, mustered their forces next morn- 



