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XI. 

 On the Origin and Peculiar Tenets of 



CERTAIN MUHAMMEDAN SeCTS. 

 By H. T. COLEBROOKE, Esq. 



THE Bohrahs, numerous in the provinces of the 

 Indian peninsula, but found also in most of 

 the great cities of Hindustan, are conspicuous by 

 their peculiar customs ; such, for example, as that 

 of wearing at their orisons an appropriate dress, 

 Avhich they daily wash with their own hands. Their 

 disposition for trade to the exclusion of every other 

 mode of livelihood, and the government of their 

 tribe by a hierarchy, are further peculiarities, which 

 have rendered them an object of inquiry, as a singu- 

 lar seel. 



Researches made by myself, among others, were 

 long unsuccessful. My informers confounded this 

 tribe with the IsmdiUyahs, with the Aliilahij/ahs, and 

 even Mnth tlie unchaste seCt of Cherdgh-cusk. Con- 

 cerning their origin, the information received was 

 equally erroneous with that regarding their tenets. 

 But at length a learned Sayyad referred me to the 

 MejdUsulmummm composed by Nurullah of 

 Shuster, a zealous Shidh, who suffered for his religi- 

 ous opinions in the reign of Jeha'ngi'r. In the 

 passage, which will be forthwith cited from that 

 work, the Bohrahs are described by the author, as 

 natives of Gujrut converted to the Muhammedan 

 religion about three hundred years before his time, 

 or five centuries ago. 



To that passao'e I shall subjoin extra6ls from the 

 same work, coniammg an account or snnilar tribes, 

 with some of v/hich the Bohrahs may perhaps have 

 been sometimes confounded. Concerning t\\t Ismd- 

 iUyahs, for whom they have been actually mis- 

 taken, it must be remembered, that these form a 

 sect o^ Shidhs, who take their distinctive appellation 



from 



