404 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. {N.S., XVIII, 
only for en, and See eulogies of the first three 
caliphs (Aba Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthman, much hated by all 
Shi‘ites, even the most an but also, strange as it may 
seem, for the direct dedication of his work ( which is clearly of 
suspicious orthodoxy), to the fanatical Sunnite este Aurangzib 
(f. 2v. and the whole of the 78th lama‘a), who 
to think, could hardly be ita pleased with this unsolicited 
token of his subject’s affectio 
The work itself would for these reasons hardly deserve 
much attention. But at the end of this copy there is added a 
pedigree of a saint, Sayyid Shah Mir Muhammad Musharraf, 
apparently the author’s spiritual guide. This postscript is in 
the same handwriting as that of the whole of the volume, an 
dates from the same she as that in which the book was 
composed, i.e. the end of the XI or beginning of the 
A.H. On examination the pedigree proves to be of Ismailitic 
origin, and follows the main line of the Imams as far as the 
fall of the Alamut dynast 
In my previous publication on Ismailism,' I discussed the 
question of the importance which may be attached to the tradi- 
tional sectarian version of the ‘chain’ of their Imams. 
information about it is as insignificant as about other points 
of the history of the movement, and therefore every chance of 
shedding some additional light on it cannot be welcomed too 
warmly. In the present case the information is especially valu- 
able, because our document shows what the tradition was some 
250 years ago. At the same time we have every reason to be 
sure that the version represented here can be only traditional. 
The descent from the heretical rulers of Alamut would not ap- 
peal to any non-sectarian. But if the pedigree was intended 
to command the respect of the Ismailitic community, it would 
be not only unwise, but perhaps even in:ompatible with the 
sanctity of the tradition, to introduce a new version 
In order to save space as pei as possible, I will take here 
for granted the acquaintance of the reader with the contents 
of my ‘ Ismailitica,’? and I will only point out the divergencies 
between that, modern, version, and this, older one, in the pre 
sent _— 
As ual in documents of this kind, the persons are enu- 
merated ae in the ascending, genealogical order: so-and-so, 
son of so-and-so, son of so-and-so, etc. The pedigree, which is 

Tsmailitica, I-IT, Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 
vit (1922), Pp. 58-73. 
‘ he preceding footnote. 
