1836.] Bombay Asiatic Society, 1836. 307 



European scholars, or without the proposal to them of special queries cal- 

 culated to direct them in their communications. I am decidedly of opi- 

 nion that it would be of advantage to both parties, were some of them 

 associated with ourselves ; and I would fondly hope that should any of 

 them, possessed of competent attainments and zeal, and a respectable 

 character and influence, ask membership of our body, it should be readily 

 accorded. 



There is no institution which has furnished more able and interesting 

 illustrations connected with the Musalmans than our Society. The ques- 

 tion, so interesting in the history of the errors of the human mind, Was 

 Muhammad an impostor or an enthusiast, has been discussed by our late 

 President Colonel Vans Kennedy ; and though many may dissent, as I 

 myself do, from the conclusion at which he arrives, the ingenuity with 

 which he conducts his argument, and the varied learning which he displays 

 must be readily acknowledged. The same distinguished orientalist has 

 furnished us with the most correct estimate of the literature of the Musal- 

 mans in Persia, which is extant ; and has given us a minute and precise 

 abstract of the Muhammadan Municipal Law, with a constant reference 

 to acknowledged authorities, and with an arrangement particularly lumi- 

 nous, being suggested by that of Blackstone in his Commentaries on the 

 Laws of England. His paper furnishes an important aid to the under- 

 standing of the state of Government, and society in general, in Muham- 

 madan countries. The points at issue between the Shins and Sunnis, and 

 which have been, and still are, the cause of the greatest distractions and 

 animosities among the Moslems, are well illustrated by the translations 

 and remarks of Sir John Malcolm ; and the sentiments of the Sufis and 

 Mehdivis, by those of the late Lieutenant Graham and Colonel Miles. 

 The account of the Akhlak-i-Nasiri, by Lieutenant Frissell, and the 

 translation of one of the discourses of Sadi by Mr, Ross, throw much light 

 on the Musalman Economics and Ethics, both theoretical and practical. 

 What we chiefly want in reference to the Muhammadan religion, is a 

 fuller account, drawu from a comparison of all the existing authorities, 

 of the state of Arabia at the time of its origin, and from which we could 

 form a more enlightened judgment than we do, of those great revolutions 

 brought about by its author ; of the history of its religious influence, dis- 

 tinguished as much as possible from that of the military exploits and civil 

 arrangements of its followers, which have hitherto almost altogether 

 engrossed attention ; of the general arguments by which its doctors have 

 urged its pretensions in opposition to Christianity* ; of the Bohorasf 



* Some interesting information on this subject, is to be found in the Controver- 

 sial Tracts, by the Rev. Henry Martyn, and his opponents in Persia, and the pre- 

 face prefixed to them by Professor Lee, and in the last of the letters addressed to 

 me, by H'aji'Mahammad H'ashim, and published in Bombay. As the discussion of 

 the points at issue, however, is an ancient one, it seems desirable that a collection 

 should be made of the hints respecting it which are to be found in the Musalman 

 works of theology. 



1* To any person, whose leisure may permit inquiry into this body of Musalmans, 

 the following memorandum written by me on a visit to Suratin the beginning of last 

 year, may not be unacceptable. " The Bohoras of Surat are divided into three sects, 

 respectively denominated Ali, Suliman, and Daud. In the first of these, there are 

 only five or six families ; in the second, about fifty ; and in the third, about five 

 thousand, with a population of about twelve thousand. They have accounts of their 

 tribe, one of which I have seen in Arabic, which carry back their history about six 

 or seven hundred years. They generally support themselves by the vending and ma- 

 nufacture of cloths, hardware, household furniture, &c. They profess to be quite 

 distinct from the agricultural Bohoras, who are to be found in the Baroch districts, 

 and of whom a considerable number of families have now also settled in Surat. 



" The Bohoras are under the religious, and, to a great extent, the civil govern- 

 ment of a Mulla, whose head quarters were originally in Arabia. The Mulla in 



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