1837.] condition of Oujein or Ujjayani. 845 



providing such an assortment of goods as enriched both themselves 

 and the Yemenites. 



A mutual interchange of good offices thus established, it is not 

 surprising that the latter when driven from Arabia by some revolu- 

 tion should have sought refuge with their Indian brethren, by whom 

 as was expected, they were honorably and affectionately received. 

 The whole tribe with the exception of & few who are said to have fled 

 into Persia, perhaps in gratitude to their hosts or from similarity of 

 pursuits, adopted on their arrival in India the name of bohras, 

 assumed their dress and learnt their language. The old mulla had 

 been enumerating to me in guttural tones the chief priests from 532 

 to the date of the final settlement in India, insisting that I should Write 

 them all down though they consisted of such fatiguing long names 

 as " Sayyad ya faqir uddin, Abdullah bin ali bin Muhamed bin Hdtem" 

 and was about to tell me the date of the emigration, when I assur- 

 ed him that he need not trouble himself as I had an infallible me- 

 thod of discovering it. Making them some shew of figures and cir- 

 cles I multiplied the number of mullas 23 by 17, and the product 

 came singularly near the truth, for the grand emigration was in 946. 

 It was amusing to witness the old man's astonishment ; every visitor 

 who dropped in, mullas and others he eagerly told of the wonderful 

 calculation. They all elevated their eyebrows stroked their breasts 

 and drawled out a Ya Ali*. 



The troubles which obliged the bohras to leave " happy Arabia" 

 are doubtless connected with the invasion of the Turkish emperor 

 Soleiman, who in 1538 conquered the kingdom of Yemenf. Of 

 this event we have no very detailed account, and perhaps the bohra 

 chronicles will throw light upon Cantemir's meagre notice J. The 

 Guzerdt historians of this period are too busy with the murders and 

 depositions of the last weak kings of Ahmedabad to remark the* 

 entrance into the country of a few poor fugitives, and the bohras, 



* I had shortened Tod's average of reigns as an adult only can succeed to the 

 bohra-gaddi, but my average was too little ; for the succeeding period it would 

 have been too long, for as there were 22 priests 14 would be nearer the average 

 of each reign. 



f The Turkish troops followed the steps of the fugitives, for it was in this year 

 that they made an attack upon Diu when four lamps suspended to the mast of 

 every ship of the Portuguese fleet frightened the gallant army from the Indian 

 shores. 



X A work mentioned in D. Herbelot's article Jaman would probably describe 

 the event at large, as it was written but a few years afterwards. 

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