400 



THE BAYAZI. 



ing the Shiahs for venerating the latter), Mua- 

 wiyah and Yezid, Talhah, Zubayr, 1 and others, 

 who brought calamities upon the Faithful, and 

 who caused the spilling of Moslem blood. In this 

 age of decaying zeal they do not 6 Sahh ' or blas- 

 pheme any one publicly by name, and by order 

 of the late Sayyid they bless, during the Friday 

 sermon (Khutbah), the two first Caliphs, and 

 then generally the Sahabah (Companions of the 

 Prophet), the Muhajirin (Meccans who accom- 

 panied the Elight), and the Ansar (Medinitcs 

 who received Mohammed). As are all Moslems 

 they may not use the word £ La'anat,' or curse, 

 except to Satan — so Christians are forbidden to 

 call others fools, and with equal success. Mo- 

 ravian-like they pride themselves upon preserv- 

 ing pure and undefiled the tenets and the ritual 

 handed down to them from the Prophet's day, 

 and, with the rest of the Moslem Ulema, who in 

 this point are the most conservative and anti- 

 progressive of men, they would model all modern 

 civilization upon that of barbarous Arabia in the 

 7th century. One of their favourite sayings is, 



1 These two Ashab or ' Companions of the Apostle ' are 

 popularly supposed to have been buried under a now ruined 

 dome in a garden lying East of the Dahdah cemetery, Damas- 

 cus. It is, however, a mistake; they were interred near Basrefa 

 where they fell in battle. 



