316 Origm mdzCej'etnonies of the M [[Cto^ 



I ^"Mahomedan histary, relates that, after the death of 

 Mahomfed the choice of his successor fell upon Aboo 

 Bukr,notwithst^nding the high pretensions of Ale^i found- 

 ed on his conspicuous merit, and the closeness of his af* 

 fioifyVbothily^y hlood and marriage, with the Prophet; 

 ii or was it till after the successive reigns of Aboo Bukr, 

 Gmur, and Oosman, that the Khilafut (the sapreme au- 

 thority pontifical and civil) reverted to the line of Ma « 

 homex:! in the person of Alee — it was this order of suct 

 cession that occasioned the existing schisms and dissen- 

 tions among, the Mah^medans ; — schisms which gave 

 ris^ to two distinct, and, with respect to each other, into- 

 lerant classes, called the ^ Sheeah ('^) and ^^-^ Soonnee 

 sects ; C^J the former considering the three successors be- 

 fprementioned, as usurpers to theprcjudice of the right:? 

 of Alee, and carrying their veneration for him so far that 

 they transgress all bounds of reason and decency ; and 

 the latter maintaining the superior title of those three 

 Khalee^as (caliphs,) both as princes and pontiffs. — It 

 is therefore among the Sheeahs on'y that the misfortunes 

 of Alee and ^^is offspring are universally commemorated 

 and with a degree of bigotry bordering upon fanaticism; 

 : The feeble administration of Oosman which termi^ 

 nat^ in his assassination, had encouraged numerous in- 

 surrections, which his successor Alee was employed, iix 

 quelling, when his attention and his arms v/ere attracted 

 by a naore formidable adversary, Maveeah, the gover- 



Sheeah, an Arabic word,— it is used to denote a folio 

 c-r of the sect of Alee, a Sectary— vide Sale's Koran, Preliin. dise* 



^' " . - ■ - - ^ ^{lito.-: ■ --'^1 hm Yiimdi ?M 



. (^) ^^^--J Soonnee, an Arabic word,— among other meanuig.s it is 

 to denote an orthodox Mahomedan who reveres equally the four 

 successors of Mahomed- -vide Sulc'i Koran, Prehm. ii:ic. sect, 



