APPENDIX 473 
V. 
A short Account of the Origin and Purposes of the rehgious Build- 
ings in Hindostan called Imaum-baurah ; referred to in p. 158 
The history of the successors of Mohammed, recorded by various 
writers both Oriental and European, comprizes a detail of the 
misfortunes that pursued his descendants, and terminated in the 
death of his grandson Imaum Hosein, in the celebrated field of 
Kerbullaw, and the consequent transfer of his dominions to a fo- 
reign branch. It is to commemorate the death of the Imaums, or 
Pontiffs, descendants of Mohammed, and particularly Imaum Hassan 
and Imaum Hosein, grandsons of Mohammed by his daughter Fatima 
and his cousin Alii, who are all considered as martyrs, that the 
edifices called Imaum-baurah" are erected. 
After the death of Mohammed, notwithstanding the high pre- 
tentions of Alii, his cousin and son-in-law, the choice of his suc- 
cessor fell upon Abboo-Bukker ; nor was it till after the three suc- 
cessive reigns of Abboo-Bukker, Omar, and Othman, that the Califat 
(Khilaufut) reverted to the line of Mohammed in the person of 
Alii. It was this order of succession that occasioned the existing 
division of the whole Mussulmaun tribe into two distinct, and, with 
respect to each other, intolerant classes, the Sheeas, and the Soon- 
nees ; the former considering Abboo-Bukker, Omar, and Othman, as 
usurpers, to the prejudice of the rights of Alii, whom they hold in 
a degree of respect bordering upon adoration ; and the latter main- 
taining the superior title of those three Caliphs, both as Princes 
VOL. I. 3 P 
