Note 670 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

In the seventh vol. of the Asiatic Researches (p. 338, edit. of Calcutta), we find an article by T. H. Colebrooke, Esq., On the Origin and peculiar Tenets of certain Muhammedan Sects. It is there stated that: “The Ali Ilahiyahs are become numerous in India. This sect is mentioned by the author of the Dabistán, as prevalent in his time only at Uzbil, or Azbal, in the mountainous tract near Khata. It now prevails, according to the information which I have received, in a part of the dominion of Nawab Nizamu ’l mulk.” The Calcutta edition of the Dabistán reads as above, Arnil, Armál, and Bakhta: the manuscript of Oude agrees with Colebrooke’s reading, Azbíl, but has بخطا, bakhtá, and زبال, zebál, for the two other names. The celebrated Orientalist gives an abstract of the doctrine of this sect according to the Dabistán, joined to an account of the Borahs, according to the Mejálîsu ’l múmínin, composed by Núrallah of Shoster, a zealous Shiâh. The Bóhrahs are described by this author as natives of Guzerat, converted to the Muhammedan religion about three hundred years before his time, now 542 years ago. Their converter was Mullah Ali, whose tomb is still seen at the city of Combáyat. Some of this tribe are Sunnites. The party who profess the Imámiah tenets comprehended, in the year 1800, nearly two thousand families. They are chiefly occupied in trade, and transmit the fifth part of their gains to the Sayyads of Medina: they are honest, pious, and temperate.