Note 1 — Chapter VII

In the before quoted Memoir of H. T. Colebrooke (As. Res., vol. VII p. 342), we read, as taken from the account of Núrukah of Shúster, what follows: “The Sadikíyahs are a tribe of the faithful in Hindustan; pious men, and disciples of Sayyad Cabíru ’ddin, who derived his descent from Ismâil, son of Imám Jáfer. This tribe is denominated Sadikíyahs, by reason of the ‘sincere’ (sádik) call of that Sayyad. Although that appellation have, according to received notions, a seeming relation to Abú bekr, whose partisans give him this title; yet it is probable that the sect assumed that appellation for the sake of concealment. However no advantage ever accrues to them from it: on the contrary, the arrogant inhabitants of Hind, who are Hinduis, being retainers of the son of the impious Hind (meaning Hinda, the mother of Mâviyeh), have discovered their attachment to the sect of Shiahs, and have revived against them the calumnies which, five hundred years before, they broached against the Ismâilahs. They maliciously charge them with impiety. Such is indeed their ancient practice.…—In short, nearly thirty thousand persons of this sect are settled in provinces of Hindustan, such as Multan, Lahóre, Délhi, and Gujrát. Most of them subsist by commerce; they pay the fifth part of their gains to the descendants of Sayyad Cabír, who are their priests: and both preceptor and pupil, priest and layman, all are zealous Shiáhs.…”

It will be evident that the author of the Dabistán speaks of a sect which bears the same name, but which owns another founder and another Koran, although possessing some tenets common to other sects.