Note 34 — Chapter IX

We find in the Asiatic Researches (vol. XI. from p. 363 to 418), a translation of this chapter, with a Memoir on the Rosheniah sect by the late Doctor John Leyden, whose early death in Java will ever be regretted as a great loss to Oriental literature. In his researches relative to the language and literature of the Afghans, he met with a work in the Afghan or Pashtu languge, entitled Makhan Afhganí, a miscellaneous compilation on the ritual and moral practice of Islam, composed by Akhun (Mulla) Derwezeh, a character celebrated in Afghanistan chiefly for his sanctity, and belonging to the tribe of Tajek. This word in general signifies “peasant, or cultivator of ground;” but is in particular applied to those who are not Arabs, and by the Moghuls to the natives of Iran, who are neither of Arab nor Moghul extraction, probably of a mixed origin. They extend from the mountains of Chetár, in Kashgar, as far as Balkh and Kandahar, and live either under their own chiefs, or subject and tributary to the Afghans, Turkmans, or Usbek Tartars, among whom they reside. The Tajiks always showed themselves adverse to the Rosheniahs, and Akhun Derwezeh in the said work contradicts and blames the tenets and opinions of Bayazid, whom he calls the “master of darkness.” In the extract given by Leyden, of Derwezeh’s account, we see that the doctrine of the Rosheniahs coincided in several points with that of the Ismaîlahs: Bayazid, in like manner as the latter, established eight degrees of perfection, through which his sectaries were to pass, and which led to an entire dereliction of all positive religion, and an unrestrained licentiousness in manners and practices. The account given by the author of the Dabistan is far from provoking so severe a blame. As to the history of Bayazid’s life and that of his son—highway robbery, devastation, and bloodshed are evidently practised by them, in the recital of both authors. The Memoir of the learned Leyden abounds with curious and important information respecting the Afghan tribes, to which the present events in Western India can but lend a higher interest. Some reputed followers of Bayazid are still to be found both in Paishavir and Kabul, most numerous among the wild tribes of the Yusefzei.