Note 79 — Chapter IX · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA.

As Nūr Satāgar is revered as the first missionary of the Khojahs, so is ʻAbd Allāh believed by some to have been the founder of the sect of the Bohras, a large and important community of Shīʻahs, mainly of Hindu origin, who are found in considerable numbers in the chief commercial centres of the Bombay Presidency. But others ascribe the honour of being the first Bohra missionary to Mullā ʻAlī, of whose proselytising methods the following account is given by a Shīʻah historian: “As the people of Gujarāt in those days were infidels and accepted as their religious leader an old man whose teaching they blindly followed, Mullā ʻAlī saw no alternative but to go to the old man and ask to become his disciple, intending to set before him such convincing arguments that he would become a Musalman, and afterwards to attempt the conversion of others. He accordingly spent some years in the service of the old man, and having learned the language of the people of the country, read their books and acquired a knowledge of their sciences. Step by step he unfolded to the enlightened mind of the old man the truth of the faith of Islam and persuaded him to become a Musalman. After his conversion, some of his disciples followed the old man’s example. Finally, the chief minister of the king of that country became aware of the old man’s conversion to Islam, and going to see him submitted to his spiritual guidance and likewise became a Musalman. For a long time, the old man, the minister and the rest of the converts to Islam, kept the fact of their conversion concealed and through fear of the king always took care to prevent it coming to his knowledge; but at length the king received a report of the minister’s having adopted Islam and began to make inquiries. One day, without giving previous notice, he went to the minister’s house and found him bowing his head in prayer and was vexed with him. The minister recognised the purpose of the king’s visit, and realised that his displeasure had been excited by suspicions aroused by his prayer, with its bowing and prostrations; but the guidance of God and divine grace befitting the occasion, he said that he was making these movements because he was watching a serpent in the corner of the room. When the king turned towards the corner of the room, by divine providence he saw a snake there, and accepted the minister’s excuse and his mind was cleared of all suspicions. In the end the king also secretly became a Musalman, but for reasons of state concealed his change of mind; when however, the hour of his death drew near, he gave orders that his body was not to be burnt, as is the custom of the infidels. Subsequently to his decease, when Sulṭān Z̤afar, one of the trusty nobles of Sulṭān Fīrūz Shāh, king of Dehlī, conquered Gujarāt, some of the Sunnī nobles who accompanied him used arguments to make the people join the Sunnī sect of the Muslim faith; so some of the Bohras are Sunnīs, but the greater part remain true to their original faith.”79