Note 70 — A (continued 2)

Âzâd.—A Persian word signifying “free, uncontrolled,” connected with the Sanskrit jâta, a class of Muhammadan Faqîrs, so recorded at the last Census. There are two classes of Muhammadan ascetics, the regular or Ba-shara, who follow the rules of Islâm as regards praying, fasting, alms-giving and pilgrimage; and the irregular or Be-shara, who, though nominally Musalmâns, do not accommodate their lives to the principles of any religious creed. The former are known as Sâlik, or “travellers,” and the latter as Âzâd, “free,” or Majzûb, “abstracted.” Dr. Herklots says that the regular Âzâd class “shave their beards, moustaches, eye-brows and eyelashes; in short, the hair in every part of the body, and lead lives of celibacy. They have no inclination for reading prayers daily. If they get anything to eat, be it good or bad, they partake of it. They have no fixed place of abode; the generality of them travel and subsist on alms.”70