Note 31 — A

3. Of the Ahbans General Sleeman writes31:—“No member of the Ahban tribe ever forfeited his inheritance by changing his creed; nor did any of them, I believe, change his creed except to retain his inheritance, liberty, or life, threatened by despotic and unscrupulous rulers. They dine on the same floor, but there is a line marked off to separate those of the party who are Hindus from those who are Musalmâns. The Musalmâns have Musalmân names, and the Hindus have Hindu names, but they still go under the common patronymic name of Ahban. The Musalmâns marry into Musalmân families, and the Hindus into Hindu families of the highest class, Chauhân, Râthaur, Raikwâr, Janwâr, etc. Their conversion took place under Muhammad Farm ’Ali, alias Kâlapahâr, to whom his uncle Bahlol, king of Delhi, left Bahrâich as a separate inheritance a short time before his death, which occurred in 1488 A.D. This conversion stopped infanticide, as the Musalmân portion of the tribe would not associate with the Hindus who practised it.”