‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎243r] (492/722)

Lot; and Assiah, the virtuous consort of Pharoah, would become implicated
in all the guilt of her wicked and impious husband.
r ihe Shiahs had, in a prior communication, claimed some consideration
on the ground of their being admitted to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca,
and associating, when there, with wise and pious men. To this their
enemies had replied in the words of the poet Jamf —“ He who has not good
in his heart can derive no benefit from looking upon the countenance
of the Prophet."’'’ An inaccuracy in this quotation gave Mulla Muhammad
an advantage, which he seized with all the skill of an able disputant. “ I
certainly expected,” he observes, “that men who have, or ought to have,
read the Kuran, and all the commentaries upon that sacred volume, could
have copied a Persian stanza without a mistake; but you have altered and
rendered ungrammatical the words of the poet, no doubt conceiving that,
after you had plundered and defaced his native province, it was but a trifl
ing additional injury to spoil one of the beautiful lines of the celebrated
Jami. This,” he concludes “ may appear a light remark ; but it may be use
ful in teaching you not to be precipitate in forming a judgment on what
you do not thoroughly understand.”
A number of proofs are brought forward by this writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. to establish
the superiority of the Shiah faith ; but he concludes by stating that if
those who believe in this faith are wrong, that is no cause why they should
be doomed to destruction. “ What knowledge,” he demands of his anta
gonists, “ can you have of the inward thoughts of those on whom you
have pronounced so dreadful a sentencs ? The passions of kings are as a
consuming flame, on which it behoves wise and good men to pour the
water of moderate councils ; but the anathema yon have promulgated is in
the hands of the soldier the pretext for every excess and violence. And
suppose,” he adds, “ that they who suffer from this act were infidels, such
a proceeding could never be pleasing to God ; for it is written that, on the
day of judgment, Noah shall stand abashed in the presence of his Creator
for having desired the death of sinners.”
According to the doctrine of the Shiahs, a man may under circumstances
of danger, not only conceal his faith, but make a temporary profession
of contrary sentiments. The adoption of this unmanly tenet has been
originally forced upon this sect, in consequence of the oppressed and
persecuted state in which they so long remained ; and the pride of the
Persians has brooked its continuance rather than abandon the pilgrimage to
Mecca, which they cannot perform without testifying, as they visit the
tombs of the first khalifahs, a respect for their memory, which is contrary to
their belief. The strictness with which the Sunni possessors of Mecca have con
tinued to enforce these concessions have greatly diminished the number of
pilgrims from Persia ; the mass of the population of that country being satis
fied with a pilgrimage to the sepulchre of Ali and his sons Husain and Hasan,
whose remains are deposited at Najaf and Karbala, which are situated in
the province of Baghdad; or to that of the Imam Raza at Mashhad, in
Khurasan. The sepulchres of these saints of Shiah worship have been
enriched with the most magnificent presents by pious devotees. Monarchs
have emulated each other in adding to their revenue and in increasing the
splendour of their appearance. In the mode of worship observed at these
shrines, as at Mecca, many ceremonies have been introduced that border
upon a superstition, which is remote from that principle of pure deism upon
which the Muhammadan religion is professedly grounded. But the followers