"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٣‎٤‎٩] (١٢٦٢/٨٦٦)

2349
APPENDIX
RELIGIONS AND SECTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF
REGION.*
In the present Appendix we propose to deal with the indigenous
religions of the Gulf only, leaving the subject of Western Christianity
and Missions to be discussed in another place.
Religions and their distribution.
In all the countries of the Persian Gulf region, Islam, in one
or another of its forms, prevails almost to the exclusion of other
religions. The only other faith with numerous adherents is Judaism,
which is strongly represented in Turkish ; Iraq, but outside the limits
of that province is not professed by more than a few hundred^ per
sons. After Jews, in order of numerical importance, come Oriental
Christians belonging to various churches, who number several thousands
in Turkish 'Iraq but are hardly found in any other part of the Gulf.
" * This Appendix has been compiled cbiefly from information collected for the
Geographical Volume of the present Gazetteer by officers whose names appear in the
footnotes on authorities in that Volume, from the general records of the Government
of Iniiia in the Politioal Department, from the annual Administration Eeports of
the Persian Gulf Political Residency, «nd from the sources of information indicated
below. The leading authorities used by tjie writer in matters relating to Shi'ahs are
a special report on prevailing sects by Agha Muhammad Khalil, 1905 ; a special
repoit by Mr. J. C. Gaskin on holy places and pilgrimages, 1905, in regard to which
Cuinet's La Turquie £ Asie, Volume III, 1894, and Mebuhr's Voyage en Arable,
1780, may also be consulted ; reports on the Mnjtahids of Na;iaf and Karbala by
Major L. S.Newrnarch, Political Resident at Baghdad, contained in the Proceedings
of the Government of India for September 1903, and information supphed by Mnjor
Ramsay (Major Newmarch's successor) in 1906 ; reports by Captain D. L. R. Lorimev,
Vice-Consul in'AraHstan, on the Mujtahids of Shushtar and Dizful; and, with
reference to the movements in India of snspicious Shi'ah travellers from the rersian
Gulf, the records of the Criminal Intelligence Department, Simla. Regarding
Sunnis the chief sources of information are a report on the Kaqib of Baghdad and
the Qfidirivah family by Muhammad Hasan, Muhsin, with a covenmr letter by
Major Newmarch, contained in the Proceedings of the Government of India tor
February 1904, and, for the relations of the same family with India and Aighanistan,
various paoers among the records of the Criminal Intelligence De} artn:ent, Smja?
and a report by Mr. P. W, Johnston, I.C.S., Secretary to the Government of the
North-Western Frontier Province. In relation to the Ibadhis the Reverend G.r.
Baduer'* Imams and Seyyids of 'Omdn, 1870, and Colonel E, C. Ross s ^1°* t he
tect of Ibadhiyah of Oman, in the Gulf Administration Report for 1880-1881,
are the principal authorities ; and the Mutawwa sect of the Ibadhiya as een
described by Major W. Grey, Political Agent at Masqat, in a special report
dated 1905. For information regarding the Wahhabis of Arabia the leadar is
referred to the lis f of authorities given in a footnote to the historical ohap^er on
Najd (Chapter YII1 of tnis Volume), and for miornnation regarding the Wahl abis of
IndiatoMr. E. Rehatsek'g Hi»tory of the Wahhabys tn Jrabta and lnd>a, m
Yolume XIV of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Boyal Asiatic Society