"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٣‎٥‎٥] (١٢٦٢/٨٧٢)

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however, not Saiyids by descent from ; Ali; they are Saiyids only in the
ordinary sense of " princes ". Persons who can trace their descent from
Ismail -bin-Ibrahim (surnamed Tabataba owing to his pronouncing ^ like
k) the great great grandson of ^Ali are styled Tabatabayis/' Ashraf or
Shurafa, Anglice Sharifs, are^ apparently, the descendants of Muhammad
or of his daughter Fatimah otherwise than through an unbroken line of
males* : examples are the Sunni Ashraf of JSTajd and, possibly, the Shi^ah
Shurafa and the Sharifat of ^Arabistan.
Shi'ah sects in the Persian Gulf region.
The following information about Shi'ah sects relates primarily to UsQlis,
Bushehr and the Gulf Ports, and the extent to which it is of general Akhbaris and
application is uncertain.-]- The three principal Shi^ah sects in the Shaikhis.
Gulf are the Usuli, the Akhbari and the Shaikhi, of which the first
is said to enjoy at the present day a great predominance everywhere
in Persia and Turkish 'Iraq, while the second is the oldest, and the
third is the most modern as well as the least numerous of the three.
The main differences between Usulis and Akhbaris appear to be that the
former admit more recent Hadith or traditions than the latter, and that
they allow the validity of decisions reached by means of Ijma J , or the
assembling of learned men, even at the present day. The Akhbaris hold
special Friday prayers like the Sunnis, and some of their Mullas do not
forbid to associate, or even to eat and drink, with Jews and Christians;
in both of these respects they are apparently at variance with the Usulis
and the Shaikhis. The differences between the Akhbaris and the Usulis
seem to have become acute for the first time under the Safavi dynasty^
which preceded that of the Qajars ; and now they are so accentuated that
the members of the two sects will not pray in each other's mosques.
The Akhbaris are said to date from the earliest days of Islam, the History ^ oi
Usulis from about 350 A. H.; and, until comparatively recent times, the the Akh han8.
Shi^ahs of the Gulf appear to have been mostly Akhbaris. The princi
pal Mujtahid or divine of the Akhbaris in the 18th century was the
still famous Shaikh Yusuf-al-Asfur, who died about 1770 A. D.;
he was succeeded by Shaikh Husain-bin-Muhammad, who is said to have
been a prolific writer and to have settled at Bushehr about the time that
the 'Utub conquered Bahrain (1783 A. D.). After Shaikh Husain
came, about the year 1845, his son Shaikh Hasan ; and the next head of
the Akhbaris in the Gulf was Shaikh Khalif, whose death took place
about the year 1857 at Sarkuvardan in Dashtistan. Khalif was followed
by his son Shaikh 'Abdul 'Ali, who died about 1886. To 'Abdul'Ali
succeeded the present Imam Jum'eh of Bushehr; he is said to have
over 2,000 followers at that place, besides a number in Bahrain. These
* In a report received from Bahrain, however, the term Sharif is stated to mean
only a descendant through males of Hasan, the son of 'All and Ffitimah.
t It should be added that the reports on which this paragraph is based, though
founded on the statements of Mujtahids at Bushehr, are far from clear ; and the in-
|ormation given must therefore be accepted with reserve. The subject is not one
that any but an expert in Muhammadan theology and ecclesiastisal history could
m with satisfaetorily,
1 158 a