“BISM ILLAH UR RAHMAN UR RAHĪM.”
“IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL.”

This is written at the commencement of all Persian books and writings; but at the top of the first page of every letter, purwanah, or short writing, they almost invariably put only ا the letter A or alif, which is a symbol of God, and is considered an abbreviation of the whole sentence above. Alif is the first letter in the Arabic and Persian alphabets, and in the representation of numbers it stands for one; whence it is also used as a symbol of the Deity; it signifies moreover the first day in the week, or Sunday; and in astronomical descriptions, the sign Taurus of the zodiac.

THE IMĀMS THE LEADERS OF THE FAITHFUL.

Muhammad, the founder of the system of religion which is named after him, descended from the tribe of Koreish, and the family of Hashem, the most illustrious of the Arabs. He was the grandson of Abdalmotalleb, and the son of Abdallah and Amina. He was born at Mecca, four months after the death of Justinian. He was educated by his uncle, Abutalib, as a merchant, his grandfather, father, and mother having died during his infancy. In his twenty-fifth year he married a wealthy widow, Khudaijah Koobia; and, in the fortieth year of his age, he assumed the title of Prophet, and promulgated the religion of Islam; which asserts, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God.” In the same year, he lost his uncle Abutalib, and his wife Khudaijah, and for this reason that year was called the year of mourning. The prophet fled with his friend Abubekr from Mecca to Medina, to escape from the violence of the Koreishites, who sought his life: this flight fixed the era of the Hegira. After an exile of seven years, Muhammad achieved the conquest of Mecca: he was acknowledged prince and prophet by the Koreish, who embraced Islam, and the idols in the Caaba were destroyed. In the seventh year of the Hegira, Muhammad began to propagate his religion beyond the boundaries of Arabia; and the last great act of his life was a pilgrimage to Mecca, accompanied by his wives, and also by numerous camels for sacrifice.

He died at the age of sixty-three, and a most interesting account of his last illness and death has been given by his favourite wife Aa’yeshah, the daughter of his friend Abubekr: this lady was the first veiled female; and by her he had two sons, Ishmael and Ibrahim. He was interred at Medina. The prophet had eighteen wives, one of whom was Hafna, the daughter of his friend and companion Omer.

Fátímah, the daughter of Muhammad and Khudaijah Koobia, married Ali, the nephew of the prophet and the son of his uncle Abutalib.

Fátímah and Ali were the parents of Hussun and Hussein, the first martyrs, from whom the Syuds descend.

Hussun married Ashea, by whom he had a son Kasim, who married Sakeena Koobraah, the daughter of his brother Hussein.

Hussein had another child, a son, who was saved at the battle of Kraabaallah; Abbas was the brother of Hussun and Hussein.

Muhammad was succeeded in the regal and sacerdotal office by his friend and convert Abubekr; who, after a reign of two years, was followed by Omer: the latter, after an interval of twelve years, was succeeded by Othman, the secretary of Muhammad, and twenty-four years after the death of the Prophet, Ali became the Imām.

After the death of Muhammad, his followers divided into two great factions; the one acknowledged Abubekr, the father-in-law of the prophet, as his successor, and were denominated Soonees; the other adhered to Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, and were known by the title of the Sheas, who look up to the Imāms as the leaders of the faithful. The Caliphas are the leaders of the Soonees, who slew Imām Ali, and the descendants of the prophet: in Hindostan the Soonees are as ten to one Shea; in Arabia Proper Sheas are not tolerated.

THE MUHARRAM.

1834, May 19th.—The mourning festival of the Muhammadans in remembrance of their first martyrs, Hussun and Hussein, lasts ten days; on the last day the Taziya, the model of the tomb of Hussein, is interred.

Yuzeed, a Soonee, the king of Shawm, had a quarrel respecting the succession with the Syuds, the descendants of Muhammad. Ali, the husband of Fátíma, was first murdered by him. He left two sons, Hussun and Hussein. Hussun, his wife Ashea, and his nurse, Be Halima, were poisoned.

To discover the state of affairs at Shawm, Hussein first sent his cousin Moslem, who, with his two sons, quitted Medina for that purpose. He, as well as his sons, were seized and put to death. This event is commemorated with deep sorrow during the mourning festival. Hussein, ignorant of the fate of Moslem, was proceeding from Medina to Shawm, in the hope of being proclaimed the “Imām, the leader of the faithful.” He was accompanied by all his family; on the road on the plains of Kraabaallah, they were attacked: they defended themselves with the utmost bravery, until every man found his grave upon the spot. This event occurred on the tenth day of the Arabian month Muharram. The females and one infant son were taken prisoners and conveyed to Shawm, the residence of Yuzeed, the king. Kasim, the son of Hussun and Ashea, was engaged to Sakeena Koobraah, his cousin, the daughter of Hussein. Hence the night of the Mehndi and the wedding procession of the Muharram.

The ceremony takes place annually on the first day of the moon (Muharram). Their year has twelve moons only, and they do not add a moon every third year, as some persons suppose.

The Imām-bara is expressly built for commemorating the Muharram. In this building the Taziya is placed facing Mecca, with the banners, the sword, the shield, and the bow and arrows supposed to have been used in the battle of Kraabaallah. The most magnificent Taziyas remain in the Imām-bara. The less costly, which are used in the processions on the tenth day, are buried, with funeral rites, in cemeteries named Kraabaallah.

Although the Taziya, the model of their Imām’s tomb, at Kraabaallah belongs, by right, only to the Sheas, it is remarkable that many Soonees have Taziyas, and also some Hindoos. My cook, who was a Mug, used to expend sometimes as much as forty rupees on a Taziya of his own; and after having performed all the ceremonies like a good Musulmān, returned to his original Hindooism, when he had placed his Taziya in the burial-ground, accompanied by rice, corn, flowers, cups of water, &c.

But little or no attention is paid to the models of the Taziya: they are of different forms, and of every variety of material, according to the wealth of the person who sets up this remembrance of Hussein. On the Taziya is placed a small portion of corn, rice, bread, fruits, flowers, and cups of water; this is in accordance with the Musulmān funerals, at which food is invariably conveyed to the tomb with the corpse.

The Taziya displayed by the king of Oude during the Muharram is composed of green glass, with or-molu or brass mouldings. Some are of ivory, ebony, sandal-wood, cedar, &c., or of wrought filligree silver: those for the poor are of coloured talc.

In front of the Taziya two standards are erected, between which are laid strings of the fresh flowers of the sweet-scented bela (jasmine); and a chaunrī, made of the tail of the yāk, fixed in a silver handle, is used to fan away the flies.

When the Taziya is placed in the Imām-bara, the face is turned to Mecca. The institution of carrying the Taziya in procession first took place in the A.H. 352, at Bagdad, under Noez-od-Dowla Dhelmé, and is never omitted in Persia.

Hussein, on his favourite horse Dhul Dhul, was pierced by arrows without number; the animal shared the same fate, and the Soonee Musulmāns were the extirpators of all the race of Hussein, the son of Ali, with the exception of one infant son and the females of the family. This is the cause of the battles that so often take place between the Sheas and the Soonees (whom the former regard as an accursed race) at the annual celebration of the Muharram.

The usual arrangement of the procession is as follows:—In the order of march the elephants first appear, on which men are seated, displaying the consecrated banners, crowned by the spread hand. The banners are of silk, embroidered in gold or silver. The spread hand on the top of them represents five: Muhammad, Fátíma, Ali, Hussun, Hussein; the three fingers, the Caliphas Omer, Osmun, and Abubekr. The Soonees favour the latter; the Sheas uphold Imām Ali. The ends of the banners are fringed with bullion, and they are tied with cords of gold. Then follows the band, which is always in attendance, and is composed of Arab music only.

The jilādār or sword-bearer carries a pole, from which two naked swords, each tipped with a lemon, are suspended from a bow reversed. The arrows are fixed in the centre. The sword-bearer is generally dressed in green, the mourning colour of the Syuds. The standard-bearers and a band of musicians attend him, carrying the banner of Hussun and Hussein.

Some men, the mourners of the procession, bear long black poles, on which are fixed very long streamers of black unspun silk, which are intended to represent grief and despair.

The horse Dhul Dhul next appears: in the procession he sometimes bears a Taziya, at other times he is caparisoned as if in readiness for his master. After the Muharram, the animal and all its attire are given to a poor Syud; the bloody horse-cloth and the legs stained red, are supposed to represent the sufferings of the animal. The tail and mane are dyed with mehndi or lakh dye. The horse is attended by a man carrying the afthaadah, which is a sun embroidered on crimson velvet, affixed to the end of a long staff, and carried in an elevated position, in order to shelter a man of rank on horseback from the rays of the sun. Men with chaunrīs attend to whisk away the flies from the horse: assa burdars, men with long silver sticks, and sonta burdars, with short silver tiger-headed staffs, walk at the side, and harkāras (running footmen) are in attendance. An embroidered chatr (umbrella) is supported over the head of the horse.

In the cavalcade is a chaunter or reader; he repeats affecting passages descriptive of the death of Hussein, during which time the procession halts for a few minutes, whilst the Musulmāns give way to the most frantic expressions of grief, beating their breasts with violence, throwing dust upon their heads, and exclaiming “Hussun! Hussein! Hussun! Hussein!”

The Paīk, a Fakīr, is a remarkable person, wearing the bow, arrows, sword, pankhā, and chaunrī of the martyred Imām. Some men in the procession carry censers, suspended by chains, which they wave about, and perfume the air with the incense of a sweet-scented resin; rose-water, for sprinkling, is also carried in long-necked bottles, called gulāb-pash.

Then follows the Taziya, attended by its proprietor, his relatives, and friends; it is surrounded by banners, and covered by a canopy upheld by poles supported by men.

A Taziya of shields and swords, each tipped with a lemon or an orange, is carried in procession, and on it are suspended written petitions to Hussun and Hussein, and it is adorned with strings of freshly-gathered jasmine flowers.

The model of the tomb of Kasim is the next object; it is covered with gold brocade, and a canopy is supported over it, the poles carried by men. The palkee of his bride, Sakeena Koobar, follows the tomb; and her chandol, a sort of palanquin.

Then follow trays of mehndi, carried on the heads of men, with presents, &c., such as are usually sent during the marriage ceremony, with flowers of ubruk.

The charkh-charkhī wālās are numerous; the charkhī is composed of ebony or any hard wood, about the size of a cricket-ball, divided in halves. Each man has a pair; they are beaten in a particular manner on the flat surface, so as to produce the sound of horses galloping; and where some fifty or one hundred men are engaged in the performance the imitation is excellent.

The females during the battle were perishing of thirst; Abbas, the brother of Hussein, and his standard-bearer, made great efforts to procure water for them, in doing which the former was severely wounded.

Hence the bihishtī with his mashk; and, in remembrance of this event, sherbets are also distributed gratis, in red earthen cups, from temporary sheds; abdār khanas, as they call them by the road-side. The awnings of these sheds are reared on poles, and they are lighted by lamps made of ubruk, or of the skeleton leaves of the peepul-tree. The bihishtī bears the standard of Hussun and Hussein.

The camels carrying the tent equipage and luggage of Hussein represent the style of his march from Medina to Kraabaallah. Sometimes, in pictures, a small Taziya is drawn on the back of a camel, and the animal is represented as issuing from a rocky pass.

Barkandāz attend, and fire their matchlocks singly and at intervals during the march.

Great sums are expended in charity during this mourning festival, and food is always distributed by the richer Taziyadars during the ten days.

The procession is closed by several elephants, and men seated upon them distribute food and money to the poor.

Natives of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, walk on the tenth day with their heads uncovered, and without slippers, to the Kraabaallah, whatever may be the distance; and they fast until the third watch has passed, refraining from the hooqŭ, or from drinking water. At the Kraabaallah the funeral ceremony is performed, and the Taziya is committed to the grave with a solemnity equal to that which is observed when their dead are deposited in the tomb. The native ladies within the walls of the zenāna keep the fast with the greatest strictness, and observe all the ceremonies of the Muharram.

A religious man will neither ride nor wear shoes during the Muharram; and a pious Musulmān will neither eat nor drink out of a silver or a gold vessel.

“That person who shall drink out of a silver cup or cup of gold, you may say drinks a draught of hell-fire.” Muhammud said, “Do not wear silk clothes nor satin, nor drink out of gold or silver vessels, nor eat out of golden dishes; because these are for the infidels in the world, and for you in futurity.”

The lamps, which are made of ubruk (talc), or of the skeleton leaves of the peepul-tree, and lighted up in the houses of the faithful at this time, are beautifully made.

One day, on entering the verandah, my darzee (tailor), a Musulmān of the Shea sect, was sitting on the ground, holding a ghirgit (the scaly lizard, a sort of chameleon,) in one hand, while he beat it with a twig, exclaiming with each stroke he gave the poor little beast, “Ever to be accursed, and never sufficiently to be beaten!” The man was very unwilling to give up his captive, or to desist from putting it to torture; the creature was changing colour at every stroke. I made him release it, and asked him why he had beaten and cursed it so vehemently? The man replied, “Blessed be the spider! ever to be accursed, and never sufficiently to be beaten be the ghirgit! When the Imām, on whom be blessings, hid himself in a well from his pursuers, the spider weaved his web across the mouth of the well, to hide him from his enemies; the ghirgit,—the prying, inquisitive beast!—the ghirgit went to the well, he peered over, he stretched his neck this way, he stretched his neck that way (here he imitated the curious motion of the head natural to the animal); the pursuers were attracted, they observed the ghirgit looking over the well; they imitated his example, they discovered the Imām, they murdered him! Ever to be accursed, never sufficiently to be beaten be the ghirgit!”

Mohammud ordered a chameleon to be killed, and said, “it was a chameleon which blew the fire into which Nimrod threw Abraham.” “Whoever shall kill a chameleon at one stroke shall have one hundred good acts written for him; and whoever kills one at two strokes shall have less than one hundred good deeds written for him; and whoever shall kill one by three strokes shall have less written for him than the second.”

His Highness forbade the killing of four animals, the ant (before stinging), the bee, the woodpecker, the starling. It is criminal in a Shea, and indeed with Soonees, to kill pigeons, though they are recommended to eat them!

An alligator, seven feet in length, was caught in the Jumna, below our house, a few days ago; I had it prepared with arsenical soap, stuffed, and set out in the verandah, where it grins in hideous beauty, nailed down upon the carpenter’s large table, where it will remain until it stiffens into proper form.

My cabinet of curiosities and fondness of horrors ensured many a strange present from absent friends. A small military party were dispatched to capture a mud fort; on reaching the spot no enemy was to be discovered; they entered with all due precaution against ambush; an enormous tiger in a cage was the sole occupant. The tiger was sent down per boat to me,—the first prize of the campaign; on my refusal to accept the animal, he was forwarded to the accoutrement-maker of the officer, in Calcutta, in liquidation of his account! The tiger was sold at length to an American captain for 250 rupees, which just or very nearly paid the expenses of boat-hire, servants, meat, &c., contracted on his the tiger’s account. Such changes in his way of life must have puzzled his philosophy; the capture, the Ganges, and sea voyage ending in North America, will give him a queer idea of the best of all possible worlds; but he well deserves it, being a cruel, treacherous, bloodthirsty brute.

My eccentric friend also wrote to say he had at length procured for me an offering after my own heart, an enormous boa constrictor, perfectly tame, so domestic and sweet tempered, that at meals it would cross the room, displaying, as it advanced with undulating motion, its bright-striped and spotted skin, until, having gained your chair, it would coil its mazy folds around you, and tenderly putting its head over your shoulder, eat from your hand!

I was greatly tempted to accept this unique offering. They tell us mankind have a natural antipathy to a snake; an antipathy I never shared. I have killed them as venomous reptiles, but have a great fancy for them as beautiful ones. No child dislikes snakes until it is taught to fear them.

Those Indian fevers! the state to which a man is reduced may be gathered by the following note: “I never could have believed that lowness of temperament would have afflicted me with such mental suffering as the doctor has just brought on me: I wander about in this beautiful clear air and sunshine perfectly disgusted with life. Will the spring of my spirits return? for they are just now in their December. When happy, I seldom write to any one; when doleful, I become communicative. I hope you like to hear from even your selfish friends, and I have not a soul with whom to exchange an idea; consider that I am English, and may hang myself from the pankhā! Man certainly is a gregarious animal, and I could wish just now to be put into a large flock, even with the chance of being killed off every Monday.”

“My only portion of the rose is the thorn[114].”

June 1st.—I have scarcely energy enough to write; an easterly wind renders the tattīs useless; the thermometer at 93°! The damp air renders me so heavy and listless, it is an exertion either to eat or drink, and it is almost impossible to sleep, on account of the heat. At 7 P.M. I take a drive through the burning air, and come in parched and faint, eager for the only comfort during the twenty-four hours, a glass of English home-made black-currant wine, well iced, in a tumbler of well iced soda water; the greatest luxury imaginable.

I have not heard from home for six months, heart-sick with hope deferred. These tardy ships! Will the steam communication ever be established?

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

When shall I feel energy enough to mount my horse again? for three months I have been unable to ride. Nothing is going forward, stupid as possible, shut up all day, languid and weary: this India is a vile country!

“The heart knoweth its own sorrows, and no man interfereth with its joys.”

Woe is me that I sojourn in this land of pestilence, that I dwell afar from the home of my fathers!