tained these meetings, and used to have his own compositions read at them; nor has the practice been laid aside to this day. Timour Shauh published a book of odes in Persian, which is highly spoken of, but is said to have been corrected and improved by Feroghee, a celebrated poet of Timour's court. Ahmed Shauh also wrote several poems in Persian, and I am in possession of a poetical epistle in that language, from Shauh Zemaun to his brother Shuja, which (though the person who gave it to me, pretended that he had greatly embellished it at Zemaun's desire) is still a very poor performance. Shauh Zemaun, indeed, is said to be the most illiterate of his family. He was at one time persuaded by his Moollahs to issue a proclamation, forbidding the study of logic, as dangerous to the Mahonimedan faith; but his edict had no effect, except occasioning great merriment among those to whom it was addressed. I have not heard of any works of Shauh Mahmood; but Shauh Shuja is an Arabic scholar, makes tolerable verses, and is reckoned learned and accomplished for a King.

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CHAP. V.

RELIGION, SECTS, MOOLLAHS, SUPERSTITIONS, &c.

THE Mahommedan religion is so well known, and all details regarding it are to be found in so many books, that it is quite unnecessary to mention any of its forms or tenets, except such as are particularly observed by the nation which I am describing. The Afghauns are all of the sect called Soonnee, which acknowledges the three first caliphs as the lawful successors of Mahomet, and admits their interpretation of the law, and their traditions of the Prophet's precepts. They are opposed to the Sheeahs, who reject the three first caliphs, as rebels and usurpers of an office which belonged of right to Ali, the nephew of Mahomet, and the fourth of his successors. This last sect is confined to the Persians and their descendants; all the other Mahometans being Soonnees. difference between them, though I do not believe it is sufficient to affect any serious part of their conduct, is enough to create a bitter enmity between the two sects. The unlearned part of the Afghaun nation certainly consider a Sheeah

The

as more an infidel than a Hindoo, and have a greater aversion to the Persians for their religion, than for all the injuries the country has suffered at their hands. The feelings of the Afghauns towards people of a religion entirely different from their own, is however free from all asperity, as long as they are not at war. They hold, like all other Mussulmans, that no infidel will be saved; that it is lawful, and even meritorious to make war on unbelievers; and to convert them to the Mussulman faith, or impose tribute on them; and, I imagine, to put them to death, if they refuse both of those conditions. It is true, that Shauh Zemaun, in his two conquests of the Punjaub, allowed the Siks entire toleration, and forbade them to be molested, unless they appeared as enemies; yet that prince himself was induced by a bigotted Moollah to endeavour to convert two Siks, and to put them to death for their obstinate rejection of his arguments; and the Hindoo historian of the battle of Pauneeput describes a most inhuman massacre of the unresisting fugitives, and even of the prisoners, which he attributes entirely to the religious fury of the Mussulmans. Whatever may be their conduct in war, their treatment of men whom they reckon infidels, in their

*The Afghaun who told the story, expressed a proper sense of the cruelty of this proceeding, and mentioned the

own country, is laudable in Mahomedans. Their hatred to idolators is well known; yet the Hindoos are allowed the free exercise of their religion, and their temples are entirely unmolested; though they are forbidden all religious processions, and all public exposing of their idols. The Hindoos are held to be impure, and no strict man would consent to eat meat of their dressing; but they are not treated with any particular contempt or hardship: they are employed in situations of trust and emolument, and those who reside in Afghaunistaun, appear as much at their ease as most of the other inhabitants.* The best proof of the toleration

* I do not know whether the greater part of the Afghaums would scruple to eat food prepared by a Hindoo. From the conduct of the great Dooraunee lord, Ahmed Khaun Noorzye in the following instance, one would think they would not; but I must confess that the Persian who told me the story, seemed to think it put Ahmed Khaun's coarseness in a strong light: it is also to be remembered, that Ahmed Khaun affects to keep up the genuine manners of the Afghauns, and to despise all modern refinements. He was one day riding out near Peshawer, with Kefauyet Khaun, a Persian nobleman: they alighted at a village not far from the city, and while they were seated there, a Hindoo brought them a large plate of curds, which it may be supposed was not dished out with the neatness that would be seen in a nobleman's palace. Ahmed Khaun, however, began on it with a good appetite, and when the Persian pointed out that the curds were dirty, and were besides impure, as being made by a Hindoo, he only answered, "Hindoo ché sug ust "keh Nidjis baushed ?" "What sort of dog is a Hindoo, "that he should pretend to be impure?" and went on with his mess till he had emptied the platter.

practised by the Afghauns, is the good report of the Siks who have travelled among them. The Siks are accustomed in their own country to treat the Mussulmans as inferiors, and would therefore be particularly sensible of any insult or contempt from people of that persuasion; yet they always speak well of the usage they receive, and one Sik goldsmith in particular (who was a very intelligent man, and had travelled over great part of Afghaunistaun, Persia, Khorassan, and Tartary), always spoke of the kindness and hospitality he received in the former country, which he contrasted with the contempt with which he was treated by the Persians, who would not allow him to draw water, for fear of polluting the well, or to walk in the streets during rain, lest he should splash some Mahomedan, and thus render him impure. The Uzbeks used him well. It must however be admitted, that the Hindoos are obliged to pay a light tax, from which Mussulmans are exempt, that they are considered as an inferior race, that they are particularly exposed to the tyranny of the Moollahs. That tyranny must, however, be exercised under colour of law, and the following case, which took place in the Berdooraunee country (where the people are a thousand times more bigotted and intolerant than in any other part of Af