The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of...

83 Id. vol. ii. p. 378; vol. iii. pp. 36–7. ↑

84 So Firishtah, but see H. Blochmann: Contributions to the Geography and History of Bengal. (J. A. S. B., vol. xlii. No. 1, pp. 264–6. 1873.) ↑

85 J. H. Ravenshaw: Gaur: its ruins and inscriptions, p. 99. (London, 1878.) Firishtah, vol. iv. p. 337. ↑

86 Wise, p. 29. ↑

87 Census of India, 1901, vol. vi. part i. p. 170. ↑

88 Id. p. 30. ↑

89 Charles Stewart: The History of Bengal, p. 176. (London, 1813.) H. Blochmann: Contributions to the Geography and History of Bengal. (J. A. S. B., vol. xlii. No. 1, p. 220. 1873.) ↑

90 The Indian Evangelical Review, p. 278. (January 1883.) ↑

91 Sir W. W. Hunter: The Religions of India. (The Times, February 25, 1888.) See also Wise, p. 32. ↑

92 Wise, p. 37. ↑

93 Blochmann, op. cit. p. 260. ↑

94 Wise, pp. 48–55. ↑

95 G͟hulām Sarwar: K͟hazīnat al-Aṣfīyā, vol. ii. p. 230. ↑

96 Otherwise known as Shayk͟h Bahā al-Dīn Zakariyyā. ↑

97 Ibbetson, p. 163. ↑

98 Aṣg͟har ʻAlī: Jawāhir-i-Farīdī (A.H. 1033), p. 395. (Lahore, 1884.) ↑

99 Elliot, vol. ii. p. 548. ↑

100 Punjab States Gazetteers, vol. xxxvi A. Bahawalpur State. (Lahore, 1908), p. 160 sqq. The names of some of the tribes who ascribe their conversion to Mak͟hdūm-i-Jahāniyān are given on p. 162. ↑

101 Id. p. 171. ↑

102 Ibn Baṭūṭah, tome iv. p. 217. Yule, p. 515. ↑

103 The Indian Evangelical Review, vol. xvi, pp. 52–3. (Calcutta, 1889–90.) The Contemporary Review, February 1889, p. 170. The Spectator, October 15, 1887, p. 1382. ↑

104 Garcin de Tassy: La Langue et la Littérature Hindoustanies de 1850 à 1869, p. 343. (Paris, 1874.) ↑

105 Mawlavī Ḥasan ʻAlī furnished me with these figures some years before his death in 1896. In an obituary notice published in “The Moslem Chronicle” (April 4, 1896), the following quaint account is given of his life: “In private and school life, he was marked as a very intelligent lad and made considerable progress in his scholastic career within a short time. He passed Entrance at a very early age and received scholarship with which he went up to the First Art, but shortly after his innate anxiety to seek truth prompted him to go abroad the world, and abandoning his studies he mixed with persons of different persuasions, Fakirs, Pandits, and Christians, entered churches, and roamed over wilderness and forests and cities with nothing to help him on except his sincere hopes and absolute reliance on the mercy of the Great Lord; for one year he wandered in various regions of religion until in 1874 he accepted the post of a head master in a Patna school.… As he was born to become a missionary of the Moslem faith, he felt an imperceptible craving to quit his post, from which he used to get Rs. 100 per mensem. He tendered his resignation, much to the reluctance of his friends, and maintained himself for some time by publishing a monthly journal, ‘Noorul Islam.’ He gave several lectures on Islam at Patna, and then went to Calcutta, where he delivered his lecture in English, which produced such effect on the audience that several European clergymen vouchsafed the truth of Islam, and a notable gentleman, Babu Bepin Chandra Pal, was about to become Musalman.

He was invited by the people at Dacca, where his preachings and lectures left his name imbedded in the hearts of the citizens. His various books and pamphlets and successive lectures in Urdu and in English in the different cities and towns in India gave him a historic name in the world. Some one hundred men became Musalmans on hearing his lectures and reading his books.” His missionary zeal manifested itself up to the last hour of his life, when he was overheard to say, “Abjure your religion and become a Musalman.” On being questioned, he said he was talking to a Christian. ↑

106 Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xii. p. 126. ↑

107 Id. vol. xvi. p. 81. ↑

108 Tuḥfat al-Hind, p. 3. (Dehli, A.H. 1309.) ↑

109 The Indian Evangelical Review, 1884, p. 128. Garcin de Tassy: La Langue et la Littérature Hindoustanies de 1850 à 1869, p. 485. (Paris, 1874.) Garcin de Tassy: La Langue et la Littérature Hindoustanies en 1871, p. 12. (Paris, 1872.) ↑

110 Ibbetson, p. 184. ↑

111 The Rajputana Gazetteer, vol. i. p. 90; vol. ii. p. 47. (Calcutta, 1879.) ↑

112 On these as they affect the Muhammadans, see the Census of India, 1901. Vol. vi. p. 172. ↑

113 E. T. Dalton, p. 324. ↑

114 For an account of such Hinduising of the aboriginal tribes see Sir Alfred Lyall: Asiatic Studies, pp. 102–4. ↑

115 E. T. Dalton, p. 89. ↑

116 The Missionary Review of the World, N.S. vol. xiii, pp. 72–3. (New York, 1900.) ↑

117 Sir Alfred Lyall (Asiatic Studies, p. 29) speaks of the perceptible proclivity towards the faith of Islam occasionally exhibited by some of the Hindu chiefs. ↑

118 Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol. i. p. xix. ↑

119 To give one instance only: in Ghātampur, in the district of Cawnpore, one branch of a large family is Muslim in obedience to the vow of their ancestor, Ghātam Deo Bais, who while praying for a son at the shrine of a Muhammadan saint, Madār Shāh, promised that if his prayer were granted, half his descendants should be brought up as Muslims. (Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. pp. 64, 238.)

The worship of Muhammadan saints is so common among certain low-caste Hindus that in the Census of 1891, in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh alone, 2,333,643 Hindus (or 5·78 per cent. of the total Hindu population of these provinces) returned themselves as worshippers of Muhammadan saints. (Census of India, 1891, vol. xvi. part i. pp. 217, 244.) (Allahabad, 1894.) ↑

120 Instances of such causes of conversion are given in the Census of India, 1901. Vol. vi. Bengal, part. i, Appendix II. ↑