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chap, I AURANGZEB'S RELIGION 139
Aurangzeb,
especially, shows great zeal for the Sunni sect, of which he is so
faithful a follower that he surpasses all his predecessors in external
observance of the Law, which lias been the veil by means of which he
has concealed his usurpation of the kingdom. When he took possession of
the throne he proclaimed that it was with the design of insisting upon
the Law of Muhammad being observed in all its strictness, as it had
been relaxed during the reigns of Shähjahän his father and Jahângïr his
grandfather. To show himself still more zealous for the Law he became a
Dervish or Fakir, i. e. a professional beggar, and under this false
mantle of piety cleverly made his way to the Empire. Although he had,
as I have said, numerous Persians in his service, he did not allow them
to celebrate the festival of Hasan and Husain,1 sons of
'Ali, who were killed by the Sunnis, as I have mentioned in my account
of Persia ; and they themselves, to please the Emperor and advance
their own fortunes, made no scruple about conforming themselves
outwardly to the cult and customs of the Sunnis.
CHAPTER II
Concerning Fakirs or Musalman beggars in the East Indies.2
It is estimated that there are in India 800,000 Musal-mân Fakirs, and 1,200,000 among the idolaters, which is an enormous number.3
They are all vagabonds and idlers, who blind the eyes of the people by
a false zeal, and lead them to believe that all that falls from their
own mouths is oracular.
There are different kinds of Musalmän Fakirs ; some are almost naked, like the Fakirs of the idolaters, who have no
1 Hosen and Heussin in the original. The observance of the Shi'a Muharram festival was prohibited in 1669 (Jadunath Sarkar, Hist, of Aurangzib, iii. 104). On Aurangzeb becoming a Fakir see i. 264.
* See Islam in India, the Qänün-i-Isläm, of Ja'far Sharif, Oxford, 1921, pp. 283 fi.
»
The numbers of Fakirs, Hindu and Musalmän, are great, but no exact
figures are available, because at recent enumerations it has been found
impossible to distinguish them from ordinary beggars.
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