again appear on earth and exercise sovereign sway; and they have accordingly bestowed upon him the title of "testimony," "erect," "expected," "the universal prince." Other sectaries again are not agreed whether the Mahdi is to be in the person of this prince, or of some other individual yet unborn, of the race of Fatima, who will come into the world in the consummation of time. The Ismailians deem that Muhammad, the fourth son of Jafar, the sixth Imam, is the Mahdi who is destined to create a formidable revolution in the West, the regions of which will long continue in subjugation to him, and to his posterity. Nor are there wanting persons who profess to believe that after he had disappeared, the Mahdi continued to hold a mysterious communication with his adherents, through the intervention of certain individuals successively entrusted with his confidence, a state of things which terminated in A.D. 937, when one of the name of Ali bin Muhammad, the last who enjoyed this trust, produced, a short time before his death, a paper said to have been written by the invisible or concealed Imam, charging him to adjust all his concerns with this world, for that at the expiration of six days he was to die; a prediction which is supposed to have been verified. From that period the communications in question entirely ceased, and the existence of the twelfth Imam has remained enshrouded in a mist of obscurity, which no man has succeeded in removing. At his coming, an event which preludes the end of the world, it is supposed that he will be accompanied by Jesus Christ, who at his suggestion will kill all the swine appertaining to the followers of the Cross, and make Christianity similar to the religion of Islam, so that after this period the two faiths will be merged into one homogeneous creed ! The Ghair-i-Mahdi (literally "without Mahdi") are a small sect who believe that the Mahdi will not reappear. They maintain that one Saiyyid Muhammad of Jaipur was the twelfth Imam, and that he has gone never more to return. They venerate this latter personage as highly as they do the Prophet, and consider all other Musulmans to be unbelievers. On a certain night in the ninth month they meet together and repeat two prayers, after which they say, "God is Almighty, Muhammad is our Prophet, the Quran and Mahdi are just and true. Imam Mahdi is come and gone. Whosoever disbelieves this is an infidel." A small branch of this community is settled at Mysore, where they are known as the Dairi. Mahmud, the founder of the sect to which he gave his name, lived in the reign of Taimur (A.D. 1370 to 1405); he professed to be the Mahdi, and used to call himself the "Individual One." In the Quran there is a verse which runs thus :-"It may be that thy Lord will raise thee up to a glorious (Mahmud) station." From this he argued that the body of man had been advancing in purity since the creation, and that on its reaching to a certain degree the Mahmud would arise, and that then the dispensation of Muhammad would come to an end. He claimed to be this Mahmud. He also held the doctrine of transmigration, and taught that the beginning of everything was the "Nuqta-i-khak," an atom of earth, on which account his followers are sometimes called the "Nuqtawiya" sect: they are also known by the names of "Mahmudiya" and "Wahidiya." Shah Abbas, King of Persia, expelled them from his dominions about the end of the sixteenth century, but Akbar (A.D. 1556-1605) received the fugitives kindly, and promoted some of their number to high offices of State. CHAPTER X THE QURAN THE word Quran signifies in Arabic "the reading," or rather, "that which ought to be read." The syllable Al is only the Arabic article equivalent to "the," and therefore ought to be omitted when the English article is prefixed. The work is divided into 114 chapters, called "Suras," a term properly signifying a row, order, or regular series; as a course of bricks in building, or a rank of soldiers in an army. In the manuscript copies these chapters are not distinguished by their numerical order, but by particular titles, which (except that of the first, which is the initial chapter, or introduction to the rest) are taken sometimes from a particular matter treated of, or person mentioned therein; but usually from the first word of note. Occasionally there are two or more titles, a peculiarity due to the difference of the copies. Some of the chapters having been revealed at Mecca, and others at Madina, the explanation of this circumstance makes a part of the title; but a portion of the text is said to have been revealed partly at the former town, and partly at the latter; and in some cases, it is yet a dispute among the commentators to which place of the two they belong. Every chapter is subdivided into smaller portions, of very unequal length, customarily called verses; but the Arabic word is "Ayat," and signifies signs or wonders. Notwithstanding this subdivision is common and well known, yet no manuscript exists wherein the verses are actually numbered; though in some copies the total of the verses in each chapter is set down after the title. And the Muhammadans seem to have some scruple in making an actual distinction in their copies, because the chief disagreement between their several editions of the Quran consists in the division and number of the verses. Besides these unequal divisions of chapter and verse, the Muhammadans have also divided the book into sixty equal portions which they call Ahzab, each again subdivided into four equal parts; but the Quran is more usually apportioned into thirty sections, named Ajza, each of twice the length of the Ahzab, and in the like manner subdivided into four parts. These divisions are for the use of the readers in the royal temples, or in the adjoining chapels where princes and great men are interred. There are thirty of these readers belonging to every chapel, and each reads his section, every day, so that the whole work is read over once a day. Next after the title, at the head of every chapter, except only the ninth, is prefixed the following solemn form, by the Muhammadans called the |