DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4646#0060
60
dynasty was established in Persia, there was nothing for tlie Ismailies
to contend against, for the Shiah foim of worship then became the
national religion, and suffered no further persecution.
I think I have now shown in reply to Mr. Anstey, that Aga Khan's
party are not the enemies of the human race, as they have been said
to be, and that they are not disentitled to the protection of the court,
whether as Shiahs Imamies, or Ismailies.
And now, having at some length gone through what but for Mr.
Anstey's argument would have appeared in some respects rather irrele-
vant matter, I come to the great .question raised in this suit; that is
whether the Khojahs arc Sunis or'Shiahs ?
Now in the suit of 1830, the Plaintiffs did not affirm, or suggest
that they were Sunis, but merely disputed the claims of spiritual
superiority, set up by Aga Khan.
h It was in 1851 that they first announced that the Khojahs were
! originally converted by a Suny, and that their practices were partly
' Surd. It is true their practices in India have been partly Suni, but
the' Plaintiffs did not then venture to say the Khojahs had always
been Sunis in faith, neither did they demand what they now ash—
jnamely that all non-Suni persons shall be'turned out oftheKhojah
('community by the decree of this Court. Now when we look at the
evidence adduced to prove them Sunis, we find it comes to this ; that
they rely on the external conformity of the Bombay Khojahs to
Sunyism in the matter of nikka and funeral rites. We fully admit
the existence of the Suni forms among the Khojahs, but that admis-
sion is coupled with the explanation, that the Khojahs adopted these
I forms as an outward show, in order to avoid persecution. We rely on
a sort of plea in confession and avoidance. Now I take it that if you
find a community following the outward observances of one sect, and
secretly reading the books of another, the inference is, that they
belong to that other. Mr. Anstey replied, first, that the reason for
Suni non-conformity is manifestly absurd, that the defendants could
not have been afraid of persecution in reality, as the British power
had been settled in Bftmbay for 200 years past, and secondly, that
the Mohammedan law does not allow of mental reservation in mat-
ters of religion, and he even produced official evidence as to the parti-
cular department of infernal torture, to which hypocrites were con-
signed by Mahomed, quoting from Sale's Koran on the point. But
dynasty was established in Persia, there was nothing for tlie Ismailies
to contend against, for the Shiah foim of worship then became the
national religion, and suffered no further persecution.
I think I have now shown in reply to Mr. Anstey, that Aga Khan's
party are not the enemies of the human race, as they have been said
to be, and that they are not disentitled to the protection of the court,
whether as Shiahs Imamies, or Ismailies.
And now, having at some length gone through what but for Mr.
Anstey's argument would have appeared in some respects rather irrele-
vant matter, I come to the great .question raised in this suit; that is
whether the Khojahs arc Sunis or'Shiahs ?
Now in the suit of 1830, the Plaintiffs did not affirm, or suggest
that they were Sunis, but merely disputed the claims of spiritual
superiority, set up by Aga Khan.
h It was in 1851 that they first announced that the Khojahs were
! originally converted by a Suny, and that their practices were partly
' Surd. It is true their practices in India have been partly Suni, but
the' Plaintiffs did not then venture to say the Khojahs had always
been Sunis in faith, neither did they demand what they now ash—
jnamely that all non-Suni persons shall be'turned out oftheKhojah
('community by the decree of this Court. Now when we look at the
evidence adduced to prove them Sunis, we find it comes to this ; that
they rely on the external conformity of the Bombay Khojahs to
Sunyism in the matter of nikka and funeral rites. We fully admit
the existence of the Suni forms among the Khojahs, but that admis-
sion is coupled with the explanation, that the Khojahs adopted these
I forms as an outward show, in order to avoid persecution. We rely on
a sort of plea in confession and avoidance. Now I take it that if you
find a community following the outward observances of one sect, and
secretly reading the books of another, the inference is, that they
belong to that other. Mr. Anstey replied, first, that the reason for
Suni non-conformity is manifestly absurd, that the defendants could
not have been afraid of persecution in reality, as the British power
had been settled in Bftmbay for 200 years past, and secondly, that
the Mohammedan law does not allow of mental reservation in mat-
ters of religion, and he even produced official evidence as to the parti-
cular department of infernal torture, to which hypocrites were con-
signed by Mahomed, quoting from Sale's Koran on the point. But