DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4646#0073
73
of the two opposing parties in the female succession case, the one|
which wished to apply the Mohamedan law in regard to the inheri
tance of Khoja women, was the Aga's party, and not the other. It is
undoubted that the Aga wished to apply the Mohamedan law which
gives a right of succession to women, and that he desired to make the
Khojas more just and liberal towards their females. It is one of the
great glories of the religion of Mohamet that he did so much to raise
the position of women among the idolators of the ancient world, and
yet these people, the Plaintiffs, have the impudence to avow their
wish to get rid of this obligation, and stick to the old Hindoo
system, at the same time claim to be orthodox Sunis.
The Khojahs in that suit were proved to have called themselves
Sunis to the Sunis, and Shias to the Shias ; now the Sunis cannot
practice that reservation, but the Shias may, and it is remarkable
that this is specially true of the Ismailis. De Sacy in his Preliminary
Discourse to the History of the relic/ion of the Druzes says, the Ismaili
Dais represented themselves as Shias to the Shias and Sunis to the
Sunis. Sir Erskine Perry -in his Oriental Cases ( page 113 and 114)
speaks thus of the religion of the Khojas :—
" But even to the blood of their saint they adhere by a frail tenure,
for it was proved, that when the grandmother of Agha Khan made her
appearance in Bombay some years ago, and claimed tithes from the
faithful, they repudiated their alliegance, commenced litigation in this
Court and professed to the Kazi of Bombay their intention to incor-
porate themselves with the general body of Mussulmans in the island. \,
To use the words of one of themselves, they call themselves Shias to
a Shia, and Sunniys to a Sunniy, and they probably neither know
nor care anything as to the distinctive doctrines of either of these
great divisions of the Mussulman world. They have, moreover, no
translation of the Koran into their vernacular language, or into Guzerati
their language of business, which is remarkable when we recollect
the long succession of pious Mussulman kings who reigned in Guzerat
and in the countries in which the Kojahs have been located. Nor have
they anyscholarsor men of learning among them, and not a Kojah could
be quoted who was acquainted with Arabic or Persian, the two great
languages of Mohamadan literature and theology, and the only religious
work of which we heard as being current amongst them was one called
the Das Avatar in the Sindhi character and Cutchi language."
10
of the two opposing parties in the female succession case, the one|
which wished to apply the Mohamedan law in regard to the inheri
tance of Khoja women, was the Aga's party, and not the other. It is
undoubted that the Aga wished to apply the Mohamedan law which
gives a right of succession to women, and that he desired to make the
Khojas more just and liberal towards their females. It is one of the
great glories of the religion of Mohamet that he did so much to raise
the position of women among the idolators of the ancient world, and
yet these people, the Plaintiffs, have the impudence to avow their
wish to get rid of this obligation, and stick to the old Hindoo
system, at the same time claim to be orthodox Sunis.
The Khojahs in that suit were proved to have called themselves
Sunis to the Sunis, and Shias to the Shias ; now the Sunis cannot
practice that reservation, but the Shias may, and it is remarkable
that this is specially true of the Ismailis. De Sacy in his Preliminary
Discourse to the History of the relic/ion of the Druzes says, the Ismaili
Dais represented themselves as Shias to the Shias and Sunis to the
Sunis. Sir Erskine Perry -in his Oriental Cases ( page 113 and 114)
speaks thus of the religion of the Khojas :—
" But even to the blood of their saint they adhere by a frail tenure,
for it was proved, that when the grandmother of Agha Khan made her
appearance in Bombay some years ago, and claimed tithes from the
faithful, they repudiated their alliegance, commenced litigation in this
Court and professed to the Kazi of Bombay their intention to incor-
porate themselves with the general body of Mussulmans in the island. \,
To use the words of one of themselves, they call themselves Shias to
a Shia, and Sunniys to a Sunniy, and they probably neither know
nor care anything as to the distinctive doctrines of either of these
great divisions of the Mussulman world. They have, moreover, no
translation of the Koran into their vernacular language, or into Guzerati
their language of business, which is remarkable when we recollect
the long succession of pious Mussulman kings who reigned in Guzerat
and in the countries in which the Kojahs have been located. Nor have
they anyscholarsor men of learning among them, and not a Kojah could
be quoted who was acquainted with Arabic or Persian, the two great
languages of Mohamadan literature and theology, and the only religious
work of which we heard as being current amongst them was one called
the Das Avatar in the Sindhi character and Cutchi language."
10