KARUND, a town in the south of Persia ; the inhabitants are All Illahi, worshippers of Ali, whom they consider as God ; they eat pork, drink fermented liquors, never pray, never fast in Ramzan, and are cruel and savage in their habits. Although almost always in revolt against Persia, it is scarcely possible to subdue them ; therefore feuds are compromised and never thoroughly re pressed by force. Col.11awlinson says the religion of the All Illahi sect bears evident marks of Judaism, singularly amalgamated with Sabxan, Christian, and Muhammadan legends. The tomb of Baba Yadgar, in the pass of Zardah, is their holy place ; and this, at the time of the Arab invasion of Persia, was regarded as the abode of Elias. The Ali Illahi believe in a succession of incarnations of the godhead, amounting to 1001 ; Benjamin, Moses, Elias, David, Jesus Christ, Ali and his tutor Salman, a joint development, the Imam Husain, and the Haft Tan (the seven bodies) are I considered the chief of these incarnations. The
Haft Tan were seven pir, or spiritual guides, who lived in the early ages of Muhammadanism, and each, worshipped as the deity, is an object of adoration in some particular part of Kurdistan. Baba Yadgar was one of these. The whole of the incarnations are thus regarded as of one and the same person, the bodily form of the divine mani festation having alone changed ; but the most perfect development is supposed to have taken place in the persons of Benjamin, David, and Ali. The Spanish Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, seems to have considered the whole of these Ali Illahi as Jews ; and it is possible that in his time their faith may have been less corrupted. Amaria also, where the false Messiah, David Elias, appeared, was certainly in the district of Holwan.—Journal of Royal Geographic-al Society, ix. p. 36; Ed, Ferrier, Caravan Journeys, p. 19.