MAHOMEDANISM. At present the followers of Mahomed are styled Muhammadan, Moslem, and also Musalman, by the Europeans, the last named being from the singular Muslim, and plural Musalmin, of the Arabs. The Burmese call them Pa-thi, and the Chinese in Yunnan, Panthay, also Quay. The Chinese know them also as the Hoai-Horti ; the Tamil race designate them Turka-kara and Chulia ; and the Teling style them Turka-vadu and Jonangi. Moor, until the middle of the 19th century, was the softened pronunciation of Maghrabi, the designation of the western Arab race in the north of Africa; and Saracen, another name for them, is the changed form of Sharkia, the eastern race.
In the time of the emperor Jahangir, in India, the Hindus were estimated as 5 to 1 Muhammadan. Mr. Elphinstone's estimate about 1840 was 8 to 1. Another estimate made the relative numbers as tif to 1, or about 17 per cent. of the population as 3Iuhammadans.
In the Feudatory States of India in alliance with the British, the predominant numbers follow Hinduism, or worship local deities ; but in the territories under British rule, the census of 1881 showed the Muhammadans to be 50,121,585, viz.: N.W. Provinces, 6,162,900 Ajmir, • . . . 57,802 Bengal, . . . 21,704,724 Coorg, . . . . 12,541 Madras, . . . 1,033,561 British Burma, . 168,881 Panjab, . . . 11,662,434 Baroda, . . . 174,080 Bomba3r, . . 3,774,360 Central India, . 510,718 Central Provinces, 285,687 Cochin, . . . . 33,344 Mysore, . . . . 200,484 Hyderabad, . . 925,929 Assam, . . 1,317,022 Rajputana, . . 861,7•7 Lerar, . . . . 187,555 Travancore, . 146,00'J In India, the people of this religion aro of the most varied descent, the offspring of Arabs of every tribe, from the Iranian races of Persia, from the Scythic, Tartar, Mongol, Turk, Baluch, and Afghans, with bodies of converts from the Agni eula Rajput, from the Jat, and from the prior Mongoloid tribes who preceded the Aryan immi grants. In the northern parts of India, the bulk of the Muhammadans are of Mongol or Afghan descent, and recognise themselves by the titles of Moghul and Pathan converts, Arab Nfuliammadans being styled Shaikh.
The descendants of the various 3fuhammadans who from time to time, as conquerors and camp followers, entered India with 3fahmud, Chengiz Khan, Timur, Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah, and others, have found employment in the armies of Delili, Hyderabad, Arcot, Lucknow, and Rohilkhand, and in the native Indian armies of Great Britain.
On the western frontier of India, in the Panjab, and in the territories lying on each side of the Indus, the 3Iuhamniadans are chiefly of Mongol, Turk, Afghan, and Italuch descent, with other smaller bodies, converts from Hinduism, of Rajput and Jat races. There are the 3fultani, Matti, and Khurul of the Rechnab Doab in the Panjab, the Awan of the Sind Sagor Doab, who are supposed to be of Grecian descent, the Daoudputra of Bahawulpur, the Tuwana of the Shahpur district, the 3Iewatti of Gurgaon, and many of the Gujar race scattered through differ ent parts of Northern India. In the N.W. Pro vinces are the Afghan Rohilla of Rohilkhand, and the Kourboh of Meerut, likewise Muhammadan. There are also Muliammiulans in Bhopal, 3fundisor, and Joura ; the late rulers of Oudh were Syuds, the late rulers of Hyderabad in Sind were Baluch, and the rulers of Hyderabad in the Dekhan are Syuds. The Daoudputra Mahummadans trace their descent to the khalif Abbas, but take their name from Daoud, the first of the family who acquired a name. They arc, however, supposed to be Bain* changed by a long residence in Sind. They moved from Rahawulpur, and seized land on the Sutlej, reducing the remains of the ancient Lungga and Jobia, and introducing the Sind system of canal irrigation. Their claim to be descendants of the race of Al Abbas, who reigned at Baghdad from A.D. 749 to 1258, may, however, be correct. The surnames met with —Gori, Kirmani, Koreshi, Sherazi—show their possessors' views as to their old homes, and the tenacity with which the families look to their original starting-places. All Afghans, while in India, carefully retain their tribal names, the Yusufzai, 3fehinun, Bitrakzai, etc. Tho Walla jah family, who for a few years had a troubled ink in the Karnatic, trace their descent from the khalif Omar, A.D. 644, and in their conversa tions would notice the course of their fortunes as having had amongst them a khalif, a kazi at Samarcand, and nawabs of the Karnatic. Races who, as in this instance, can take a retrospective view of their history for 1280 years, who can disregard many hundreds of years of obscurity, and can see in that long time only the dignities possessed by three ancestors, a khalif, a kazi, and a nawab, will readily accept a reverse of fortune as God's hand laid upon them, will regard it as but of temporary duration, and will watchfully await a change.