SYUD, properly Sayyid, with the Mir, Sharif, Shaikh; Beg, and Khan, are tering or titles assumed by Muhammadans as their birthright. Syud means lord,. and is taken by all descendants of Ali and Fatima, but also by the children of the other wives of Ali. 'Ali had nine wives, by whom he had 14 sons and 18 daughters ; Ali and Fatima's descendants from .Hasan and Husain being styled Hassani or Syud Hassani, and IRAs saini or Syud Hfissaini, and those from the other wives Alavi or Syud Alavi. The Syud are also styled ?ilk or prince, their women are Saidani, their race Sachit, and the offspring of a Syud and other Muhammadan woman Sharif or noble. As a rule, Indian Syuds are quiet, humble-minded men, not distinguished by other qualities from the Shaikhs ; they are of Sunni and also of Shiah persuasion, and are met with serving as soldiers or in civil avoca tions, or following some religious duties. Amongst the women of the Syuds of Madras most can read the Arabic Koran and the Hindustani books of Belief and Devotion, but they cannot write. In all Madras, there were (in 1872) more than 1000 of this tribe of women, some of them also able to read Hindustani story books and could write a little, while a few even knew the Persian Gulis tan, Bostan, Anwar-i-Soliaili, Abul Fazl, and other usual books in Persian, and can even write the Persian grammatically, but there are not more than 10 or 15 such women in all Madras. Also about 400 or 500 of them are good needlewomen and embroiderers. The Syud race of Barh in Northern India furnished many persons of note to the courts of Dehli from the reign of Akbar t,o that of Ferokhsir. They are still numerous in
Muzaffarnagar. In Kurachee and the Hyderabad district, the Syuds are landowners and ex tensive cultivators, and say they came from Arabia and Persia about 700 years ago. Kaghan is a long, narrow glen, stretching upwards till it nearly reaches Chelas ; the latter outpost of maharaja Gulab Singh's kingdom is a barren de pendency of -Hazara. It is inhabited by pastoral and aboriginal races, and was given by former rulers in fiefdom to a family of Syuds who were confirmed.by. the British. These Synd's exercised internal jurisdiction, and sent certain members of the family in attendance on the Deputy-Commis sioner of Hazara, virtually as hostages for good behaviour. The Syuds were summoned th answer numerous complaints preferred by the people of Kaghan ; they came, but afterwards fled, and assumed an attitude of resistance, and intrigued with the Sitana fanatics and with the Hasanzai, then hostile to the British. The small principality of Banaganapilly, in the Ceded Districts, is ruled by Syuds.
Several Syuds have been distinguished theolo gians, viz. Spirt Abd-nl-Kadar, styled Pir-i Dastagir • Syud Ahmad, styled Kabir, the founder o'f the Rafai community of fakirs • Syud Jalal-ud-Din, Bokhari. Syud Zain-ul-Abidin, a venerated saint.—Wilson's Gloss.