CHAPTER X. The orthodox Mohammedan sects.-Their founders.—Hatred between the Sonnites and Shiites. THE orthodox sects of Mohammedans are divided into four. Two of these are prevalent in Tunis ; there are also some of the heretical sect called Hargjeah, inconsiderable in point of number, and are confined to the island of Jerba. They are very much hated by the other sects, on account of their believing that God never forgives a crime. The most prevalent sect is called Malechea, from their founder Malec Ebn Ans, who was born at Medina in the year of the Hegira 90. He has paid great regard to the traditions of the Prophet. In his last illness, a friend going to visit him, found him in tears; and on asking the reason of it, Malec answered," How should I not weep? and who has more reason to weep than I? Would to God, that for every question decided by me according to my own opinion, I had received so many stripes! then would my accounts be easier. Would to God I had never given any decision of my own!" the year 178, and was buried at Medina. He died in His sect has a place of prayer in the south-west corner of the Harem Shereef. The second sect is called Hanafea, from their founder Hanafy. He was born at Cufâ in the 80th year of the Hegira, and died in prison at Bagdad, in 150 of the same epoch, for having refused to be made Cadi or Judge. He refused to accept this high office, because, he alleged, he was unfit for it. On being asked the reason, he replied, "If I speak the truth, I am unfit; but if I tell a lie, a liar is not fit to be a judge." They say of him, that whilst he was in prison, he read the Koran no less than seven thousand times over! * The first real dissensions among the Mohammedans happened soon after the death of their Prophet. Abubeker, or Abu Bacre, the father-in-law of Mohammed, and Ali his son-in-law, both aspired to the empire. This occasioned a dreadful contest, and was the cause of two factions, one of which acknowledged Abubeker as the true Caliph, or successor of Mohammed, and its members were called Sonnites; whilst the other adhered to Ali, and were called Shiites. Both professed to follow the Koran; but the former added to it, by way of interpretation, the Sonna, which was a certain law they considered to have been received by oral tradition from the Prophet, but which the Shiites rejected. Among the Sonnites are to be classed the Turks, Tartars, Arabians, Africans, and nearly the whole of the Indian Mo *Shafeiah and Hanbaleah are the last two of the four great sects. The former has for its author a certain Shafe, and has only a limited influence over the sea-coast of the Indian peninsula; the latter has been founded by Hanbal, and is nowhere very much followed. For more particulars respecting these sects, see Sale's Prel. Disc. hammedans; while the followers of Ali are confined to the Persians and subjects of the Grand Mogul.* The Shiites, however, it must be remembered, have also tradition. These two sections have been the cause of a great deal of bloodshed. The Persians, who are the representatives of the Shiites, have always termed the other party infidels. They have, however, mitigated their religious prejudices. "They [the Shiites] are believers," they say, "because they recognise the holy mission of Mohammed, and worship God; but they have forfeited their claim to be denominated faithful, by their adoption of those who refused allegiance, and acted with cruelty towards the cousin, the daughter, and the lineal descendants of the holy prophet." The Sonnites are not equally charitable: very few of their doctors have acknowledged the followers of Ali to be Mohammedans.t So far is this hatred carried, that the Mufti and chief doctors of the law have more than once unanimously declared, to slay a Persian Shiah is more acceptable to God than to slay seventy Christians or idolaters."" The Sonnites, we have seen, are divided into four principal sects, which have again many subdivisions. The Shiites also are not quite agreed amongst themselves. * Collins' Summary of Mosheim. 6 † See Mills, and the authorities there given. CHAPTER XI. The Mohammedan ladies.-Description of a bath.-Polygamy.-Form of a divorce.-Opinion of marriage.-Female education.-Marriage ceremony.-Prohibited degrees of marriage.-Blessings which Christianity brought upon the woman.-St Augustin.-Description of a feast to the devil.-Duty incumbent upon Christian females. THE Mohammedan ladies of Tunis, like those of other Eastern countries, are kept under a very strict seclusion. A rich Moor's wife never leaves the house, except to go to the bath, and that only at night; and if they find it absolutely necessary to go out during the day, their faces are covered, and their whole body is wrapped up in such a manner, that a stranger would be puzzled to find out what they are. The bath is a luxury in which the people indulge very much. There are both public and private baths; these may differ in their ornaments and dimensions, but do not vary in their models and structure. They consist of three rooms: the first is a large hall, where the people dress and undress; the second is a well-heated room where the bather, after remaining a few minutes, gets into a very great perspiration, and so prepares himself for the third room, which is the real bathing-room. The bath itself is a large stone or marble cistern, large enough to receive a man lying in it at his full length. Of these cisterns, in public baths, there are more or less. They are supplied with water by several pipes conducted through the walls. The bath men or women, according to the sex of the bather, attend, wash, rub, and dry them with surprising dexterity and art, suppling and stretching the joints in a manner, that one who undergoes this operation for the first time would fancy that his bones are dislocated. The bather is supplied with bathing-clothes, which are usually of blue and white checked cotton. After the bath, you return to the first room, where you repose yourself upon a divan, partake of a cup of coffee or lemonade, and then make room for new bathers. * Though polygamy is lawful in the Mohammedan religion, it is very seldom that a Moor in Tunis has more than two wives at the same time ; however, divorces are so easily obtained, that they may change them as often as they please. My servant one day begged leave to go out, and on my asking him what particular business he had, *Many of the laws of Mohammed betray the shortsightedness of their author to the extensiveness of their influence. The practice of polygamy would never be permitted by the founder of a general religion. Nature and policy are united against it; and although it is in accordance with the licentious manners of one part of the world, mankind at large hold it in abhorrence. Silence upon the subject, or an absolute prohibition of it, would have been the course of a man who wished to legislate for all people, and all times.-Mills' History, p. 333. |