In the east of Kohistan is a tract of country known by the name of Shekúnah, and the lord of it is Malek Yakúb, who boasts of having issued from the family of the lord of the believers, Mâaviah Ebn Abi Safîan. The inhabitants of that country are brave, warlike, pious, and abstemious. They have many commentaries, and knowledge of law and religion, and religious books. They acknowledge the divine mission of Muhammed (the blessing of God be upon him!) as well as the office of Imám and the khalifat of Abubekr and Omar, and of the lord of believers Mâaviah, and they revile Alî for having pretended to a divine rank. His belief was that they ought to possess all kinds of grain;* his followers worshipped him as divine; this he insinuated to them by this prayer, which he pronounced himself in the sermons, related as his saying:
“I am God; I am the merciful; I am the bountiful; I am the high; I am the creator; I am the provider of the necessaries of life; I am the most compassionate; I am the most propitious; I am he who bestows a form to the drop of the sperm in the wombs.”*
and the like; these words are of Pharâún and Nimrod,* and like these are many of their sayings. They are besides fond of bloodshed, and cruel. They say improper things about the prophet, as of one who did not always behave with decency. So it happened once, that eating dates in company with other persons, the prophet threw the stones of the dates towards Alí, and then said: “O Alí! thou hast eaten a great many dates, because all the stones are before thee;” Ali answered, “Thou hast swallowed them with the stones;” and they say this passage is in the sacred book:
“There are men whose speeches about the present life will astonish thee, and who will take God for witness of what is in their heart, whilst they are the most quarrelsome of adversaries.”
And they are approving Ebn Maljám,* and say Maljám is among them:
“There are some men who rescue their soul, desiring in this manner to perform the will of God.”
They assert that the two Hasáîn are not of the family of the prophet, according to this verse of the Koran:
“Muhammed is not any thing else but one of us; he is yet the prophet of God, and the seal of the Apostles.”
They say that Yazîd killed Hasan, the son of Alí, in his house, and did not bring him forth from the corner where he was concealed.* He was come for subduing the country of Bîrak; on that account he was put to death. On the tenth day of the Moheram, they go on horseback upon a wide field which is before their town; there they make, of earth, an image of Hosain who was killed; against him they dash their horses, and think fortunate those who can say, that they have been riding against the bodies of the martyrs of Kerbala;* this they call a day of victory, and on this day they make a greater show of festivity and rejoicing, because the Imám of the time, that is, Yazîd, was upon the field of victory. And on Fridays and festivals they revile from their pulpits the lord Alí and his offspring. Among them is one sect in particular which act in this manner, and, with their swords drawn, curse Alí and his sons, and in this way they pass one day: they are called Sîáf, “fencers.”
The same say that the prophet and his offspring, and particularly their prophet, had the power of recalling to life and putting to death, of creating and annihilating any being; and that they did whatever they wished. But this mode of acting was no more allowable to their successors, such as that of the prophets to destroy the living, which power they possessed on account of their having also that of recalling to life; but it is not one of our attributes to render lifeless the living, because we have not the power of restoring them to life; also because the creatures have not been made on our account; besides, the prophet took whatever mate he liked, because the world was his share, whilst it is not permitted to us to take the woman of another man. It is however right, making it our profession, to wage war against the opposers of faith, and to fight the enemies of religion for the protection of the law. This people kill no living beings in the country of Shekúnah. Their usual food is animal juice, such as honey, butter, and the like; they use no intoxicating liquors, nor that prepared from the palm-tree, nor opium.
Among the Maksud chep, who are a more intelligent people, the author of this book found himself in the house of one of them. There a man called Hushíar Refik Nikarindah, asked him: “If it were not permitted to drink intoxicating liquors, how was it that the former prophets, and some of the khalifs, the sons of Ommiah,* drank wine?” He answered: “The wine could not overcome their understanding; with us, it is not so.” Hushiar said again to the author of this work: “If the khalifs, after the prophet, possessed the power to create and to annihilate lives, why did they not render the heretics dumb?” The answer was: “A king sent a phial of deadly poison to the Amir of the believers, Omar (the grace of God be with him!) that he may give it to an enemy; the khalif said: ‘I have no greater enemy than my own spirit,’ and he drank the whole phial, from which however his sacred body received no harm; now, the gentle-minded personage, who could drink poison, how would he not hear the abuse of mistaken men? So represent to thyself the other khalifs.” The Cheps are a tribe of the people of Shekunah.