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MISCELLANEA.
DECEMBER, 1888.]
N. N. Pantusov sent a Chinese inscription with a translation.
N. P. Ostroümov sent a manuscript collection of popular songs of the Sarts.
S. M. Georgievski communicated the results of his examination of the Chinese manuscript exhibited to the Society by N. M. Yadrintzev. According to his opinion it was written thirty years ago, and its object was to spread Muhammadanism in China. There is no historical information in it, only legends intended to exaggerate the antiquity of Muhammadanism in that country.
V. A. Zhukovski read his paper on the Persian sect, 'Ahl-i-Haqq.1
V. S. Golenistchev described the inscriptions found by him during his travels in the Wadi Hammamåt. He also exhibited some fragments of papyrus and parchment with Egyptian and Arabic texts.
D. A. Chwolson arranged the inscriptions of Semirechia, according to their styles and dates. He decided that the word atlia met with in the date of the inscriptions was really a Syriac word and corresponded to the Turkish lu, i.e. dragon, also to be found in them."
(b) Meeting March 16th 1887.
N. P. Ostroümov sent reprints from the Turkestanskia Viedomosti, containing essays in the Sart language on local traditions and instruction in various trades and professions.
A. A. Tsagarelli read a paper on the Georgian inscriptions found and collected by P. A. Sirku. These inscriptions are to be published.
(c) Meeting April 27th 1887.
Baron von Rosen gave an account from the Arabic newspaper Samaratu'l-funun, of nine marble sarcophagi recently found at Sidon.
A. A. Harkavy gave an account of a Hebrew version of the story of Alexander the Great which he found during his last visit to Egypt and Palestine, differing in many points from those previously known. He assigned the MS., which was unfortunately imperfect, to the sixteenth century:
Baron von Rosen communicated the contents of a work of an Arabian writer of the tenth century, Ibn Roste (= Ibn Dasti). It contains a curious description of Constantinople, particularly some customs of the Byzantine Court, described by an Arab, named Hârûn Ibn Yahya, who was taken prisoner by the Byzantines. There is, besides, the itinerary of the same person from Constantinople to Rome, and a description of the noteworthy objects of the latter city.
(d) The sect of the True People, or the 'Ahl-iHaqq, in Persia. V. Zhukovski, the writer,
• vide infra.
1 vide infra. These are to be published.
358
while studying Kurdish dialects at Shiraz in the Spring of 1886, came in contact with a man who struck him by his severe remarks on the Musalmans, and who acknowledged that he drank wine and ate swine's flesh, not thinking it to be sin. The man turned out to be a member of the Kurdish sect, called The People of Truth.' Although he was at first reserved, yet the author succeeded in taking down from his recitation a strange Confession of Faith,' which is here given in the original with a translation. To the north-west of Shiraz, at the distance of about three or four versts, are some villages inhabited by these sectaries, who belong to the Kurdish race of the Gurans. The Gurâns are very interesting as having a special dialect. They furnish the greatest contingent to the sect here described, and are hated by the Musalmâns, who call them Shariat. They style themselves People of the Truth' ('Ahl-i-Haqq) and are very favourably disposed to the Christians, whom they consider almost as their co-religionists. They eat swine's flesh and drink wine, but esteem drunkenness a great disgrace. In some respects they conform to the outward rites of the Musalmâns to avoid persecution. They do not, however, observe the fast of Ramazan. They never shave, nor out their moustaches, probably because they have some superstitious ideas about the power communicated by the hair. The native who furnished information to the writer about the sect, upon being asked what his co-religionists thought of Muhammad replied, "According to our traditions, it appears certain that Muḥammad cut his moustaches, and therefore could not be a proper judge of or understand the truth. They pretend to take their faith from a certain Muḥammad Ibn Nasir, the contemporary of 'Ali, the son-inlaw of Muhammad. The sect seems to possess no religious books, but they offer sacrifices, which may consist of anything, provided it be edible, beginning with a little sugar to a sheep or cow; but there are fixed offerings on fast days, the birth of a child, or the admittance of a new member into the bosom of Truth.' The writer of the article discusses their religious belief at consider. able length. On his way to Mazandaran from Tehran he passed through two villages, Bumôin and Rudêin, the first of which is partly and the second entirely settled by Kurd-bachê or 'Ahl-iIlahi, who do not entirely coincide with the people above mentioned, but very much resemble them. He was told by a man of the Truth" that the only point of difference was the time for beginning the fast, which is three days later with
See Rieu's Catalogue of Persian MSS. in the British
Museum.
