On The Contrary, In A Youth This
Would Be Treated As Pedantic Affectation, And Condemned In Some Such
Satiric Quotation As
“There are two things colder than ice,
A young old man, and an old young man.”
[FN#1] Ibn Jubayr relates that in his day a descendant of Belal, the
original Mu’ezzin of the Prophet, practised his ancestral profession at
Al-Madinah.
[FN#2] This word is said to be the plural of Nakhwali,—one who cultivates
the date tree, a gardener or farmer. No one could tell me whether these
heretics had not a peculiar name for themselves. I hazard a conjecture
that they may be identical with the Mutawalli (also written Mutawilah,
Mutaalis, Metoualis, &c., &c.), the hardy, courageous, and hospitable
mountaineers of Syria, and Cœlesyria Proper. This race of sectarians,
about 35,000 in number, holds to the Imamship or supreme pontificate of
Ali and his descendants. They differ, however, in doctrine from the
Persians, believing in a transmigration of the soul, which, gradually
purified, is at last “orbed into a perfect star.” They are scrupulous of
caste, and will not allow a Jew or a Frank to touch a piece of their
furniture: yet they erect guest-houses for Infidels. In this they
resemble the Shi’ahs, who are far more particular about ceremonial purity
than the Sunnis. They use ablutions before each meal, and herein remind
us of the Hindus.
[FN#3] The communist principles of Mazdak the Persian (sixth century)
have given his nation a permanent bad fame in this particular among the
Arabs.
[FN#4] In Arabia the Sharif is the descendant of Hasan through his two
sons, Zaid and Hasan al-Musanna:
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