["The Mussulmans
Of Binh-Thuan Call Themselves Bani Or Orang Bani, 'men Mussulmans,'
Probably From The Arabic Beni 'the
Sons,' to distinguish them from the
Chams Djat 'of race,' which they name also Kaphir or Akaphir, from
The Arabic word kafer 'pagans.' These names are used in Binh-Thuan to
make a distinction, but Banis and Kaphirs alike are all Chams.... In
Cambodia all Chams are Mussulmans." (E. Aymonier, Les Tchames, p. 26.)
The religion of the pagan Chams of Binh-Thuan is degenerate Brahmanism with
three chief gods, Po-Nagar, Po-Rome, and Po-Klong-Garai. (Ibid., p.
35.) - H.C.] The books of their former religion they say (according to Dr.
Bastian) that they received from Ceylon, but they were converted to
Islamism by no less a person than 'Ali himself. The Tong-king people
received their Buddhism from China, and this tradition puts Champa as the
extreme flood-mark of that great tide of Buddhist proselytism, which went
forth from Ceylon to the Indo-Chinese regions in an early century of our
era, and which is generally connected with the name of Buddaghosha.
The prominent position of Champa on the route to China made its ports
places of call for many ages, and in the earliest record of the Arab
navigation to China we find the country noticed under the identical name
(allowing for the deficiencies of the Arabic Alphabet) of Sanf or
Chanf. Indeed it is highly probable that the [Greek: Zaba] or [Greek:
Zabai] of Ptolemy's itinerary of the sea-route to the Sinae represents
this same name.
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