Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s7.3

c48.s7.3

the Ḥadīth, or saying of the Prophet "All converts to my faith are of me and my tribe". In Lower Bengal, from which 80 per cent of the Ṣēkh are returned, this title covers 85 per cent of the total Muslim population. In the Muslim State of Haidarābād, the corresponding proportion is 70 per cent, and in Mysore, also under rulers of this creed once, it is over 60 per cent. Elsewhere it ranges from 25 to 40. It is smaller, as is to be expected, in upper India where Islām was the State religion, and in the Panjāb where conversion does not affect caste or social position, and where, as in the upper Gangetic region, the larger communities often contain a Brāhmanic and a Muslim branch, giving the convert the opportunity of retaining his former status, with a change in his worship only, and often a very slight one even in that. In Bihār, a province which stands between the ignorance of eastern Bengal and the exclusiveness of the upper valley, it is only the converts of the higher castes, such as Rājput, Bābhan or Kāyasth, who are allowed to pass directly into a race-title. Those of humbler origin have to spend a time in the probationary grade, as it were, of Nau-Muslim, or raw-recruits, and their further advancement depends upon their conduct or worldly prosperity.