Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/303

 CHAPTER IIL CHARACTER OF MAHOMEDAXISM IS THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. Indian Islanders throughout are of the orthodox creed, fol- lovoing almost invariably fhe doctrines of Shqfihi. — The doctrines of the Imams have never Jound their i:ay into the Archipelago. — Malays considered among their neighbours the best Mahomedans. — In religious sentiment all the tribes are liberal and tolerayit — State oj Mahomedanism in Java, — The Mahomedan Festivals of Java modijications of the ancient Hindu ones. A Mahomedan Festival in Java de* scribed. — Java7iese Priests y their duties and offices — Lower orders of the Indian Islanders singularly inattentive both to the positive and negative precepts of the Koran. — Anec* dotes in illustration of this, 1 HE Indian islanders first received the religion of Mahomed from the orthodox land of Arabia, and the flame has been kept alive by the intercourse which has since subsisted with that country. All the tribes and nations of the Archipelago are, therefore, necessarily, nominally of the orthodox faith. Of the Jour great divisions of Mahomc-