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272 could never get a satisfactory answer, till shortly before I left Cairo, a person told me it originated from the death of Ali. When the party of Omar killed him they cried out Hadah nahar saad, which signifies, this is a lucky day the counter-party said Hadah haram—this is unlawful, or wrong. The circumstance of Ali's death is not accurately alluded to here; but the fact is curious: for it thus appears that the Fatimite caliphs have left a race in Egypt, who retain their opinions, so far at least as to have obtained a name from them, and yet none of that animosity prevails which exists elsewhere between Shiahs and Sunnis. This is probably because the Mamaluke government caring for neither, though Sunni itself, has equally oppressed both.

Were I a Mahommedan I should certainly join so far with the Persians as to pronounce a malediction against the three first caliphs for interlopers. But the point of difference ought to have nothing to do with doctrine. The Shiahs