Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/153

 SHAH ABDOOLLAH SUBZPOSH. (98)

S of the Syud sect. The Syuds, who claim descent from the Mahomedan prophet, are respectable Mahomedans, most generally of the Soonnee sect, and are to be found everywhere in India. One of their chief occupations is the care of the Mahomedan shrines; but they are soldiers also, and serve in the native and irregular armies of India, as professors of law and medicine, as farmers, and occasionally as merchants and bankers. Many of the noblest Mahomedan families of India are Syuds.. The poorer gain a livelihood by the instruction of children, the sale of charms or "taweezes," and the contributions of their Moreeds or disciples, who belong generally to other Mahomedan castes. The wealthier are landholders. Their habits are settled; they are proud of their descent from Mahomed, and are generally bigoted and fanatic. Their diet is grain and vegetables of all kinds, beef, sheep and goat mutton, poultry of most kinds, the turkey being excepted, fish, and wild fowl. They attain the length of life usual in India. Shah Abdoollah is the head of a family which came from Medina in Arabia to India during the reign of Secunder Lodi, Emperor of Delhi, and have resided in the district of Goruckpore for several centuries. The title Subzposh (subz, green, and posh, dress) taken from the dress, is the distinctive mark of nobility, and is peculiar to all Syuds who are employed as priests, other classes wearing a green turban only. Shah Abdoollah is five feet six inches in height, of a dark complexion, with dark eyes.

Of the four sects or divisions of Mahomedans, the Syuds are esteemed the highest in rank; and owing to their admitted claim of descent from Ali, the sonin-law of Mahomed, and his daughter Fatima, are held in peculiar reverence. The Syuds are divided into two classes: the first, denominated "Syud Hassanee," are descended from Ali and Fatima; the second, temied "Syud Allawee," from Ali and his other wives. The origin of the term Syud or Syed, which signifies prince or noble, arose, according to a tradition quoted in the "Qanoon-i-Islam," from the following circumstance:—