Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/213

 CHISHTEES. (274)

HE Chishtees are one of the most ancient and interesting Mahomedan tribes now in India, and are descended from the first Mahomedan settlers, who were Arabs. After the Cahph Omar had founded the city of Bussora, he dispatched an armament to Sinde, then under the rule of a Hindoo prince, Daher, in the year 711; but this being unsuccessful, another and larger force was employed, under Kassim, the nephew of the Governor of Bussora, which defeated the Rajah, annexed Sinde, and induced many persons from Arabia to settle there. Sinde was afterwards reconquered and occupied by the Soomera Kajpoots; but the Mahomedan settlers appear to have been undisturbed. The first occupation of Mooltan was by Subooktugeen, the enterprising ruler of a part of Central Asia in the tenth century, who, having conquered and annexed Kandahar, attacked the tribes on the Indus, and eventually penetrated to Mooltan, where a Mahomedan mission was established. The mission flourished and made many converts, while the Mahomedans were recruited both from Arabia and Afghanistan. One of the early Arabian missionaries belonged to the Arab (Bedouin) tribe of Chishtee, and, from his holy life and religious zeal, became, after his death, one of the principal Mahomedan saints of India. He died, and was buried at Pak Puttun, in the thirteenth century. This tribe or clan still exists in the Mooltan district, and as his descendants are esteemed honourable, if not sacred, his tomb is visited by vast numbers of pious Mahomedans from all parts of India, who have made vows of pilgrimage for particular objects, while his votaries believe that miracles are still performed there to the really faithful. It is not a little curious, perhaps, that the Chishtees still preserve their distinct national colour and physiognomy almost unchanged. It is esteemed an honour to marry the daughter of a Chishtee, and the men do not ordinarily marry out of their own tribe. Chishtees are found in many parts of India, who also claim to be descendants of the original saint, and they invariably receive honours as sacred persons. One of these settled at Beejapoor, in the Deccan, in the sixteenth century, and was held in great