1 RELIGIOUS, PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER CASTES. 223
2 " menfc only means greater sloth." Mr. Thorbiirn thus describes the Saiyads
3 of Bannu : —
4 " A& a rule the Saiyads are Iaud-owuer3 not tenants, and bad, lazy, land-owners they make
5 " too . In learning, general intelligence, and even in speech and appearance, they are hardly dis-
6 " tinguishable from the Pathans or Jats amongst whom they live. Here and there certainly
7 " honourable exceptions are to be found. The way the lands now held by them were originally
8 " acquired was in most cases by gift. Though many of them still exercise considerable influence,
9 " their bold as a class on the people at large is much weaker than it was thirty years ago. The
10 " straggle for existence caused by the increase of population since annexation has knocked much
11 •' of the awful reverence the Pathan zaunndar used to feel towards holy men in general out of
12 "him. He r.ow views most matters from rather a hard worldly than a superstitious standpoint.
13 '' Many a family or community would now cancel the ancestral deed of gift under which some
14 " Saiyad's brood enjoys a fat inheritance. But for the criminal consequences which would ensue
15 " from turning them out neck and crop, the spiritual consequences would be risked willingly
16 " enough."
17 In Afghanistan the Saiyads have much of the commerce in their hands,
18 as their holy character allows them to pass unharmed where other Pathans
19 284] would infallibly be murdered. Even the Biloches do not love the gaivad :
20 they say, " May God not give kingship to Saiyads and MuUas." The Saiyads
21 as a rule follow the ]\Iahomedan law of inheritance, and do not give their
22 daughters to other than Saiyads. But in the villages of the east many of them
23 have adopted the tribal customs of their neighbours, while in the west the
24 Hindu prejudice against widow-mariiage has in many cases extended to them.
25 516. Divisions of the Saiyads.— The Panjab Saiyads are primarily divided into Hasani
26 descended fnm Hasan and Husaini descended from Husain the sons of Ali, Hasan-Husaini the
27 descendants of Abdul QadirCiUani who sprang from an intermarriage between the two branches,
28 Ulavi descended from Ali by other wives than Patima, and Zaidi who are descended from Zaid
29 Shahid, a grandson of Husain. But they also have a second set of divisions named after the
30 places whence their ancestors came. Thus the descendants of Abdul Qadlr are often known as
31 Gilani -. so the Gardezi or Baghdadi Saiyads
32 are an important branch of the Husainis,
33 and once owned a large portion of the Sarai
34 Sidhu talisil of Multan, while the Zaidis
35 are said to be a branch of the Gardezis. The
36 Bukhari Saiyads seem to be of the Husaini
37 section. The numbers returned are given
38 in the margin. The Saiyads of the Western
39 Plains are chieily Bukhari and Husaini;
40 the Oilani Saiyads are found chiefly in the
41 centre of the Panjab aud the Salt-range and
42 western sub-montane, the Shirazi in Jahlam and Shahpur, the .lafiri in Gujrat, the Husaini
43 in Jahlam, the Bakhari in Rawalpindi, and the Mashaidi in the Salt-range Tract.
44 517. The Ulama (Caste No. 70).— This is a perfectly miscellaneous as-
45 sortment of people, many of whom cannot claim to have any priestly charac-
46 ter. Any divine learned in the faith of Islam claims the title of Alim, the
47 plural of which is Ulama or " the learned men." But on the frontier any
48 person who can read and write and possesses Sufficient religious knowledge to
49 enable him to conduct the devotions in a mosque claims the title. Besides
50 the people who have returned themselves as Ulama, I have included under
51 this heading a large number of
52 persons who have denoted their
53 caste by some word which ex-
54 presses nothing more than a certain
55 degree of religious knowledge or
56 standing among the Mahomedans.
57 The terms so included and the
58 numbers returned tmder each are
59 shown in the margin. The mean-
60 Saiyad sectioxs.
61 1.
62 Hasani
63 .. 11,746
64 6. Bakhari . .
65 , 13,324
66 2.
67 Husaini
68 .. 86,831
69 7. Mashaidi
70 24,271
71 3.
72 Zaidi
73 .. 4,089
74 8. Gilani ..
75 . 18,967
76 4.
77 .Idfiri
78 .. 6,386
79 9. Shirazi ..
80 . 7,933
81 5.
82 Bukhari
83 ... 96,378
84 10. Gardezi ..
85 . 1,902 ,
86 \
87 Ulama.
88 Ulama
89 7,396 Mulana
90 1,053
91 Mujawir
92 3,480
93 Makhdumana
94 301
95 Qazi
96 2,623
97 Mian
98 714
99 Mulla
100 2,479
101 Mullazddah ...
102 158
103 MuUa-Mulwana
104 2,879
105 Others
106 197 i
107 1