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"The king was above all things incensed at the poverty of the chief altar of the parish of Valency; and at there being in the Chateau, a play-house, while there was neither a chapel nor an oratory-while the people were luxurious in their furniture and feasts, and miserable in the decoration of their temples. The king embroidered, himself, a beautiful robe of white silk, with gold pallets and gold fringe, for the Virgin. He had raised a superb altar, gilt, and he sometimes served, himself, the mass at the feet of the Queen of the angels. The Queen of the angels was most sensible of these royal attentions, and manifested to him her content by many signs. It happened in particular, that one night an ecclesiastic of the district being overcome with sleep in the church, the Virgin appeared to him as coming out of the

altar, she advanced towards the ecclesiastic, made several turns round him, to display the elegance of her toilette, and said to him, sighing, that her son received the vows of the king in recompence of the fine robe that he had given her; that the Spanish princes would not remain long without being delivered; and that they must form an Order of the Holy Sacrament, with which all the knights should be armed for his defence.

"The priest, much touched by this speech, awakened, and came to me to reveal the miraculous vision; but I answered by assuring him that the Holy Virgin had already said as much to the king himself who in thanking her had promised, that on his return to Spain he would make her worship flourish over all the provinces subjected to his dominion."

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MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &c.

OF

NATIONS AND CLASSES or PEOPLE.

THE WAHABEES.

any superintendence over the affairs of men, or render them any

(From Sir J. Malcolm's History of aid hereafter, is blasphemy. They

THI

Persia.)

HIS sect was founded near a century ago, by an Arab of the name of Shaikh Mahomed, the son of Abdool Wahâb, whose name they have taken. Shaikh Mahomed connected himself in the attempt to reform the religion of his country with Ebn-Saoud, the Prince of Dereah, the capital of the province of Nujuddee. Through the efforts of the saint, and the aid of the temporal power of Ebn-Saoud, and his son and successor Abdool Azeez, the religion of the Wahâbees is now established all over the peninsula of Arabia. The tenets of this sect are peculiar, and merit notice. They profess that there is one God, and Mahomed is his prophet: but as the Supreme Being neither has nor can have any participator in his power, they say, that to profess that either Mahomed, the Imaums, or any saints, can have

deem Mahomedans who deviate in any way from the plain, literal meaning of the Koran, infidels; and maintain, that to make war upon all such is the imperious duty of every Wahâbee. It is one of their tenets, that all titles meant to shew respect and honour to men are odious to God, who alone is worthy of high name: and they assert, that in conformity to what is revealed in the Koran, true Mahomedans should wage continual war against unbelievers, till they are converted, or agree to pay the tribute imposed on infidels; and that in the latter case they should be compelled to wear the coarsest garments, not ta be allowed to ride on horses, nor to live in splendid dwellings. They maintain that the taxes (including zukaat and khums) levied by Mahomed are alone lawful: that swearing by Mahomed or Aly, or any other person, should be prohibited, since an oath is

calling

calling a witness to our secret thoughts, which no one can know but God, They deem it a species of idolatry to erect magnificent tombs; but to kiss relics, &c. is idolatry itself; and therefore they affirm, that it is an action acceptable to God to destroy the tombs of Mahomedan saints in Arabia and Persia, and to appropriate their rich ornaments to worldly purposes, for which they were designed. They say, that it is wicked to mourn for the dead, for if they were good Mahomedans their souls are in paradise, at which their friends should rejoice. The Wahâbees reject the whole of the traditions, limiting their belief to the Koran, which was, they say, sent from heaven to Mahomed, who was an excellent man, and much beloved of God. They continue to preserve the usages of circumcision, ablution, &c. which they found established, but consider them more as matters of practice and usage than of faith. The leading principle of this sect is their right to destroy and plunder all who differ from them: and those Ma-homedans who do not adopt their creed are represented as far less 'entitled to mercy than either Jews or Christians. Their progress was so great about ten years ago, as to excite considerable alarm in the Turkish government. Among other places, they plundered the rich tombs of Aly and his sons at -Nujuff and Kerbelah. Their inroads are always dreadful, for they spare none who do not conform to their opinions; but they have lately met with some vere checks, and appear to be declining.

se

THE SECT OF SOOFFEES.

(From the Same)

In a chapter upon the religion of Persia it is impossible to pass over the Sooffees. That extraordinary class of devotees have been before noticed; but they claim a fuller description. We discover from the evidence of Mahomedan authors, that these enthusiasts were co-existent with their religion. Their rapturous zeal, perhaps, aided in no slight degree its first establishment; but they have since been considered among the most dangerous of its enemies. There can be no doubt that their free opinions regarding its dogmas, their contempt of its forms, and their claim to a distinct communion with the Deity, are all calculated to subvert that belief for which they outwardly profess their respect; and their progress has, consequently, been deemed as synonimous with that of infidelity. There is no country over which the tenets of the Sooffees have, at different periods, been more widely diffused than Persia. The great reputatión acquired by one of their priests, enabled his descendants to occupy the throne of that kingdom for more than two centuries : but the narchs of the Suffavean dynasty were too sensible of the aid which their power derived from the continuance of an established and understood religion, to indulge in the rapt and visionary dreams of their pious ancestors. Their country, however, continued to abound with persons who believed in the tenets which these had taught;

mo

and

and the increase of their numbers has been, of late years, so great in Persia, that the Mahomedan divines of that nation have called upon the reigning king to defend the true faith from the attacks of several popular teachers; who, from the sanctity of their lives, and the delusive character of their doctrines, had acquired an alarming popularity. The monarch has, in consequence, adopted the most rigorous proceedings; and his severity has, for the moment, repressed a flame, which it would appear more calculated to increase than to extinguish.

and visionary doctrine has most flourished. There is, in the habits of that nation, and in the character of the Hindoo religion, what peculiarly cherishes that mysterious spirit of holy abstraction in which it is founded and we may grant our belief to the conjecture which assumes, that India is the source from whence other nations have derived this mystic worship of the Divinity.

The general name which the Persian followers of this sect have adopted, is Sooffee; a term which implies pure: and by this all ranks who adopt this creed are known, from the revered teacher, who is followed by thousands of disciples, to the humblest dervish, or fakeer, who travels about naked, and begs alms to support him in that life of prayer which he has voluntarily adopted.

The Sooffees represent themselves as entirely devoted to the search of truth, and as incessantly occupied in the adoration of the Almighty, an union with whom they desire with all the ardour of divine love. The great Creator is, according to their belief, diffused over all his crea

It would be vain to attempt to give a full history of the Sooffee doctrine; traces of which exist, in some shape or other, in every region of the world. It is to be found in the most splendid theories of the ancient schools of Greece, and in those of the modern philosophers of Europe. It is the dream of the most ignorant, and of the most learned; and is seen at one time indulging in the shade of ease, and at another traversing the pathless desart. It every where professes to be adverse to error and superstition, but exists by the active propagation. He exists every where, and tion of both. The wild and varied doctrines of their teachers are offered to the disciples of this sect, in the place of the forms and usages of their religion. They are invited to embark on the sea of doubt, under the guidance of a sacred teacher, whom they are required to deem superior to all other mortals, and worthy of a holy confidence that borders upon adoration. It is in India, beyond all other climes, that this delusive

in every thing. They compare the emanations of his divine essence, or spirit, to the rays of the sun; which are, they conceive, continually darted forth, and reabsorbed. It is for this reabsorption in the divine essence, to which their immortal part belongs, that they continually sigh. They believe that the soul of man, and that the principle of life, which exists throughout all nature, is not from God, but of

God;

God; and hence those doctrines which their adversaries have held to be the most profane, as they were calculated to establish a degree of equality of nature between the created and the Creator.

The Sooffee doctrine teaches that there are four stages through which man must pass before he can reach the highest, or that of divine beatitude; when, to use their own language, "his corporeal veil will be removed, and his emancipated soul will mix again with the glorious essence, from which it had been separated, but not divided." The first of these stages is that of humanity, which supposes the disciple to live in an obedience to the holy law, and an observance of all the rites, customs, and precepts of the established religion; which are admitted to be useful in regulating the lives, and restraining within proper bounds the vulgar mass, whose souls cannot reach the heights of divine contemplation, and who might be corrupted and misled by that very liberty of faith which tends to enlighten and delight those of superior intellect, or more fervent devotion. The second stage, in which the disciple attains power, or force, is termed the road, or path; and he who arrives at this, leaves that condition in which he is only admitted to admire and follow a teacher, and enters the pale of Sooffeeism. now abandon all of religious forms and ceremonies, as he exchanges, to use their own phrase, practical for spiritual worship; but

this stage cannot be obtained without great piety, virtue, and fortitude; for the mind cannot be trusted in the neglect of usages and rites, necessary to restrain it when weak, till it has acquired strength from habits of mental devotion, grounded on a proper knowledge of its own dignity, and of the divine nature of the Al-' mighty. The third stage is that of knowledge; and the disciple who arrives at it is deemed to have attained supernatural knowledge; or, in other words, to be inspired: and he is supposed, when he reaches this state, to be equal to the angels. The fourth and last stage is that which denotes his arrival at truth; which implies his complete union with the Divinity.

The Sooffees are divided into innumerable sects, as must be the case in a doctrine which may be termed the belief of the imagination. By enumerating a few of the most remarkable of these sects, the character of the whole will be understood: for though they differ in name, and some minor usages, they are all agreed in the principal tenets; and particularly in those which inculcate the absolute necessity of a blind submission to inspired teachers, and the possibility, through fervent piety and enthusiastic devotion, f attaining for the soul, even when the body inhabits the earth, a state of celestial beatitude.

He may Authors are divided whether observance there are two or seven of what can be deemed original sects among the Sooffees: but a very learned writer, whose hostile bigotry made him direct all his

ability

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