24. Priests, Mulla and Maulvi.
The priest in charge of a mosque is known as Mulla. Any one can be a Mulla who can read the Korān and say the prayers, and the post is very poorly paid. The Mulla proclaims the call to prayer five times a day, acts as Imām or leader of the public prayers, and if there is no menial servant keeps the mosque clean. He sometimes has a little school in the courtyard in which he teaches children the Korān. He also sells charms, consisting of verses of the Korān written on paper, to be tied round the arm or hung on the neck. These have the effect of curing disease and keeping off evil spirits or the evil eye. Sometimes there is a mosque servant who also acts as sexton of the local cemetery. The funds of the mosque and any endowment attached to it are in charge of some respectable resident, who is known as Mutawalli or churchwarden. The principal religious officer is the Maulvi, who corresponds to the Hindu Guru or preceptor. These men are frequently intelligent and well-educated. They are also doctors of law, as all Muhammadan law is based on the Korān and Traditions and the deductions drawn from them by the great commentators. The Maulvi thus acts as a teacher of religious doctrine and also of law. He is not permanently attached to a mosque, but travels about during the open season, visiting his disciples in villages, teaching and preaching to them, and also treating the sick. If he knows the whole of the Korān by heart he has the title of Hāfiz, and is much honoured, as it is thought that a man who has earned the title of Hāfiz frees twenty generations of his ancestors and descendants from the fires of hell. Such a man is much in request during the month of Ramazān, when the leader of the long night prayers is expected to recite nightly one of the thirty sections of the Korān, so as to complete them within the month.[29]