About 14 per cent of the Muhammadans returned caste names. The principal castes are the Bohra and Khoja merchants, who are of the Shiah sect, and the Cutchis or Memans from Gujarāt, who are also traders; these classes are foreigners in the Province, and many of them do not bring their wives, though they have now begun to settle here. The resident castes of Muhammadans are the Bahnas or cotton-cleaners; Julāhas, weavers; Kacheras, glass bangle-makers; Kunjras, greengrocers; Kasais, butchers; and the Rangrez caste of dyers who dye with safflower. As already stated, a section of the Bhīls are at least nominally Muhammadans, and the Fakīrs or Muhammadan beggars are also considered a separate caste. But no caste of good standing such as the Rājpūt and Jāt includes any considerable number of Muhammadans in the Central Provinces, though in northern India large numbers of them belong to this religion, while retaining substantially their caste usages. The Muhammadan castes in the Central Provinces probably consist to a large extent of the descendants of Hindu converts. Their religious observances present a curious mixture of Hindu and Muhammadan rites, as shown in the separate articles on these castes. Proper Muhammadans look down on them and decline to take food or intermarry with them.
4. The four tribal divisions.
The Muhammadans proper are usually divided into four classes, Shaikh, Saiyad, Mughal and Pathān. Of these the Shaikhs number nearly 300,000, the Pathāns nearly 150,000, the Saiyads under 50,000, and the Pathāns about 9000 in the Central Provinces. The term Saiyad properly means a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law, and the lady Fātimah, the daughter of the Prophet. They use the title Saiyad or Mir[2] before, and sometimes Shāh after, their name, while women employ that of Begum. Many Saiyads act as Pīrs or spiritual guides to other Muhammadan families. The external mark of a Saiyad is the right to wear a green turban, but this is of course no longer legally secured to them. The title Shaikh properly belongs only to three branches of the Quraish tribe or that of Muhammad: the Siddīkis, who claim descent from Abu Bakr Siddīk,[3] the father-in-law of the Prophet and the second Caliph; the Fārūkis claiming it from Umar ul Fārūk, the third Caliph, and also the father-in-law of the Prophet; and the Abbāsis, descended from Abbas, one of the Prophet’s nine uncles. The Fārūkis are divided into two families, the Chistis and Fāridīs. Both these titles, however, and especially Shaikh, are now arrogated by large numbers of persons who cannot have any pretence to the above descent. Sir D. Ibbetson quotes a proverb, ‘Last year I was a butcher; this year I am a Shaikh; next year if prices rise I shall become a Saiyad.’ And Sir H. M. Elliot relates that much amusement was caused in 1860 at Gujarāt by the Sherishtadār or principal officer of the judicial department describing himself in an official return as Saiyad Hashimi Quraishi, that is, of the family and lineage of the Prophet. His father, who was living in obscurity in his native town, was discovered to be a Lohār or blacksmith.[4] The term Shaikh means properly an elder, and is freely taken by persons of respectable position. Shaikhs commonly use either Shaikh or Muhammad as their first names. The Pathans were originally the descendants of Afghān immigrants. The name is probably the Indian form of the word Pushtūn (plural Pushtānah), now given to themselves by speakers of the Pushtu language.[5] The men add Khān to their names and the women Khātun or Khātū. It is not at all likely either that the bulk of the Muhammadans who returned themselves as Pathāns in the Central Provinces are really of Afghān descent. The Mughals proper are of two classes, Irāni or Persian, who belong to the Shiah sect, and Turāni, Turkish or Tartar, who are Sunnis. Mughals use the title Mīrza (short for Amīrzāda, son of a prince) before their names, and add Beg after them. It is said that the Prophet addressed a Mughal by the title of Beg after winning a victory, and since then it has always been used. Mughal women have the designation Khānum after their names.[6] Formerly the Saiyads and Mughals constituted the superior class of Muhammadan gentry, and never touched a plough themselves, like the Hindu Brāhmans and Rājpūts. These four divisions are not proper subcastes as they are not endogamous. A man of one group can marry a woman of any other and she becomes a member of her husband’s group; but the daughters of Saiyads do not usually marry others than Saiyads. Nor is there any real distinction of occupation between them, the men following any occupation indifferently. In fact, the divisions are now little more than titular, a certain distinction attaching to the titles Saiyad and Shaikh when borne by families who have a hereditary or prescriptive right to use them.
5. Marriage.
The census returns of 1911 show that three-fourths of Muhammadan boys now remain unmarried till the age of 20; while of girls 31 per cent are unmarried between 15 and 20, but only 13 per cent above that age. The age of marriage of boys may therefore be taken at 18 to 25 or later, and that of girls at 10 to 20. The age of marriage both of girls and boys is probably getting later, especially among the better classes.
Marriage is prohibited to the ordinary near relatives, but not between first cousins. A man cannot marry his foster-mother or foster-sister, unless the foster-brother and sister were nursed by the same woman at intervals widely separated. A man may not marry his wife’s sister during his wife’s lifetime unless she has been divorced. A Muhammadan cannot marry a polytheist, but he may marry a Jewess or a Christian. No specific religious ceremony is appointed, nor are any rites essential for the contraction of a valid marriage. If both persons are legally competent, and contract marriage with each other in the presence of two male or one male and two female witnesses, it is sufficient. And the Shiah law even dispenses with witnesses. As a rule the Kāzi performs the ceremony, and reads four chapters of the Korān with the profession of belief, the bridegroom repeating them after him. The parties then express their mutual consent, and the Kāzi, raising his hands, says, “The great God grant that mutual love may reign between this couple as it existed between Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Zuleika, Moses and Zipporah, His Highness Muhammad and Ayesha, and His Highness Ali and Fātimah.”[7] A dowry or meher must be paid to the wife, which under the law must not be less than ten silver dirhams or drachmas; but it is customary to fix it at Rs. 17, the dowry of Fātimah, the Prophet’s favourite daughter, or at Rs. 750, that of the Prophet’s wife, Ayesha.[8] The wedding is, however, usually accompanied by feasts and celebrations not less elaborate or costly than those of the Hindus. Several Hindu ceremonies are also included, such as the anointing of the bride and bridegroom with oil and turmeric, and setting out earthen vessels, which are meant to afford a dwelling-place for the spirits of ancestors, at least among the lower classes.[9] Another essential rite is the rubbing of the hands and feet of the bridegroom with mehndi or red henna. The marriage is usually arranged and a ceremony of betrothal held at least a year before it actually takes place.
Carrying the horse-shoe at the Muharram festival
6. Polygamy, divorce and widow-remarriage.
A husband can divorce his wife at pleasure by merely repeating the prescribed sentences. A wife can obtain divorce from her husband for impotence, madness, leprosy or non-payment of the dowry. A woman who is divorced can claim her dowry if it has not been paid. Polygamy is permitted among Muhammadans to the number of four wives, but it is very rare in the Central Provinces. Owing to the fact that members of the immigrant trading castes leave their wives at home in Gujarāt, the number of married women returned at the census was substantially less than that of married men. A feeling in favour of the legal prohibition of polygamy is growing up among educated Muhammadans, and many of them sign a contract at marriage not to take a second wife during the lifetime of the first. There is no prohibition on the remarriage of widows in Muhammadan law, but the Hindu rule on the subject has had considerable influence, and some Muhammadans of good position object to the marriage of widows in their family. The custom of the seclusion of women also, as Mr. Marten points out, operates as a bar to a widow finding a husband for herself.