1638.—"While the Body is let down into the grave, the kindred mutter certain Prayers between their Teeth, and that done all the company returns to the house of the deceased, where the Mollas continue their Prayers for his Soul, for the space of two or three days...."—Mandelslo, E.T. 63.
1673.—"At funerals, the Mullahs or Priests make Orations or Sermons, after a Lesson read out of the Alchoran."—Fryer, 94.
1680.—"The old Mulla having been discharged for misconduct, another by name Cozzee (see [CAZEE]) Mahmud entertained on a salary of 5 Pagodas per mensem, his duties consisting of the business of writing letters, &c., in Persian, besides teaching the Persian language to such of the Company's servants as shall desire to learn it."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn. March 11. Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 12; [also see Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. ii. 2, with note].
1763.—"The Mulla in Indostan superintends the practice, and punishes the breach of religious duties."—Orme, reprint, i. 26.
1809.—"The British Government have, with their usual liberality, continued the allowance for the Moolahs to read the Koran."—Ld. Valentia, i. 423.
[1842.—See the classical account of the Moollahs of Kabul in Elphinstone's Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 281 seqq.]
1879.—"... struck down by a fanatical crowd impelled by a fierce Moola."—Sat. Rev. No. 1251, p. 484.
MOOLVEE, s. Popular Hind. mulvī, Ar. maulavī, from same root as mullā (see [MOOLLAH]). A Judge, Doctor of the Law, &c. It is a usual prefix to the names of learned men and professors of law and literature. (See [LAW-OFFICER].)
1784.—
"A Pundit in Bengal or Molavee