h it is taken; and the whole of them are so
arranged as to form a complete digest of Mahometan law.

A work of this kind is invaluable to the student who would make
himself master of Mahometan jurisprudence as a system. But great care
must be taken not to misapprehend the exact nature of the knowledge
to be obtained from it. The "Futawa Alumgeeree" is a systematic
exposition of the principles of Mahometan law; it assuredly does not
enable us to ascertain what doctrines of that law are now of legal
force in India, or even what doctrines have at any time had force
in India. It does not appear to have been Aurungzebe's intention to
promulgate it as a code, but to present it to lawyers as a complete
text-book. Even if he did by ordinance attribute to it the power of
law, such ordinance was only effectual at any time in the provinces of
the Mogul Empire; and since the disruption of that empire, it has been
superseded and modified by laws and the practice of law-courts in the
various independent states erected on its ruins.

Again the general scholar must be on his guard against the delusion
that he will find in this digest materials illustrative of the social
condition of India under the Mogul dynasty. The juridical works
excerpted in it are almost all foreign to Hindostan; the special cases
illustrative of abstract doctrines are taken from other countries,
and many of them from ages antecedent to the invasion of India by the
Moguls.

Though Persian was the court language of the Mogul dynasty, there is
scarcely any Persian element in Aurungzebe's legal compilation. The
Shiite views of jurisprudence, as of theology, prevailed in Persia;
the "Futawa Alumgeeree" is strictly Sunnite. It is not difficult to
account for this.--The Mahometan conquerors of India were mainly of
Turkish or Tartar race; they came from Turan, a region which from time
immemorial has stood in antagonistic relations to Iran or Persia. This
may account for the fact that the races of Turan which have embraced
Mahometanism have uniformly adhered to the Sunnite sect--the sect
most hostile to the Persian Shias--not only when they settled in the
countries where the Sunnite sect originated, but when they remained in
their native regions. The views of the Sunnites were first promulgated
and have prevailed most extensively in those regions of Islam which
were once part of the Roman empire, which nominally at least was
Christian; those of the Shiites, in the coun