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 countries where, under the
Sassanides and Arsacidæ, the doctrines of Zoroaster predominated. The
Euphrates forms pretty nearly the line of demarkation between them.

The Caliphs dominated over both countries and over both sects. Under
their orthodox protection the Sunnite doctrines were able to strike
root in Balkh and Samarkand--the ancient Turan, and therefore hostile
to Iran and Persia. When Islam was reorganized after the anarchy which