I have the honor to report for Your Excellency's information the following circumstances which are at present causing much excitement at this place, and which threaten in their consequences to give rise to renewed misunderstanding between the Persian & Turkish Govts. About three months ago, an inferior priest of Shiraz appeared in Kerbela, bearing a copy of the Koran, which he stated to have been delivered to him, by the forerunner of the Imam Mehdi, to be exhibited in token of his approaching advent. The book proved on examination to have been altered and interpolated in many essential passages, the object being, to prepare the Mohammedan world for the immediate manifestation of the Imam, and to identify the individual to whom the emendations of the text were declared to have been revealed, as his inspired & true precursor. It was in consequence pronounced by a part of the Sheeah divines at Nejef and Kerbela, to be a blasphemous production, and the priest of Shiraz was warned by them of the danger; which he incurred in giving currency to its contents--but a considerable section nevertheless of the Sheeahs of Nejef, who under the name of _Usúlí_, or 'Transcendentalists', have lately risen into notice as the disciples of the High Priest Sheikh Kazem, and who are in avowed expectation of the speedy advent of the Imam, adopted the proposed readings, and declared themselves ready to join the Precursor; as soon as he should appear amongst them--These parties owing to local dissensions, were shortly afterwards denounced to the Govt. by the orthodox Sheeas as heretics, and attention being thus drawn to the perverted copy of the Koran, upon which they rested their belief, the volume was seized & its bearer being brought to Bagdad, was cast into prison, as a blasphemer against Islam and a disturber of the public peace.[BF][7] [Footnote BF: Major Rawlinson nowhere mentions the name of the priest who is alleged to have been the possessor of a 'spurious' version of the Qur'án. It is obvious that the priest, about whom he was writing, could have been none other than Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí, whom he wrongly designated as 'Shirazee' for the simple reason that he had come from [_Sh_]íráz. His frequent references to the disciples of Siyyid Káẓim as '_Usúlí_' indicate that his knowledge of the issue was meagre, for these disciples were known as [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]ís. The term could have been more appropriately applied to the opponents of Siyyid Káẓim. They and their counterpart, the 'A[_kh_]bárís', followed different methods of interpretation within the [_Sh_]í`ah fold. For a description of these schools of thought, see Browne, _A Literary History of Persia_, Vol. IV, pp. 374-6.]