In the east of Kohistan is a tract of country known by the name of _Shekúnah_, and the lord of it is Malek Yakúb, who boasts of having issued from the family of the lord of the believers, Mâaviah Ebn Abi Safîan. The inhabitants of that country are brave, warlike, pious, and abstemious. They have many commentaries, and knowledge of law and religion, and religious books. They acknowledge the divine mission of Muhammed (the blessing of God be upon him!) as well as the office of Imám and the khalifat of Abu-bekr and Omar, and of the lord of believers Mâaviah, and they revile Alî for having pretended to a divine rank. His belief was that they ought to possess all kinds of grain;[542] his followers worshipped him as divine; this he insinuated to them by this prayer, which he pronounced himself in the sermons, related as his saying: “I am God; I am the merciful; I am the bountiful; I am the high; I am the creator; I am the provider of the necessaries of life; I am the most compassionate; I am the most propitious; I am he who bestows a form to the drop of the sperm in the wombs.”[543] and the like; these words are of Pharâún and Nimrod,[544] and like these are many of their sayings. They are besides fond of bloodshed, and cruel. They say improper things about the prophet, as of one who did not always behave with decency. So it happened once, that eating dates in company with other persons, the prophet threw the stones of the dates towards Alí, and then said: “O Alí! thou hast eaten a great many dates, because all the stones are before thee;” Ali answered, “Thou hast swallowed them with the stones;” and they say this passage is in the sacred book: “There are men whose speeches about the present life will astonish thee, and who will take God for witness of what is in their heart, whilst they are the most quarrelsome of adversaries.” And they are approving Ebn Maljám,[545] and say Maljám is among them: “There are some men who rescue their soul, desiring in this manner to perform the will of God.” They assert that the two Hasáîn are not of the family of the prophet, according to this verse of the Koran: “Muhammed is not any thing else but one of us; he is yet the prophet of God, and the seal of the Apostles.”