and blends. Advances are made
from both sides. Thoughtful Mohammedans see the profundity of Hindu
theology: liberal Hindus declare that no caste or condition, including
birth in a Moslim family, disqualifies man for access to God.

The fusion of Islam with Hinduism exhibited in these sects has for its
basis the unity and omnipresence of God in the light of which minor
differences have no existence. But fusion also arises from an opposite
tendency, namely the toleration by Indian Moslims of Hindu ideas and
practices, especially respect for religious teachers and their
deification after death. While known by some such title as saint,
which does not shock unitarian susceptibility, they are in practice
honoured as godlings. The bare simplicity of the Arabian faith has not
proved satisfying to other nations, and Turks, Persians and Indians,
even when professing orthodoxy, have allowed embellishments and
accretions. Such supplementary beliefs thrive with special luxuriance
in India, where a considerable portion of the Moslim population are
descended from persons who accepted the new faith unwillingly or from
interested motives. They brought with them a plentiful baggage of
superstitions and did not attempt to sever the ties which bound them
to their Hindu neighbours. In the last century the efforts of the
Wahabis and other reformers are said to have been partly successful in
purifying Islam from Hindu observances, but even now the mixture is
noticeable, especially in the lower classes. Brahmans are employed to
cast horoscopes, Hindu ceremonies are observed in connection with
marriages and funerals, and the idea of pollution by eating with
unbelievers is derived from caste rules, for Mohammedans in other
countries have no objection to eating with Christians. Numerous sacred
sites, such as the shrine of Sheikh Chisti at Ajmere and of Bhairav
Nath at Muttra,[1165] are frequented by both Moslims and Hindus, and
it is an interesting parallel to find that the chief Moslim shrines of
Turkestan are erected on spots which were once Buddhist sanctuaries.
Sometimes the opposite happens: even Brahmans are known to adopt the
observances of Shiahs.[1166] But on the whole it is chiefly the
Mohammedans who borrow, not the main doctrines of Hinduism, but
popular magic and demonology. Ignorant Mohammedans in Bengal worship
Sitala, Kali, Dharmaraj, Baidyanath and other Hindu deities and also
respect certain mythical beings who seem to have a Mo