_Bohra, Bohora._ [388]--A Muhammadan caste of traders who come
from Gujarat and speak Gujarati. At the last census they numbered
nearly 5000 persons, residing principally in the Nimar, Nagpur and
Amraoti Districts, Burhanpur being the headquarters of the sect in
the Central Provinces. The name is probably derived from the Hindi
_byohara_, a trader. Members of the caste are honorifically addressed
as Mullaji. According to the received account of the rise of the
Bohras in Gujarat a missionary, Abdulla, came from Yemen to Cambay
in A.D. 1067. By his miracles he converted the great king Sidhraj
of Anhilvada Patan in Gujarat, and he with numbers of his subjects
embraced the new faith. For two centuries and a half the Bohras
flourished, but with the establishment of Muzaffar Shah's power
(A.D. 1390-1413) in that country the spread of Sunni doctrines was
encouraged and the Bohra and other Shia sects suppressed. Since then,
with gradually lessening numbers, they have passed through several
bitter persecutions, meeting with little favour or protection, till at
the close of the eighteenth century they found shelter under British
rule. In 1539 the members of the sect living in Arabia were expelled
from there and came to Gujarat, where they were hospitably received by
their brethren, the headquarters of the sect being thenceforward fixed
at Surat. The Bohras are Shias of the great Ismailia sect of Egypt. The
Ismailia sect split off from the orthodox Shias on the question of the
succession to the sixth Imam, Jafar Sadik, in A.D. 765. The dispute
was between his eldest son's son Ismail and his second son Musi,
the Ismailias being those who supported the former and the orthodox
Shias the latter. The orthodox Shias are distinguished as believers
in twelve Imams, the last of whom is still to come. The Ismailias
again divided on a similar dispute as to the succession to the
Khalifa Almustansir Billah by his eldest son Nazar or his younger son
Almustaali. The Bohras are descended from the Mustaalians or supporters
of the younger son and the Khojas from the Nazarians who supported
the elder son. [389] All these distinctions appear somewhat trivial.