(1.) “Others believe in one who was called Molwa.”—If, as Neumann
supposes, a Molla or Mussulman priest is here implied, I would venture
to suggest that allusion is made to Hassan, founder of the sect of
Assassins or Mulahidah. The partisans of “the Old Man of the Mountain”
had not been entirely exterminated by the Mongols, for not only were
they in Asia after Marco Polo, but they reappeared in India at a later
period, where the Bohras, another Ismailis sect, existed, and with whom
they have been frequently confounded. “The nature of their doctrine
indeed”, says Colonel Yule (Marco Polo, i, 154), “seems to be very much
alike, and the Bohras like the Ismailis attach a divine character to
their _Mullah_ or chief pontiff, and make a pilgrimage to his presence
once in life”.—BRUUN.