Balochi Bible History (3)

**List: Balochi Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Balochi... BELOOCHEE. "I. GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. BELOOCHISTAN, the country of the Beloochees, lies between Affghanistan and the Indian Ocean, and extends along the shores of that ocean from the Indus to Persia.   But it is only the western portion of this country that is inhabited exclusively by the Beloochees, the eastern provinces being chiefly peopled by the Brahooees, a people who speak a dialect of Sanscrit origin, resembling that of the Punjab.   In religion the Beloochees are Moh_mm_dans, of the sect of Omar, or Soonnites.   In number they are conjectured to amount to about a million, but Mr. Elphinstone considers this too low an estimate; and it is supposed that the entire population of Beloochistan, including the Juts, Taujiks, Dehwars, and other tribes who dwell among the Beloochees, would together amount to nearly two million. II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.    The structure and idioms of the Beloochee language, and above half of its words, are Persian; and notwithstanding the corrupt and unaccountable pronunciation of the Beloochees, Lieutenant Pottinger was at length enabled, by his knowledge of Persian, to understand every sentence in Beloochee.   The language possesses no literature, and, if we except a translation of part of the Scriptures, it may be said to be unwritten. III.--VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES.    The history of the Beloochee is in some respects similar to that of the Pushtoo version.   Both versions were commenced by Dr. Leyden, and at his death transferred to the care of the Serampore mies., who availed themselves of the aid of the learned natives previously employed by Dr. Leyden.   As it is stated that these natives were thoroughly acquainted with the Persian and Hindu- stani languages, we may infer that they made the translation direct from the Persian Gospels and Hindustani Testament (which had been printed at Serampore in 1811), and that their work was afterwards compared with, and corrected by, the Greek original.   It is not certain whether the trans- lation has ever been advanced beyond the book of the Acts of the Apostles, but the first three Gospels were printed as early as 1815: the number of copies of which this edition consisted is not specified. The character is Persian, with no variation.   It does not appear that the Beloochee version has ever obtained circulation among the people for whom it was intended."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only]

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