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 Moslim origin, but to have acquired strange characters in the course of time.  Such are Khwaja Khizr who lives in rivers, Zindah Ghazi who rides on a tiger in the Sandarbans, and Sultan Shahid who is said to be the bodyguard and lover of Devi.  But it is in the adoration of Pirs that this fusion of the two religions is most apparent.  A Pir is the Moslim equivalent of a Guru and distinct from the Mollahs or official hierarchy.  Just as Hindus receive initiation from their Guru so most Moslims, except the Wahabis and other purists, make a profession of faith before their Pir, accept his guidance and promise him obedience.  When an eminent Pir dies his tomb becomes a place of prayer and pilgrimage.  Even educated Mohammedans admit that Pirs can intercede with the Almighty and the uneducated offer to them not only direct supplications but even sacrifices.  The Shrine of an important Pir, such as Hazrat Moin-ud-Din Chisti at Ajmere, is an edifice dedicated to a superhuman being as much as any Hindu temple.