Solares, or Chamsi

Solares, Or Chamsi, a small sect inhabiting a certain district of Mesopotamia, and supposed by some to be descendants of the Samsacans mentioned by Epiphanius. Hyde (History of the Ancient Religion of the Persians) describes them as amounting to not more than a thousand souls; having no priests nor doctors, and no places of meeting except caves, where they perform their religious worship, the mysteries of which are kept so secret that they have not been discovered even by those who have been converted to the Christian religion. Being compelled by the Mohammedans to declare themselves members of some Christian communion, they chose the Jacobite sect, baptizing their children and burying their dead according to the custom of these Christians. They are considered by some to be the same as the ELKESAITES SEE ELKESAITES (q.v.). See Gardner, Faiths of the World, s.v.; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. 3, 124.