himself, mystically, philosophically, of on the contrary, are eclectic, and are wilcourse; but for the grosser forms of this heresy we must refer to other less known sects, such as Druse and Nuseíríyeh.

In order to understand the position of these various sects it will be necessary to review briefly the progress and changes of religious opinion in the Mohammedan religion since the time of its founder.

The earliest followers of Islam - that is, those who were contemporary with or survived Mohammed - appear to have accepted, without question, the inspired character of the Korán, and to have interpreted in their plain and obvious sense the statements therein contained as to the nature and attributes of God. The hadiths or sayings of Mohammed, handed down orally from generation to generation, although they form so important an element in the religion, and constitute a law hardly second in authority to that of the Korán itself, refer almost exclusively to ceremonial or legal questions; and it does not appear that in those early days the slightest dispute had arisen upon the interpretation of their Scriptures or upon the primary doctrines of the religion.

Very shortly, however, the question of free-will began to be raised, and the doctrine was openly advocated by Maabed ibn Khalid Johní, under the name of cadr, "power."

For this heresy he was put to the torture, and hanged by order of the Caliph Abd el Melik in the year A.D. 699, but his doctrine, nevertheless, obtained a large number of followers. Another sect, calling themselves Kharijís, also sprung up during the Caliphate of 'Ali, who made a determined stand against the innovation, but without being able to exterminate it.

ling to engraft Arabic ideas on their own
system, while they still jealously guard
the principles of their national faith.
The Persian portion of the early adhe-
rents of Islam made common cause with
'Ali, the disappointed rightful successor
of Mohammed. The murder of 'Ali's
sons on Persian soil still further cement-
ed the union - and the breach once made
has widened more and more down to the
present day. The Persian party, who at
tached themselves so exclusively to Ali,
supported his claims to the succession
with vehement partizanship, and enter-
tained the most exaggerated notions re-
specting him, even assigning to him a
certain participation in the nature and
attributes of the Deity. These extrava-
gant theories were propounded even dur-
ing the life-time of 'Ali, who missed no
opportunity of expressing his abhorrence
thereof, and severely punished those who
held them.

Following closely upon this doctrine came that of Ibn es Sandá Sabaí. He taught that the prophet had delegated the office of Imám, or supreme head of the religion, to 'Ali, who thus inherited the rank and title of successor and vicar of the apostle of God. He also declared that 'Ali had not been really killed, that he had only disappeared, and would return upon earth to redress all wrongs and to punish sin. 'Ali was explicitly declared to partake of the nature of the Godhead, and to exercise certain functions of the deity. It was from this Ibn es Sandá that the Ráfidhíveh drew their origin; this sect taught that the office of Imám belongs by divine right to certain individuals whose succession is fore-ordained. Another doctrine, namely that of the disappearance of the Imám and of his return after death in the person of his successor, is also derived from the same source. Ibn Sabäi contrived to gain over a large number of followers, and spread But the most important schism of the the germs of the Shiite schism throughperiod was that of the Shiahs. The an- out the most important provinces of the tagonism of the two parties, Sunni and Muslim empire. In the century immediShiah, was only a revival of the ancient ately succeeding that of the "Companions feud between Jew and Gentile, but the of the Prophet," appeared the doctrine of rivals were now Arab and Persian, in- tatil, which, by denying all attributes and stead of Hebrew and Greek. The Arabs actions to God, reduced the Deity to a are exclusive, and reject foreign ideas, mere name. The sect, which was foundand we therefore find in Arabia the ed by a certain Jáhm ibn Sufwan, was stronghold of the Sunni doctrines the strenuously opposed by the Mussulmans, Semitic element of Mohammedanism, and its author was put to death towards founded upon the national axioms which the end of the dynasty of the Ommiade are embodied in the traditions (hadith) Caliphs. of the prophets of Islam. The Persians,

The principal tenets of the Kharijís were that "all sin excludes one from the category of the faithful; and that it is lawful to take up arms and contend against the authority of the Imám.”

The next heterodoxy was that of the

Mo'tazeleh, or "Seceders," which took
its rise in the school of the celebrated
Hasan el Basri about the year 100 of the
Mohammedan era.

cially, led to the ready adoption even of so outrageous a creed as that which made a god of one of the maddest and most fickle monsters that the world has ever produced.

Many learned writers have attributed the Druse religion solely to the teaching of the mad Caliph's emissary Darzi.

They taught that God would not be seen of men visibly in the future life; they denied the examination of the soul in the tomb after death by the angels Munkir and Nakír (which was most hate- But unless the paganism with which ful to the true believer); they declared the creed teems had been already ripe that the Korán was not eternal, but cre- among the people of Syria, they would ated, and that it had an origin and a be- never have accepted so preposterous a ginning. A protest against this system scheme. The fact is that, being heredmight naturally be expected, and accord-itary pagans, that is to say, Sabeans, they ingly we find anthropomorphism directly were glad of any pretext which enabled taught and openly professed about the middle of the third century of the Hejrah. The exponent of this system was one Ibn Keram, from whom the sect took the name of Keramí. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca, whence he came into Syria, and, dying there in A.H. 256, was buried in Je-¡ rusalem. In that country alone he is said to have had more than 20,000 followers. The Keramís and Motazelehs were bitterly opposed to each other and had at different epochs many disputes and wars. In A.H. 264 appeared the sect of Karmatheans, whose lawless and fanatical bands devastated Arabia, and even obtained possession of the Holy City of Mecca itself.

The introduction of Greek literature and philosophy by the Caliph Mamún did much to foster and encourage these heresies.

In the meantime the Shiah doctrines were making great strides in Islam, and, on the accession of the family of Bowaiyeh to the Caliphate of Baghdad, were publicly adopted by the princes of that house, A.H. 334-437.

them to practise their rites in secret, and they accepted Hakem's monstrous creed as more congenial to their heathen tastes than the stricter Mohammedan profession. The real origin of a sect is not always to be found in its historic beginning; the nation is ripe for revolution, and the man appears; the doctrines are implanted already in people's hearts, and the forms are ready to hand in the national legendary lore.

The Druses profess to recognize but one God, exalted above all attributes, incomprehensible by sense and indefinable by language. They believe that He has manifested himself at various epochs under a human form, and that the last of these avatars was the Caliph Hakem, who disappeared miraculously in the year 411 A.H. (A.D. 1021), and who will once again return clothed in majesty, to establish his kingdom upon earth. They believe, moreover, that the universal intelligence is the first of God's creatures, and the agent and medium of his creative power; this intelligence was incarnate in the person of Hamza, Darzi's teacher and coadThe Fatemite Caliphs having estab-jutor in the work of proselytism. lished their authority in Africa, openly They hold that all souls are created by professed the doctrines of the Ismailis, the Universal Intelligence, that their as the Karmatheans were now called, and number is always the same, and that they sent daïs, or missionaries, to spread their pass successively into different human tenets in Egypt, where they were very bodies. They are accused of worshipping favourably received. When, in A.H. 358, a small idol in the form of a calf, but this they had made themselves masters of that country and extended their conquests into Syria, the numerous heretical sects before mentioned began fearlessly to hold up their heads in Islam, and no doctrine was too extravagant or too impious to find believers and adherents.

figure is really the symbol of the evil principle, the rival and enemy of Hakem, the calf 'Ejel being opposed by a sort of mystic form to the intelligence 'Akl, to which we have just referred.*

The exact correspondence of these tenets with the Mahabádian creed will be obvious to the most superficial reader of the foregoing pages.

Another system which has preserved

Such is the account which Macrízi, the historian and geographer of Egypt, gives of the state of religious opinion in the East, up to the time immediately preceding the reign of El Hakem. But there were other causes, which, in Syria espe- Bentley: London, 1871.

See Besant and Palmer's "Jerusalem," p. 106.

Under the name of Sufiism we include the numerous orders of dervishes which of cosmogony: are found throughout the Mohammedan

The Primal Intelligence has two func- that of conveying to the world. These tions, that of receiving from God, and two functions are supposed to be typified

In the prophetic and saintly offices; the exponent of the former is Mohammed; the exponent of the latter is Mehdí, the last of the Imáms, who is yet to come. Thus, as we shall presently see, in examining the Nuseiríyeh system, one single intelligence is supposed to actuate all prophets and saints, past, present, and to come; and, Ali being the legitimate successor of Mohammed, the hereditary portion of the Divine essence rests with the Imams of his family. In this we have the whole principle of Shiah schisms, and the reason which induced the Persians to espouse 'Ali's cause.

The entire universe, then, according to the Sufis, is nothing but a manifestation of God, produced by the agency of an intelligence directly proceeding from Him.

But the object of creation is that God should be known; and man, as the most perfect entity of the universe, the result of the whole cosmogony, is clearly the proper instrument by which this object is to be accomplished. Again, God can only be known through intelligence, and the attainment of this intelligence is the final aim of man.

273

the same time he enunciates the esoteric
doctrine of Sufiism, namely, that Exist-
ence is Light, and that Light is the mani-
festation of God.

'Tis we who steal the sense of wine,
Not wine that robbeth us of wit;
Life is of us, not we of it,
But who shall such a thing divine?

What is our secret when 'tis told?

A loved one and nought else beside;
A lover who himself doth hide
The loved one he would fain behold.
The loved one lives for evermore,

The lover dies a living death;
Till quickened by the loved one's breath,
The lover cannot upward soar.

About us all His sunbeams play;

On right, on left, below, above,
We revel in the light of love,
Nor yet reflect a single ray.

For though the soul of man they call
A mirror that reflected grace;
A mirror with a dusty face
Reflecteth not the light at all.

exposition of whose rites, practices, and
We now come to the Nuseiríyeh, an
that we have in this strange religion, not
tenets, will at once convince the reader
only the doctrines, but the very ceremo-
nies, of the ancient Sabean faith.

But as man sprung from this intelligence, and should tend to the same, man's existence is considered by them as a circle meeting in the intelligence which reveals the Godhead. This circle origin and traditions, is of two kinds, exThe Nuseiríyeh doctrine, true to its is divided into two arcs, descent and as- oteric and esoteric; the last jealously cent; the former including every stage guarded and taught only to a few who from the first scintillation from the origi- are of riper years. The first consists of nal intelligence to the full development the undisguised worship of 'Ali ibn Abi of man's reasoning powers; while the Taleb, the cousin and rightful successor latter includes every stage from man's of Mohammed, and the identification of first use of reason for its true purpose to certain prominent personages in the his final reabsorption in the deity. The early history of Islám with the members ascent is naturally presented to the Sufiis- of a pantheon selected from the various tic mind as a journey, and it is under this forms of religion, heathen and Christian, metaphor that the Sufi poets are accus- which have at different times been domtomed to treat of their mystic doctrines. inant in the East. The esoteric doctrine Man is also described by them as a lover, is the exposition of the symbolic characalways striving after his beloved, but alter of the creed, the revival of the old ways kept from the enjoyment of her presence by a veil the veil of sense which prevents him from recognizing the true nature of their relative positions. Another favourite metaphor with them is wine; the knowledge of God is compared to wine, but no sooner is the wine drunk than drunkenness ensues. sense is absorbed in the enjoyment, and triad, consisting of and represented by The The Nuseiríyeh worship a mystic the union is complete between the seeker 'Ali, Mohammed, and Selmán el Farsi. and the sought. Maulaví Rumí has in a These are alluded to by the mystic word few lines given the gist of these specu-Amas, composed of three initial letters lations, and curiously enough succeeded of their names; 'Ali being, moreover, in combining both metaphors, while at called the Maná, or "meaning," the ob

LIVING AGE.

VOL. IV.

174

but unforgotten formulæ which teach types and symbols of the heavenly hosts; that the persons worshipped are but the and that these again, are but manifestations of the all-pervading element of Light, which is but an expression for the first conceived cause, or God.

ject implied in all their teaching; Mo-with an angry aspect, riding upon a lion; hammed the Chamberlain; and Selmán and again in that of a little child; but el Farsi the door. To understand these, each time that he asked them, "Am I we must remember that Eastern Sov- not your Lord?" they were perplexed, ereigns are never approached except and knew not what to answer. Then he through the mediation of their chamber- created out of their doubt and perplexity lains, and that the three offices, bor- the earth; saying, "This shall be your rowed doubtless from Christian doctrines, abode, get ye down thereto; but whosowill therefore correspond to these of the ever of you shall hereafter acknowledge Holy Trinity. the King of Kings, the me and my Door, and my Chamberlain, Mediator, and the Door of Grace. From him I will cause to return hither; but this triad proceed five other persons, who whoso rebelleth against me, out of his reare called Aitám, or Monads, and whose bellion I will create an antagonism which function is that of creation and order; of shall withstand him; and whoso denyeth these Mikdad is the controller of thunder, me, I will clothe him in the garb of delightning, and earthquakes; Abu 'l Durr graded transmigration." Thereupon they of the orbit of the stars; Abu Abdal- pleaded piteously for a remittal of the lah ibn Rawwáheh of the winds; sentence, but 'Ali answered them, "Nay; and to him also is assigned the task for ye have rebelled against me: but if of receiving the souls of the dying, ye had said, when I questioned you, in which respect he is identical with Az-Lord, we have no knowledge but that rail, the Mohammedan angel of death; which thou hast given us,' I would have Othman is lord of the human body, its pardoned you." functions, humours, and diseases; while to Cambar is committed the office of introducing new-born souls into the world. The identity of these five persons with the five planets known to the ancients, and the correspondence of their functions with those of the heathen deities whose names the planets bear, are at once ob-religion. vious; the names, however, are those of men who played a conspicuous part in the early history of Islám.

From the ingratitude and rebellion of these primæval souls, say the Nuseiríyeh, the evil spirits and devils were created; and out of the sins of the devils, woman was called into being. For this reason their women are never allowed to participate in the knowledge and rites of their

After their descent upon the earth, 'Ali appeared to them again, sometimes once in each of the seven cycles into which they divide the history of the world. In each of these cycles, the Trinity was manifested in the persons of certain prominent historical characters of the age, and each avatar was accompanied by a similar incarnation of the Antagonistic or Evil principle.

This devil of the Nuseiríyeh is always represented as a triune being; and, carrying out the principle of affiliating their religious system upon the history of Mohammedanism, they have made the immediate opponents of Ali represent the personification of Evil, as he himself and his immediate supporters are the personification of Good.

The Nuseiríyeh hold the doctrine of a fall, and believe that before the creation of the world they existed as shining lights and brilliant stars, neither eating nor drinking, but passing their whole time in contemplation of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, in which condition they remained for 7,077 years. At the expiration of this period, they began to imagine that there were no nobler beings than themselves in creation, and this piece of pride was the first fault of which they were guilty; whereupon the Supreme Being created for them his chamberlain, who veiled him from their sight for 7,077 years. Then 'Ali appeared to them, and demanded, "Am I not your Lord?" to which they replied, "Yea;" but, in imagining him to be like themselves, and that they had seen him in all his fulness, they committed another sin, for which they were The seven cyclical manifestations were compelled to revolve round the veil for followed by seven others,-incarnations another 7,077 years. At the end of this of the Supreme Being in human form, of time, 'Ali again appeared to them, in the which the last was 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, form of an aged man, with white hair and the name under which he is worshipped beard, and asked them, "Who am I?" by the Nuseiríyeh; in fact, nearly every and they answered, "We know not." prophet, and even every striking event He next appeared in the form of a youth, mentioned in sacred or profane history,

Thus Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman (called respectively the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Antagonism) are considered by the Nuseiríyeh as the conjunct incarnation of Satan.