{Excerpts from Esh-Shahrastâny's Book of Creeds and Sects}

   "The Bâṭinîyeh.^¶—This appellation is affixed to them only because they give out that every thing outward has an inward; and every letter of revelation, an allegorical sense. And they have many appellations beside this, according to p. 264 the language of one and another people. For in ’Irâḳ, they are named the Bâṭinîyeh, and the Ḳarâmaṭeh, and the Mazdakîyeh;^* and in Khorasan, the Ta’lîmîyeh,^† and the Mulḥideh.^‡ And they say, 'We are Isma’îlîlyeh,^§ for we are distinguished from the parties of the Shî’ah, by this name and this impersonation.'

   "Now the ancient Bâṭinîyeh have mingled with their system something of the system of the sect of Philosophers,^‖ and composed their books after that way. Say they respecting the Creator,—let him be exalted! 'As for us, we say not that he is existent, nor that he is non-existent; neither that he is one who knows, nor that he is ignorant; neither that he is one possessed of power, nor that he is impotent; and in like manner, with regard to all the attributes. For veritable affirmation requires the association of him with other existences in that respect in which we speak of him absolutely, and that is anthropomorphism; so that he does not admit of judgement by absolute affirmation and absolute denial; on the contrary, he is the Deity of those who stand opposed to one another, and the Creator of disputers, and the arbiter between those who differ.' And respecting this, they also tell of Muḥammed Ibn ’Aly El-Bâḳir, that he said, 'Because he bestows knowledge on the knowing, it is said that he is one who knows; and because he bestows power on the powerful, it is said that he is one possessed of power. So then, he is one who knows, one possessed of power, in the sense that he bestows knowledge and power, not in the sense that knowledge subsists in him, and power, or that he is qualified with p. 265 knowledge and power.' But it is said respecting them that they are deniers of the attributes, who despoil the divine essence of the attributes.

   "Say they, 'And in like manner we say, with regard to eternity, that he is not eternal, nor originated; on the contrary, the Eternal is his Amr and his Word,^* and that which is originated is his creation and his workmanship. He produced, by the Amr, the prime Intelligence, which is perfect in action; and by the intervention of that, he produced the secondary Soul, which is not perfect. And the relation of the Soul to the Intelligence is either the relation of the genital seed to the perfection of created form, and of the egg to the bird, or the relation of the child to the father, and of the offspring to her who brings forth, or the relation of the female to the male, and of consort to consort.' Say they, 'And because the Soul yearns after the completion of the Intelligence, it requires motion from incompleteness to completion, and motion requires the means of motion. And so the celestial spheres originate, and move with a circular movement, as governed by the Soul. And after them, the simple natural properties originate, and move with the movement of directness, also as governed by the Soul. And so are compounded the composites, namely, minerals, and plants, and animals, and man; and particular souls enter into bodies. And the species of man is distinguished from other existences, by peculiar preparedness for the effusion of those Lights; and his world stands opposed to the whole world. And an Intelligence and a Soul which is universal, in the higher world, makes necessary that there should be in this world an impersonated Intelligence which is a whole, and of which the bearing is the bearing of a complete, mature impersonation,' which they name the Nâṭiḳ,^† and which is the Prophet, and an impersonated Soul which is also a whole, and of which the bearing is the bearing of an infant who is incomplete, tending to completion, or the bearing of the genital seed tending to perfection, p. 266 or the bearing of the female consorted with the male,' which they name the Asâs,^* and which is the Legatee.

   "Say they, 'And as the celestial spheres move as moved by the Soul and the Intelligence, and the natural properties too, in like manner souls and persons move in accordance with laws, as moved by the Prophet and the Legatee, in every age, in a circle of successive sevens, until the final period is reached, and the age of resurrection is entered, and obligations are taken off, and rules and laws are unloosed. And these movements of the celestial spheres, and the rules enjoined by law, are only in order to the Soul's attaining to the state of its completion; and its completion is its attaining to the degree of the Intelligence, and its being united to that, and its reaching the rank of that, as an actuality. And as for that, it is the greater resurrection, upon which the compoundings of the celestial spheres and the elements, and the composites, are unloosed; and the heavens are rent; and the stars are dispersed; and the earth is exchanged for the absence of earth; and the heavens are rolled up like the rolling up of the scroll for the Book written upon within; and creatures are reckoned with; and the good one is separated from the bad one, and the obedient one, from the disobedient one; and the constituents of truth are joined to the whole Soul, and the constituents of falsehood to the false Sheitân.^† And so, from the time of motion up to rest is the beginning; and from the time of rest up to that which has no end is the completion.'

   "Moreover they say, 'There is no statute, nor rule, nor sentence of the sentences of law, concerning barter, or patronage, or giving, or marriage, or divorce, or wounding, or revenge, or the price of blood, without its counterpart pertaining to the world, by number against number, and bearing against bearing; for the laws are worlds spiritual, of the Amr, and worlds are the laws embodied, belonging to created things. And in like manner, compoundings which respect the letters and the words [of the Ḳurân,] are in the way of counter-part to the compoundings p. 267 of forms and bodies; and as for the single letters, their relation to the composites, of the words, is as bare simples to composites, of bodies. And every letter has a counter-part in the world, and a natural property with which it belongs, and an impress, so far as that property is in souls. And so, in consequence of this, sciences deriving virtue from the words of instruction, become an aliment to souls, like as aliments deriving virtue from the natural properties belonging to created things, become an aliment to bodies. And God has indeed ordained that something of that out of which it was created should be the aliment of every existence.'

   "And on the ground of this equivalence, they go to telling the numbers of the words and verses [of the Ḳurân,] and that the calling upon the divine name^* is a composite of seven and of twelve; and that the extolling God is a composite of four words in one of the formulas of testimony, and of three words in the second formula of testimony; and that there are seven segments in the first, and six in the second; and that there are twelve letters in the second;^† and in like manner, with regard to every verse which admits of their calculating its number;—all which he who is intelligent exercises not his thought upon, without coming short of it, through fear of his meeting his match!

   "These counter-balancings constituted the way of their men of early times; who composed books respecting them, and called men to an Imâm, in every age, who knows the equivalences of these sciences, and directs to the paths of these positions and definitions.

   "Afterwards, the men of the new call departed from this way, when El-Ḥasan Ibn Eṣ-Ṣabbâḥ proclaimed his call, and was unequal to the exigencies of his word, and asked p. 268 help of men, and fortified himself in castles. And the commencement of his going up to the castle of Alamût was in Sha’bân in the year 483. And that was after he had made journey to the country of his Imâm,^* and had got from him how to call the men of his age; upon which he returned and called men with the first of a call to the doctrine of the appearance of a rightful Imâm taking his stand in every age, and of the distinction of the party which obtain deliverance from the other parties in this point; which is to say, that they have an Imâm, and that the others have not any Imâm. And the refined gold of his system, after the rejection of that which was said respecting it, amounts, ultimately, in the Arabic language and in the Persian language, to this particular. And as for us, we shall translate that which he wrote in the Persian language, into the Arabic; and there is no fault resting upon the translator; and the prospered is whosoever follows the truth, and turns aside from falsehood; and God is the Prosperer, and the Helper.

   "So then we begin with the four Articles with which began the call, and which he wrote in the Persian, and so I have put into the Arabic. Says he, 'He who gives an answer respecting the knowledge of the Creator,—let him be exalted! has one of two things to say, either to say, "I know the Creator by mere intellect and speculation, without need of the teaching of a teacher," or to say, "There is no way to knowledge, with intellect and speculation, except by the teaching of a rightful teacher."' Says he, 'And whoever answers with the former, denies not another's intellect and speculation. For, as for him, if ever he so denies, he teaches; and the denial is a teaching, and a proof, that that which is denied has need of something other than itself.' Says he, 'And the two parts are both necessary consequences. For as for man, whenever he gives decisions, or makes a declaration, he speaks on his own part, or on the part of another; and in like manner, whenever he is bound with an obligation, he is bound with it on his own part, or on the part p. 269 of another.' This is the first Article; which is a rupture with the Men of opinion and intellect.^*

   "And he states in the second Article, as follows: 'Since the need of a teacher is established, is then absolutely every teacher suitable, or must there of necessity be a rightful teacher?' Says he, 'And whoever says that every teacher is suitable, is not allowed to deny a teacher adverse to himself, forasmuch as, when he so denies, he yields the point that there must of necessity be a reliable, rightful teacher.' So much for this. And this is a rupture with the Men of tradition.^†

   "And he states in the third Article, as follows: 'Since the need of a rightful teacher is established, must there not of necessity be knowledge of the teacher, first of all, and possession of him, and afterwards instruction by him? or may there be instruction by every teacher, without his person being fixed upon, and his right being made clear? And the latter is a coming, back to the former,^‡ forasmuch as, if one can not walk the way, except with one going before, and a companion, let there be the companion, and afterwards let the way be trod,'—which is a rupture with the Shî’ah.

   "And he states, in the fourth Article, that 'men constitute two parties, namely, a party who say, "There is need, with respect to knowledge of the Creator,—let him be exalted! of a rightful teacher; and the fixing upon him, and the recognition of him, is necessary, first of all, and afterwards instruction by him;" and a party who take up from a teacher, and from one who is not a teacher; in every science. p. 270 'And it is clear, by the preceding premises, that the truth is with the former party; so that, as for their head, he must needs be the head of those who hold to the truth. And since it is clear that falsehood is with the latter party, their heads, consequently must needs be the heads of those who hold to falsehood. Says he, 'And this way is that which causes us to know the place of truth by the truth, with general knowledge. Then, after that, we know the truth the place of truth, with special knowledge; so that the rotation of questions is not requisite.' And by 'the truth' he here means only the having need;^* and by 'the place of truth,' him who is needed. And says he, 'By the having need we know the Imâm, and by the Imâm we know the measures of the having need; just as by potentiality we know necessity, that is, the Necessarily Existing, and by this know the measures of potentiality in things potential.' Says he, 'And the way to the profession of unity is, by the measuring of feather by feather, in like manner.'^†

   "Moreover, he states certain Articles which have respect to the confirmation of his doctrine, either by way of accommodation to, or by way of rupture with, received doctrines; and most of them are some rupture or other, and an insisting upon, and a demonstration of, diversity on the ground of falsehood, and agreement on the ground of truth. One of them is the 'Article of truth and falsehood, and the little and the great.' He states that 'in the world there is a truth and a falsehood;' after which he states that, 'as for the mark of truth, it is unity, and as for the mark of falsehood, it is multiplicity; and unity accompanies instruction, and multiplicity, opinion; and instruction accompanies the forming one party, and the forming one party, the Imâm; and opinion accompanies diverse parties, which accompany their heads.' And he lays down truth and falsehood, and the similarity between them, on the one hand, and the difference between them, on the other hand, the mutual confronting in the two extremes, and the ranking in one of the two extremes, as a balance by which he weighs every thing about which he disputes. Says he, 'And I have derived p. 271 this balance only from the word of testimony, and its being compounded of denial and affirmation, or denial and exception;' says he, 'so that not that which merits denial, is falsehood; and not that which merits affirmation, is truth. And by that is weighed the good and the bad, and the true and the false, and the other opposites.'^* And his main point is to come back, as respects every declaration and word [of the Ḳurân,] to the affirmation of a teacher; and that, as for the profession of unity, it is the profession of unity together with the doctrine of a Prophet, while it is the profession of unity; and that, as for the doctrine of a Prophet, it is the doctrine of a Prophet together with the doctrine of an Imâm, while it is the doctrine of a Prophet.^†

   "This is the end of his system. He prohibited common people, however, from meddling with a matter of science; and in like manner, people of note, from examining the ancient Books;^‡ except those who knew the state of the case respecting every Book, and the degree attained by men in every science. And in respect to points relating to the Deity, he went not with his followers beyond his saying, 'Our Deity is the Deity of Muḥammed.' Says he, 'I and you say, that our Deity is the Deity of intellects, that is, that that which directs to him is the intellect of every intelligent being.' But if it is said to one of them, 'What sayest thou respecting the Creator,—let him be exalted! as for him, is he? and as for him, is he one, or multiple, possessed of knowledge, powerful, or not?' this definition alone is given for answer, 'My Deity is the Deity of Muḥammed; and he it is who sent his Envoy with the direction; and as for the Envoy, he is the director to him.'

p. 272

   "And often as I have entered into discussion with the people, on the ground of the premises stated, they have not taken a step beyond their saying, 'Have we then need of thee?' or 'Shall we hear this from thee?' or 'Shall we be instructed by thee?' And often as I have been conciliating towards the people, respecting the having need, and have said, 'Where is he who is needed? and how determines he for me the points relating to the Deity? and what is it which he prescribes in respect to things which are objects of the intellect? inasmuch as "the teacher" has no meaning intrinsically, and only has meaning because teaches; and ye, indeed, shut up the gate of science, and open the gate of submission to dictation, and the following of authority; and an intelligent being is not content to believe a doctrine, without any evidence to rest upon, or to walk in a way, without any proof that he should do so,'—the beginnings of the system have been authorizings to judge, and submissions to authority. 'But not, by thy Lord, not believe will they, until they make thee the judge respecting that which is in controversy between them; after which, they will not find, in their souls, any fault pertaining to that which thou determinest; and they will submit themselves, with submission.'"^*

   "The Ghâlîyeh.^†—These are they who are extravagant in respect to the reality of their Imâms, to such a degree that they put them out of the limits of the creature-state, and pronounce bearings of the state of Deity to be in them. For often they liken one of their Imâms to God; and often they liken God to the creature; and they hold to the two extremes of extravagance and curtailment.^‡ And their assimilations have only grown out of the doctrines of the Incarnationists and the Transmigrationists, and the doctrines of the Jews and the Christians; inasmuch as the Jews liken the Creator to the creature, and the Christians liken the creature to the Creator; and so these assimilations passed into the minds of the Extravagant Shî’ah, to such a p. 273 degree that they pronounce bearings of the state of Deity to be in the reality of some of their Imâms. And anthropomorphism was, as a principle, and fundamentally, among the Shî’ah; and only went over to some of the People of the Sunneh, after that. And the system of the Mu’tazileh prevailed among the latter, after they saw that it was nearer to that which is objective to the intellect, and farther from anthropomorphism and incarnation.

   "And the heresies of the Extravagants are comprehended in four things, namely, anthropomorphism, and the coming forth, and the return, and transmigration. And there are appellations belonging to them; and in every country, they have an appellation. They are called in Iṣfahân the Khurramîyeh,^* and the Kûdîyeh;^† and in Rei, the Mazdakîyeh, and the Sinbâdîyeh;^‡ and in Adherbîjân, the Dhuḳûlîyeh;^§ and in a certain place, the Muḥammarîyeh;^‖ and in Mâ-warâ-l-nahr, the Mubeiyeḍhîyeh."^¶

   "The Nuṣairîyeh and the Isḥâḳîyeh.^**—They are among the Extravagants of the Shî’ah. And there is a set of them who defend their doctrine, and act the part of leaders in respect to their declarations. And there is a disagreement among them respecting the way to generalize the name appropriate to the state of Deity, so as to include the Imâms of the people of the Family. Say they, 'The appearance p. 274 of the spiritual in a material body is a thing which no intelligent being denies; whether on the side of good, like the appearance of Jebrîl,—let peace be to him! by some impersonation, and the being fashioned in the form of one of the Arab race, and the being likened to the form of mankind; or on the side of evil, like the appearance of Esh-Sheiṭân in the form of man, so that he may work evil in his form, and the appearance of the Jinns in the form of mankind, so that they may dispute with its tongue. And so, on account of that, we say that God,—let him be exalted! appears in the form of impersonations. And because there is not, after the Envoy of God,—let the divine benediction and peace be to him! any impersonation more excellent than ’Aly,—let benediction and peace be to him! and after him, his appropriated descendants,^* who are the best of creatures, therefore, the true God appears in their form, and speaks with their tongue, and holds with their hands. So then, by virtue of this we generalize the name appropriate to the state of Deity so as to include them. And we affirm this being appropriated of ’Aly, preferably of any one else only because he had given to him specially an aiding from God,—let him be exalted! which is something that connects itself with the hidden sense of mysteries. Said the Prophet,—let the divine benediction and peace be to him! "I judge by the outward, and God has charge of secrets."^† And by virtue of this, it was the lot of the Prophet,—let the divine benediction and peace be to him! to fight with polytheists, and the lot of ’Aly to fight with hypocrites. And by virtue of this, he likened him to ’Îsa Ibn Maryam, and said, "And if men may not have said respecting thee that which they say respecting ’Îsa Ibn Maryam, have not I, indeed, declared respecting thee with a declaration?"'^‡

   "And often they affirm of him a participation in the envoyship, inasmuch as he said, 'Among you is one who fights on the ground of its allegorical sense, as I fight on the ground of its letter; is he not, indeed, the sewer of the sandal?'^§ and so, that the knowledge of the allegorical sense, and the fighting with hypocrites, and the disputing with the Jinns, and p. 275 the removing of the gate of Khaibar, not by corporeal power,^* are the most convincing proof that in him was a divine part, and a sovereign power from the Lord, or that it is he in whose form God appeared, and with whose hand he created, and with whose tongue he commanded. And by virtue of this, they say, 'He was in existence before the creation of the heavens and the earth; says he, "We were shadows on the right hand of the throne; and so we gave glory, and then the angels gave glory with our giving glory,"—and as for those shadows, and those forms not casting shade, they are real, and shine with shining, by the light of the Lord; which is not cut off from them, whether they are in this world or in that world. And by virtue of this, ’Aly said, "I am of Aḥmed as light of light,"—meaning that there is no distinction between the two lights, except that one of them precedes, and the second, a correlate to it, comes on after it. And this proves a sort of association.'

   "But the Nuṣairîyeh are more inclined to maintain the divine part; and the Isḥâḳîyeh are more inclined to maintain the association in the prophetic office. And they have other disagreements which we shall not mention."

   "The Bâḳirîyeh, and the constant Ja’farîyeh.—They are the followers of Abû Ja’far Muḥammed Ibn ’Aly El-Bâḳir, and his son Ja’far Eṣ-Ṣâdiḳ. They declare the imamship of both of them, and the imamship of their parent Zein el-’Âbidîn; except that among them are some who are constant to one of the two, and forward not the imamship to their descendants, and some who do forward.^† And we distinguish this party over and above the sects professing to be Shî’ah which we shall mention, only because those of the Shî’ah who are constant to El-Bâḳir, and declare his return, are in constancy like those [of the Shî’ah] who declare the imamship of Abû ’Abdallah Ja’far Ibn Muḥammed Eṣ-Ṣâdiḳ.

p. 276

   "And he was a possessor of rare science in religion, and perfect culture in philosophy, and consummate self-restraint in respect to this world, and complete abstinence from appetites. And he had dwelt in Medîneh a length of time, doing much service to the Shî’ah who sided with him, and committing to those friendly to him the secrets of the sciences; when he entered ’Irâḳ, and dwelt there a length of time. He never assumed the imamship, nor contended with any one respecting the khalifship; and whoever plunges into the sea of knowledge, is not eager for a shore; and whoever is elevated to the summit of verity, fears not a letting down; and there is a saying, 'Whoever has converse with God, is empty of men, and whoever cultivates familiarity with others than God, the Tempter makes a prey of him.'^* And he was related, on the father's side, to the stock of prophecy; and on the mother's side, he was related to Abû Bekr,—let God be gracious to him! And he cleared himself of that which any one of the Extravagants had to do with, and cleared himself of him, and cursed them; and he was clear of the peculiarities of the doctrines of the Râfiḍheh,^† and their fooleries, namely, the declaring of the disappearance and the return,^‡ and the coming forth,^§ and transmigration, and incarnation, and anthropomorphism.

   "But the Shî’ah were divided, after his day, and every one of them professed a doctrine, and desired to pass it on upon his followers, and referred its origin to him, and fixed it on him; while the master was clear of that, and of the system of the Mu’tazileh,^‖ and also of the doctrine of the Ḳadarîyeh.^¶ This is his saying respecting volition, namely, 'God,—let him be exalted! wills by us something, and p. 277 wills from us something; and so, that which be wills by us he hides from us, and that which he wills from us he manifests to us. So then, what have we to do, to meddle with that which he wills by us, to the neglect of that which he wills from us?' And this is his saying respecting predestination, namely, 'It is a thing between two things, not absolutism, and not indifferentism.' And he was wont to say, in prayer, 'O God, to thee belongs the praise, if I obey thee; and to thee it belongs to convict, if I disobey thee. There pertains not to me, nor to any one else, any efficiency in the case of a doing well; and there is no convicting on my part, or on the part of any one else, in the case of a doing ill.'

   "Now then, we will mention the sects which differed from each other respecting him, and after his day, not on the ground of their being divisions of his partizans,—on the contrary, on the ground of their having to do with the root of his stock, and the branches of his descendants."^*

Footnotes

p. 263

^¶ i. e. Party of the hidden sense.

p. 264

^* i. e. Party of Mazdak. Mazdak was the author of a modification of Magism, who was patronized by Kobâd, one of the Sâsânide kings, and put to death by Nûshirwân. For his opinions, see The Dabistân, transl. by Shea and Troyer, Vol. I. pp. 372, ff.; Esh-Shahrastâny's Book of Relig. and Philos. Sects, pp. 192, ff. What particular ground there may have been for the application of this name to the Ismâ’ilis, we do not know. But there is reason to believe that they may have derived some of their peculiar doctrines from a Persian source.

^† i. e. Party of instruction. The ground of this appellation appears from some of Ḥasan Ibn Ṣabbâḥ's "articles," stated farther on by Esh-Shahrastâny.

^‡ i. e. Heretics.

^§ i. e. Party of Isma’îl, son of Ja’far Eṣ-Ṣâdiḳ, the seventh and last Imâm of the Ismâ’ilis.

^‖ Those of the Muslim learned men who were influenced in their religious opinions by the study of Greek philosophy, introduced among them especially under the Khalifeh Mamûn, were called by this name.

p. 265

^* It will be evident, farther on, that the Ismâ’ilian Word, or Amr, is a prime emanation from the Deity, having divine names and attributes, but distinct from the Deity itself.

^† Nâṭiḳ, i. e. Utterer, is the name which the Ismâ’ilis give to every Prophet of a period, who declares the divine will for that time.

p. 266

^* Asâs, i. e. Foundation, is the name given in the Ismâ’ilian system to first of seven supposed successors of every Nâṭiḳ, that is, the first of seven Imâms of each period, whose office it is to confirm his teaching by the disclosure of its allegorical sense.

^† See Rev. vi. 12-17; Id. xx. 5.

p. 267

^* ### In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, of which the first part, In the name of God, consists in the original of seven letters, and the remainder, of twelve.

^† The two "formulas" here referred to are ### i. e. There is no Deity but God; and ### i. e. Muḥammed is the Prophet of God. By "segments," are meant separate syllables; to make these of the numbers mentioned, final vowels must be thrown off, and the Prophet's name must be pronounced Muḥmed.

p. 268

^* The Fâṭimite Khalîfeh Mustanṣer-billah, who reigned in Egypt when Ḥasan began his career, is undoubtedly here intended. Before Ḥasan established an independent dynasty, he went about in the character of an Ismâ’ilian Dâ’i, advocating the legitimacy of the Fâṭimites, as descendants of ’Aly, against the ’Abbâsides. See Mém. de l'Inst., Tome iv. p. 8; Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, Tome iv. p. 687; Id. Tome ix. p. 152, ff.

p. 269

^* The amount of this article seems to be, that religious instruction is necessary, contrary to the doctrine of those who hold that God is known by mere intellect and speculation; because whoever affirms the latter, if he would establish any definite criterion, must confine it to himself, and in so doing contradict his principle, by making circumstances personal to himself, independent of the possession of mere intellect and speculative faculty, requisite to the end.

^† Exaggerators of ancient authority are here referred to. Esh-Shahrastâny elsewhere says that they were called Men of tradition, "because their aim is to get traditions, and to hand down accounts, and to base sentences on authorities, and they do not go back to analogy, manifest or hidden, so long as they find an account, or a memorial." See Esh-Shahrastâny's Book of Relig. and Philos. Sects, ed. Cureton, p. 160. That such a party were wanting in discrimination, as Ḥasan affirms, may easily be credited.

^‡ That is to say, the very statement of the latter alternative involves the affirmation of the former.

p. 270

^* The need of a teacher.

^† The meaning is, that one comes to the profession of the divine unity, with a full understanding of it, through the Imâm, precisely as it is through him that one attains to a complete conviction of his need of instruction.

p. 271

^* This "balance," or principle of judgment as to the true and the false, the good and the bad, and all opposites, was derived from the fundamental confession of faith among the Muslims, There is no Deity but God, which expresses the truth of the divine unity only as the propositions included in it, namely, There is no Deity, and God is a Deity, each of which, by itself, may stand either for truth or for falsehood, are taken together as mutually complementary. The general principle may be stated as follows: that what may be affirmed absolutely, as between any opposites, consists in the complementary relation to each other of those opposites.

^† This means, that the declaration There is no Deity but God, implies the doctrine of a Prophet to reveal the truth thus expressed, and that the doctrine of a Prophet, expressed in the declaration Muḥammed is his Prophet, implies that of an Imâm to carry on the Prophet's work.

^‡ The Scriptures of former periods, or previous Divine Revelations.

p. 272

^* Ḳurân, Sur. iv. v. 68. It is the edition of Flügel which is referred to in these notes, in all cases.

^† i. e. Party of the Extravagants.

^‡ The writer means that they not only exalt the creature to the rank of the Deity, but also bring down the Deity to the level of the creature.

p. 273

^* i. e. Party of the Voluptuous.

^† i. e. Party of the Self-willed, probably. In this sense, the word seems to be originally Persian, as is Khurramîyeh.

^‡ i. e. Party of the Followers of Sinbâd. Sinbâd was a leader of the Extravagant Shî’is, in Khorâsân, in the reign of the Khalîfeh Mamûn. See Weil's Geschichte der Chalifen, Bd. ii. s. 236.

^§ I can make no sense of this word, however pronounced, either as Arabic, or Persian. But if we read Duḳûlîyeh, it is an Arabic word, meaning Self-hiders. Now from one of our new documents it appears, that certain Ismâ’ilian followers of Bâbek, whose standard of rebellion was first raised in Ajerbîjân, took from him the fashion of going abroad in mantles of Yemen, an article of dress covering the whole person, from the top of the head down; and the class of people there called, from that circumstance, Bâbekîyeh, may have been the same as those here named. See p. 281.

^‖ i. e. Party of the Reddened, because they wore red there.

^¶ i. e. Party of the Whitened, because they wore white in that country.

^** The origin of this name I do not know. The name Nuṣairyeh, signifying Little Christians, was probably given in derision. See Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenländ Gesellschaft, vol, iii. p. 308.

p. 274

^* Appropriated as dwelling-places of the Deity.

^† A traditionary saying.

^‡ A traditionary saying.

^§ Meaning, does he not complete what I begin? This also is one of the traditionary sayings of the Prophet.

p. 275

^* This must refer to some tradition connected with the taking of Khaibar by Muḥammed.

^† The meaning is, that some regard one or the other of the two as the last Imâm, to whom the imamship still belongs, although he is for a season withdrawn from human view; while others consider the imamship as the inheritance of successive generations in the line of his posterity.

p. 276

^* This is probably a traditionary saying of Muḥammed.

^† i. e. Party of the Deserters, the name given to a party whose doctrinal belief Esh-Shahrastâny characterizes by saying that "they are extravagant in respect to the prophetic office and imamship, to such a degree that they come to the doctrine of incarnation [of the Deity.]" See Esh-Shahrastâny's Book of Relig. and Philos. Sects, p. 9.

^‡ The disappearance and return of the Imâm.

^§ The manifestation of the Deity by emanation.

^‖ This was essentially, as Esh-Shahrastâny expresses it, such an "extravagance in the way of thinking about the divine unity, as amounted to making God a vacuity by the denial of attributes." See Esh-Shahrastâny's Book of Relig. and Philos. Sects, p. 9.

^¶ i. e. Maintainers of power [in man,] in opposition to the doctrine of absolute divine decrees.

p. 277

^* Meaning, as holding in common that the imamship is perpetuated in his family, while distinguished by particular attachment to one or another of his descendants.