The three things connected with al-Muqanna' which are best known and most widely celebrated are the mask of gold (or veil of green silk, according to some accounts) which he continually wore, to spare his followers the dazzling and insupportable effulgence of his countenance, as he asserted, or, as his opponents said, to conceal from them his deformed and hideous aspect; the false moon which he caused, night after night, to rise from a well at Nakhshab (whence he is often called by the Persians Máh-sázanda, “the moon-maker”); and the final suicide of himself and his followers, by which, as it would appear, he desired not only to avoid falling into the hands of his enemies, but to make his partisans believe that he had disappeared and would return again, with which object he Al-Qazwíni's account of al-Muqanna'. endeavoured to destroy his own body and those of his companions. Of the false moon al-Qazwíní (who wrote during the first half of the thirteenth century of our era) speaks as follows in his Átháru'l-Bilád (ed. Wüstenfeld, p. 312), under the heading Nakhshab:—
“Nakhshab. A famous city in the land of Khurásán, from which have arisen many saints and sages. With it was connected al-Ḥakím al-Muqanna',* who made a well at Nakhshab whence there rose up a moon which men saw like the [real] moon. This thing became noised abroad through the horizons, and people flocked to Nakhshab to see it, and wondered greatly at it. The common folk supposed it to be magic, but it was only effected by [a knowledge of] mathematics and the reflection of the rays of the moon; for they [afterwards] found at the bottom of the well a great bowl filled with quicksilver. Yet withal he achieved a wonderful success, which was disseminated through the horizons and noised abroad until men mentioned him in their poems and proverbs, and his memory abode amongst mankind.”
Ibn Khallikán in his celebrated Biographies (translation of Baron MacGuckin de Slane, vol. ii, pp. 205-206) thus speaks of him:* —
“Al-Muqanna' al-Khurásání, whose real name was 'Aṭá, but whose father's name is unknown to me (though it is said to have been Ibn Khallikán's account of al-Muqanna'. Ḥakím), began his life as a fuller at Merv. Having acquired some knowledge of Magic and Incantations, he pretended to be an Incarnation of the Deity, which had passed into him by Metempsychosis, and he said to his partisans and followers: ‘Almighty God entered into the figure of Adam; for which reason He bade the angels adore Adam, “and they adored Him, except Iblís, who proudly refused,”* whereby he justly merited the Divine Wrath. Then from Adam He passed into the form of Noah, and from Noah into the forms of each of the prophets and sages successively, until He appeared in the form of Abú Muslim al-Khurásání (already mentioned), from whom He passed into me.’ His pretensions having obtained credence with some people, they adored him and took up arms in his defence, notwithstanding what they beheld as to the extravagance of his claims and the hideousness of his aspect; for he was ill-made, one-eyed, short in stature [and a stutterer], and never uncovered his face, but veiled it with a mask of gold, from which circumstance he received his appellation of ‘the Veiled’ (al-Muqanna'). The influence which he exercised over the minds of his followers was acquired by the delusive miracles which he wrought in their sight by means of magic and incantations. One of the deceptions which he exhibited to them was the image of a moon, which rose so as to be visible to the distance of a two months' journey, after which it set; whereby their belief in him was greatly increased. It is to this moon that Abu'l-'Alá al-Ma'arrí alludes in the following line:—
“‘Awake [from the delusions of love]! That full moon*
whose head
is shrouded in a veil
Is only a snare and a delusion, like the Moon of al-Muqanna'!’
“This verse forms part of a long qaṣída. To it also alludes Abu'l-
“‘Beware! For the Moon of al-Muqanna' does not rise
*
More fraught with magic than my turbaned moon!’
“When the doings of al-Muqanna' became notorious, and his fame was spread abroad, the people rose up against him and attacked him in his castle wherein he had taken refuge, and besieged him there. Perceiving that death was inevitable, he assembled his women and gave them a poisoned drink, whereby they died; after which he swallowed a draught of the same liquor and expired. On entering the castle, the Muslims put all his partisans and followers to the sword. This happened in the year A.H. 163 (A.D. 779-780): may God's curse rest upon him, and with God do we take refuge from such deceptions!—I never found the name or the situation of this castle mentioned by any person, that I might record it, until at last I read it in the Kitábu'sh-Shubuhát of Yáqútu'l-Ḥamawí (who will be mentioned presently, if God please), which he wrote to differentiate those places which participate in the same name.* He there says, in the section devoted to Sanám, that there are four places of this name, whereof the fourth is the Castle of Sanám constructed by al-Muqanna' the Khárijite [i.e., the heretic rebel] in Transoxiana. God knows best, but it would appear that this is the castle in question.—I have since found in the History of Khurásán that it is the very one, and that it is situated in the district of Kashsh;* but God knows best!”
Ibnu'l-Athír in his great chronicle (Cairo ed., vol. vi, pp. 13-14 and 17-18, under the years A.H. 159 and 161) confirms most of the above particulars. According to him al-Muqanna' was named Ḥakím, and only made known his pretensions to Ibnu'l-Athír's narrative. be a Divine Incarnation to a select circle of his followers, declaring that from Abú Muslim the Divinity had passed into Háshim, by which name he intended himself, so that the war-cry of his followers was, “O Háshim, help us!” (“Yá Ḥáshim, a'in-ná!”). He was supported by the Mubayyiḍa, or “White-clad” heretics, in Sughd and Bukhárá, and also by many of the pagan Turks. He held Abú Muslim to be superior to the Prophet, and one of his avowed objects was to avenge the death of Yaḥyá b. Zayd, a great-grandson of al-Ḥusayn, who was killed in A.D. 742-3. The number of his followers who deserted him at the last, on a promise of quarter from Sa'íd al-Ḥarashí, the general in command of the beleaguering forces, is stated at 30,000, while those who remained with him were about 2,000.
“When he saw that death was inevitable,” says Ibnu'l-Athír (who
is followed by al-Fakhrí), “he assembled his women and his family,
and gave them poison to drink, and commanded that his own body
should be burned with fire, that none [of his enemies] might obtain
possession of it. Others say that he burned all that was in his castle,
including beasts and clothing and the like, after which he said, ‘Let
him who desires to ascend with me into heaven cast himself with
me into this fire.’ So he cast himself into it, with his family, and his
women, and his chosen companions, and they were burned, so that
when the army entered the Castle, they found it empty and void.
This was one of the circumstances which added to the delusion of
such as remained of his followers, of whom are they who are called
the Mubayyiḍa in Transoxiana, save that they conceal their belief.
But some say that he, too, drank poison and died, and that al-Ḥarashí
sent his head to al-Mahdí, and that it reached him when he was at
Duration of the
sect.
Aleppo on one of his campaigns in A.H. 163 (= A.D. 779-
Our information as to the details of the doctrines held by
the heresiarchs mentioned above is lamentably defective, but all
Bábak the
Khurramí.
that we know confirms the statement of Shah-