On the death of the Caliph al-Mu'taḍid and the accession of his son al-Muktafí the Sámánids were practically supreme Caliphate of al-Muktafí (A.D. 902-908). in Persia, while around Baghdad and Baṣra, in Syria and in Yaman the terrible Carmathians, under their able leader Zikrawayh, inspired the utmost terror—a terror which cannot be regarded as ill-founded when we remember that on the occasion of one of their attacks on the pilgrim-caravans returning from Mecca 20,000 persons are said to have been left dead on the field. Only two writers of note who died during this period need be mentioned: the Shí'ite divine al-Qummí († A.D. 903), and the royal poet Ibnu'l-Mu'tazz, who is notable as having produced one of the nearest approximations to an epic poem to be found in Arabic literature,* and also one of the “Memoirs of the Poets” (Ṭabaqát), which served as a model to ath-Tha'álibí, al-Bákharzí, and other compilers of such biographical anthologies.

We next come to the comparatively long reign of al-Muqtadir (A.D. 908-932), of which the most important political event was the establishment of the Fáṭimid, or Isma'ílí, Anti-Caliphate in North Africa (A.D. 909), with Caliphate of al-Muqtadir (A.D. 908-932). Mahdiyya (“the City of the Mahdí,” i.e., of 'Ubadu'lláh, the first Caliph of this dynasty) as its capital. The activity of the Carmathians continued unabated, in spite of the deaths of their leaders Zikrawayh and al-Jannábí the Elder: in A.D. 924 they entered Baṣra; in the following year they again attacked the Pilgrim-caravan; in A.D. 929 they invaded Mecca itself, and, to the unspeakable horror of all pious Muslims, carried off the Sacred Black Stone, which they kept for twenty years; while, in the closing years of al-Muqtadir's reign, they entered Kúfa and took possession of 'Ummán. About this time, however, their activity was checked, not so much by any external force, as by the scandals connected with the appearance of the false Mahdí Ibn Abí Zakariyyá,* whose abominable teachings are summarised by al-Bírúní in his Chronology of Ancient Nations.* Yet some years later, in A.D. 939, we find them still levying blackmail (khifára) on the pilgrims to Mecca.

*

To turn now to Persian affairs at this period, we may notice first the final suppression, even in Sístán, of the House of Layth Persian affairs at this period. (the Ṣaffárids) about A.D. 910, when Ṭáhir and Ya'qúb, the grandsons of 'Amr, were taken prisoners and sent captive to Baghdad. In A.D. 913 Naṣr II succeeded to the Sámánid throne, and in his long reign (he died in A.D. 942) the power and splendour of that illustrious House reached their zenith,* and Rúdagí, the first great Persian poet, was at the height of his renown and popularity. Yet Ṭabaristán was wrested from him by the 'Alawí Sayyid Ḥasan b. 'Alí Uṭrúsh, whose family maintained their footing there till A.D. 928, when Mardáwíj b. Ziyár succeeded in seizing the province and establishing there a dynasty (known as the Ziyárids) which endured, and played an honourable part in the promotion of learning and the protection of letters, for more than a century, ere it was extinguished by the Ghaznawís. And in yet another way Mardáwíj played an important part in Persian history, for to him the great House of Buwayh, which by the middle of the tenth century was practically supreme throughout Southern Persia and in Baghdad itself, owed its first fortunes; and from him 'Alí b. Buwayh, who afterwards, with the title of 'Imádu'd-Dawla, ruled over Fárs, or Persis proper, received his first appointment as governor of Karach.

Amongst the men of learning who flourished at this epoch the first place must without doubt be assigned to the historian Writers and men of learning of this epoch.—Ṭabarí. Abú Ja'far Muḥammad b. Jarír aṭ-Ṭabarí († A.D. 923),* whose great Chronicle ends ten years earlier (A.H. 300 = A.D. 912-913), thus depriving us of one of our best sources of information, though the Supplement of 'Aríb b. Sa'd of Cordova carries us down to the end of al-Muqtadir's Caliphate (A.H. 320 = A.D. 932), after which we have to depend chiefly for general history on Ibnu'l-Athír († A.D. 1232-3), the author of the great Kámilu't-Tawáríkh.

*

“In this year” (A.H. 310), says the latter, “died at Baghdad Mu-ḥammad b. Jarír aṭ-Ṭabarí, the historian, who was born in A.H. 224 (= A.D. 838-9). He was buried by night in his house, because the mob assembled and prevented him from being buried by day, declaring that he was a Ráfiḍí (Shí'ite) and even a heretic. And 'Alí b. 'Isá used to say, ‘By Alláh, were these people to be questioned as to what was meant by a Ráfiḍí or a heretic, they would neither know nor be capable of understanding!’ Thus Ibn Miskawayh, the author of the Tajáribu'l-umam, who defends this great leader of thought (Imám) from these charges. Now as to what he says con­cerning the fanaticism of the mob, the matter was not so; only some of the Ḥanbalites, inspired with a fanatical hatred of him, attacked him, and they were followed by others. And for this there was a reason, which was that Ṭabarí compiled a book, the like of which had never been composed, wherein he mentioned the differences of opinion of the theologians, but omitted all reference to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal. And when he was taken to task about this, he said, ‘He was not a theologian, but only a traditionist;’ and this annoyed the Ḥanbalites, who were innumerable in Baghdad; so they stirred up mischief against him, and said what they pleased.”

Of an utterly different character to this sober and erudite historian was another Persian of this period, whose reputation Al-Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr al-Ḥalláj. —somewhat transfigured, it is true, by pious hagiologists—is at least as enduring amongst his countrymen, and to whom admiring references are frequently made by the Persian Ṣúfí poets, such as Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár, Ḥáfidh and the like. This was al-Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr “the Wool-carder” (al-Ḥalláj), who was arrested for preaching heretical doctrines in Baghdad and the neighbour­hood in A.D. 913 (Ṭabarí, iii, p. 2289), and put to death with circumstances of great cruelty in A.D. 921. The charge against him which is chiefly remembered is that in a state of ecstasy he cried, “Ana'l-Ḥaqq” (“I am the True One,” or “the Fact,” i.e. God), and the Ṣúfís regard this utterance as the outcome of a state of exaltation wherein the Seer was so lost in rapture at the contemplation of the Beatific Vision of the Deity that he lost all cognisance and consciousness of him­self, and indeed of all Phenomenal Being. At most, say they, his crime was only that he revealed the secret; and generally he is regarded as a saint and a martyr. Thus Ḥáfidh says (ed. Rosenzweig-Schwannau, vol. i, p. 364):—

Chu Manṣúrán murád ánán ki bar dárand bar dár-and,
Ki bá ín dard agar dar band-i-darmán-and, dar mánand.

“Those who attain their desire are, like Manṣúrs, crucified,
For if, [being afflicted] with this grief, they hope for a remedy,
they fail [to find it].”

And again in another poem (not given in the above edition) he says:—

Kashad naqsh-i- ‘ANA'L-ḤAQQ’ bar zamín khún,
Chu Manṣúr ar kashí bar dár-am imshab!

“My blood would write ‘I am the True One’ on the ground,
If thou wert to hang me, like Manṣúr, on the cross to-night.’

The later Ṣúfí conception of this man may be found in such works as the Tadhkiratu'l-Awliyá of Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár, or the Nafaḥátu'l-Uns of Jámí, or, for European readers, in Tholuck's Ssufismus (Berlin, 1821), pp. 68, 152, &c.; but the older and better authorities, Ṭabarí (iii, p. 2289), Ibn Mis-kawayh and the Kitábu'l- 'Uyún (cited on pp. 86-108 of de Goeje's ed. of 'Aríb), and the Fihrist (pp. 190-192), present him in a different light as “a wily conjuror,” “bedecking his doctrines in the phraseology of the Ṣúfís,” “an ignorant and forward pretender to all the sciences,” “a dabbler in Alchemy,” a dangerous and impudent political intriguer, claiming to be an Incarnation of the Deity and outwardly professing the Shí'ite doctrine, but actually in league with the Carmathians and Isma'ilís. Some forty-five books com­posed by him are enumerated by the Fihrist (p. 192), and what we learn ('Aríb, p. 90) as to the sumptuous manner in which they are written out, sometimes with gold ink, on Chinese paper, brocade, silk, and the like, and magnificently bound, reminds us strongly of the Manichæans. In short, as to the extreme unorthodoxy of this Persian, whose near ancestors had held the Magian faith, there can be little doubt, though the great al-Ghazzálí himself undertook his defence in the Mishkátu'l-Anwár ('Aríb, p. 108); he certainly held all the cardinal doctrines of the Ghulát or extreme Shí'ites; to wit, Ḥulúl (Incarnation), Rij'at (Return to the life of the world in another body), and the like. But he is a remarkable figure, and has created a deep impression on the minds of his country­men, while some of his Arabic verses are really strong and original, as, for instance, the following ('Aríb, p. 106):—