“The same difference of ideal exists as to the quality and nature of Scripture, the Revealed Word of God. Provided the ethical teaching be sublime, and there be peace for the troubled and comfort for the sorrowful, we care little, comparatively, for the outward form. But in the eyes of the Musulmáns (including, of course, the followers of all those sects, even the most heretical, which have arisen in the bosom of Islám) this outward form is a matter of the very first importance. Every letter and line of the Qur'án (which always remains the model and prototype of a Revealed Book, even amongst those sects who claim that it has been abrogated by a newer Revelation) is supposed to be fraught with unutterable mystery and filled with unfathomable truth. Generations of acute minds expend their energies in attempts to fathom these depths and penetrate these mysteries. What wonder if the same discoveries are made quite independently by different minds in different ages, working with the same bent on the same material? In studying the religious history of the East, and especially of Persia, let us therefore be on our guard against attaching too much importance to resemblances which may be the natural outcome of similar minds working on similar lines, rather than the result of any historical filiation or connection.”

The Isma'ílí doctrine was, as we have seen, mainly devised and elaborated (though largely from ideas and conceptions already ancient, and, as has been remarked, almost endemic in Persia) by 'Abdu'lláh b. Maymún al-Qaddáḥ. Great stress is generally laid, both by Oriental and European writers, on the primarily political motive which is supposed to have inspired him, the desire, namely, to destroy the power of the Arabs, and the religion of Islám whence that power was derived, and to restore to Persia the dominant position which she had previously held, and to which, in his opinion, she was entitled.* I myself am inclined to think that, to judge by the Persian character, in which the sentiment of what we understand by patriotism is not a conspicuous feature, and by what I have myself observed in the analogous case of the Bábís, this quasi-political motive has been unduly exaggerated; and that 'Abdu'lláh b. Maymún and his ally, the wealthy astrologer Dandán (or Zaydán)* exerted themselves as they did to propagate the system of doctrine about to be described not because it was Persian, but because, being Persian, it strongly appealed to their Persian minds.

*

The doctrine which we are about to describe is, it must be repeated, the doctrine evolved by 'Abdu'lláh b. Maymún al-Qaddáḥ. “The sect of the Isma'ílís,” says Guyard in his Fragments relatifs à la Doctrine des Ismaílis (Paris, 1874, p. 8), “was primarily a mere subdivision of the Shí'ites, or partisans of 'Alí; but, from the time of 'Abdu'lláh, surnamed Qaddáḥ, the son of Maymún Qaddáḥ, and chief of the sect, towards the year A.H. 250 (A.D. 864), it so greatly diverged from its point of departure that it met with the reprehension of the Shí'ites themselves, who denounced as impious such as would embrace it.” The chief thing which it derived from Ismá'íl the seventh Imám was its name Ismá'ílí; but it bore several other names, such as Sab'í (“the Sect of the Seven”); Báṭiní (“the Esoteric Sect”); Ta'límí (“doctrinaire”), because, according to its tenets, the true “teaching” or “doctrine” (ta'lím) could only be obtained from the Imám of the time; Fáṭimí (“owing allegiance to the descendants of Fáṭima,” the Prophet's daughter and 'Alí's wife); Qirmaṭí or Carmathian, after the dà'í Ḥamdan Qarmaṭ already mentioned. By their foes, especially in Persia, they were very commonly called simply Maláḥida (“impious heretics”), and later, after the New Propaganda of Ḥasan-i-Sabbáḥ (of whom we shall speak in a later chapter), Ḥashíshí (“hashish-eaters”).

Their doctrine, as already indicated, and as will shortly appear more plainly, hinges to a large extent on the number seven, and, to a less degree, on the number twelve; numbers which are written plain in the universe and in the body of man. Thus there are seven Planets and twelve Zodiacal Signs; seven days in the week and twelve months in the year; seven cervical vertebræ and twelve dorsal, and so on: while the number seven appears in the Heavens, the Earths, the Climes, and the apertures of the face and head (two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and the mouth).

Intermediate between God and Man are the Five Principles or Emanations (the Universal Reason, the Universal Soul, Primal Matter, Pleroma or Space, and Kenoma or Time),* making in all Seven Grades of Existence.

Man cannot attain to the Truth by his unaided endeavours, but stands in need of the teaching (ta'lím) of the Universal Reason, which from time to time becomes incarnate in the form of a Prophet or “Speaker” (Náṭiq), and teaches, more fully and completely in each successive Manifestation, accord­ing to the evolution of the Human Understanding, the spiritual truths necessary for his guidance. Six great Prophetic cycles have passed (those of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad), and the last and seventh cycle, in which for the first time the Esoteric Doctrine, the true inwardness of the Law and the Prophets, is made clear, was inaugurated by Muḥammad b. Isma'íl, the Qá'im (“He who ariseth”) or Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán (“Lord of the Time”). Each Prophet or “Speaker” (Náṭiq) is succeeded by seven Imáms (called Ṣámit, “Silent”), of whom the first (called Asás, “Foundation,” or Sús, “Root,” “Origin”) is always the intimate companion of the Náṭiq, and the repository of his esoteric teaching. The series in detail is as follows:—

Nátiq. Asás, who is the first of the Seven Ṣámits or Imáms.
1. Adam. Seth. (Each Ṣámit, or Imám, has twelve Ḥujjats, “Proofs,” or Chief Dá'ís.)
2. Noah. Shem.
3. Abraham. Ishmael.
4. Moses. Aaron. John the Baptist was the last Ṣámit of this series, and the immediate precursor of Jesus, the next Náṭiq.
5. Jesus. Simon Peter.
6. Muḥammad. 'Alí, followed by al-Hasan, al-Ḥusayn, 'Alí Zaynu'l-'Ábidín, Muḥammad al-Báqir, Ja'far aṣ-Ṣádiq, and Isma'íl.
7. Muḥammad b. Isma'íl. 'Abdu'lláh b. Maymún al-Qaddáḥ, fol­lowed by two of his sons, Aḥmad and Muḥammad, and his grandson Sa'íd, later known as 'Ubaydu'lláh-al-Mahdí (who pretended to be the grandson of Muḥammad b. Isma'íl), the founder of the Fáṭimid Dynasty.

In the correspondence established between the Grades of Being and the Isma'ílí hierarchy there seems to be a lacuna, since God, the Primal Unknowable Essence, is represented by no class in the latter. As to the last term also I am in doubt. The other correspondences are as follows:—

1. God.

2. The Universal Reason ('Aql-i-Kullí), manifested in the Náṭiq or Prophet.

3. The Universal Soul (Nafs-i-Kullí), manifested in the Asás or first Imám.

4. Primal Matter (Hayyúla, <text in Greek script omitted>), manifested in the Ṣámits or Imáms.

5. Space, or Pleroma (al-Malá), manifested in the Ḥujjat or “Proof.”

6. Time, or Kenoma (al-Khalá), manifested in the Dá'í or Missionary.

7. ? The Material Universe, manifested in ? The Believer.

Corresponding still with the dominant number are the degrees of initiation through which, according to his capacity and aptitude, the proselyte is successively lead by the dá'í; though these were afterwards raised to nine (perhaps to agree with the nine celestial spheres, i.e., the seven planetary spheres, the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, and the Empyrean). These degrees are very fully described by de Sacy (Exposé, vol. i, pp. lxii-cxxxviii), who follows in the main the account of the historian an-Nuwayrí († A.D. 1332). Before speaking of them, however, a few words must be said about the dá'í or propagandist.