A literary history of Persia

3ioTHE GREAT PERSIAN HERESIARCHSAccording to the short account in the Fihrtst (p. 344),Bih-dfarfdh accepted Islam at the hands of two of AbuMuslim's dd l h named Shabi'b b. Dab. and 'Abdu'llah b. Sa'id, and adopted the black raiment ofthe 'Abbasids ;but afterwards apostatised and was slain. Thisaccount, which rests on the authority of Ibrdhim b. al-'Abbasas-Sulf (t A.D. 857-8), adds that "there are to this day inKhurasdn a number of people who hold his doctrine." Thesect is also mentioned, with the alternative name of Saysdniyya,by Shahristanf (p. 187), who describes them as " the most hostileof God's creatures to the Zamzamf Magians," adding that" they recognise the prophetic mission of Zoroaster, and honourthose kings whom Zoroaster honours."The meagre information which we possessconcerning Bihafarfdhdoes not permit us to form a clear idea as to theessential nature of his doctrine, of which the two5most^doctrine*important features, perhaps, are the prominenceaccorded to the number seven, and thebelief in the " occultation " and " return " of the founder. Ofthe importance attached to certain numbers (7, 12, 19, &c.)by various sects deriving from the extreme Shfites (Ghuldt}^and of the persistent recurrence of the belief in the " Return "(rtfat] of their heroes, we shall come across numerousexamples from this epoch down to our own days.Concerningthese Ghuldt or extreme Shi'ites Shahristanf says (p. 132):" They are such as hold extreme views (ghalaw) in respect to theirImams, so that they raise them above the limits of created beings,and ascribe to them Divine virtues, so that often theylikenJtremeone of the Imams to GodSh/'ites>and often they likenGod to mankind, thus falling into the two extremes ofexcess (ghuluivu>) and defect (taqsir). These anthropomorphictendencies of theirs are derived from the sects of the Hululiyyaas to his " Return" in the section devoted to him a few pages further on.Al-Balkhi, writing about A.H. 350 (A.D. 960), speaks of the Bih-afaridhis asexisting in his time from personal knowledge. See vol. i of Cl. Huart'sed, and transl. of the Kitdbiil- Bad' wa't-Ta'rikh, p. 164 of the translation,