A literary history of Persia

SINBADH "THE MAGIAN" 313followers of Bibak " al-Khurrami," and, apparently, theMudlmiyya^ or sects who believed that Abu Muslim was theImam, or even an incarnation of the Deity, amongst whomSinbadh the Magian and Ishdq " the Turk " (so called, we aretold, not because he was of Turkish race, but because " heentered the lands of the Turks and summoned them to believein the Apostolic Mission of Abu Muslim ") are included.Similarly of al-Muqanna' al-Birum says (op. laud., p. 194) that"he made obligatoryfor them (/'.*.,his followers)all the lawsand institutes which Mazhdak had established," whileShahristani, as we have already seen, regards the termsMazdaki, Sinbddi, Khurrarm, Mubayyida, and Muhammira assynonymous. The Nidhamu'1-Mulk, in chap, xlv of hisSiyasat-nAma (ed. Schefer, pp. 182-183, French translation,pp. 265-268is more*)explicit. According to him, afterMazdak's execution his wife, named Khurrama, fled fromCtesiphon to Ray with two of her husband's adherents, andcontinued to carry on a successful propaganda in that province.The converts to her doctrine were called either Mazdakites(after her husband) or Khurramites (Khurram-dinan orKhurramiyya]after her. The sect continued to flourish inAzarbayjan, Armenia, Daylam, Hamaddn, Dinawar, Isfahdn,and Ahwdz in other words, throughout the north and west ofPersia (Fihrist, p. 342) until the days of Abu Muslim, andwas amongst the disaffected elements whose support andsympathy he succeeded in enlisting in his successful attempt tooverthrow the Umayyad Caliphate.ITo the reverence and even adoration with which AbuMuslim was regarded by his followers we havebensinbldhthealfead y alluded (p. 243 supra], and his murderAD^s's^se) by the Caliph al-Mansur was almost immediatelyfollowed by the rebellion of Sinbddh the1From chap, xl of this work onwards the numbers of the chapters inthe translation are one ahead of those they bear in the text, two successivesections in the text (pp. 125 and 131) being called "fortieth,"