A literary history of Persia

1Babak's pedigree was, however, very uncertain. Cf. Tabari, iii,328 THE GREAT PERSIAN HERESIARCHSthree, of the four doctrines (hulul^ or the passing of God intohuman form ; tandsukh, or the passing of the soul from onebody to another and l; rij at, or the return of a departed soul ina new tabernacle of flesh) regarded by Shahristdnf (see p. 311supra^zscharacteristic of all sects of the Ghuldtor "immoderate"Shi'ites. Whether Babak was of pure Persian extraction isdoubtful, for the Fihrist represents his father as singing songsin the Nabathaean language, while Dmawari (p. 397) expressesIthe opinion that he was one of the sons of Mutahhar theson of Fdtima the daughter of Abu Muslim. The Nidhdmu'l-Mulk mentions in his Siydsat-ndma (ed. Schefer, p. 204) thatthe Khurramls in their secret gatherings used firstto call downblessings on Abu Muslim, the Mahdi, and Ffruz, the son ofthe above-mentioned Fdtima, whom they called " the WiseChild" (Klidak-i-Ddnd)^ and who may perhaps be identicalwith Babak's father Mutahhar. It also appearsthat Babak inthe main merely perpetuated doctrines already taught by hismaster J&widdn (whose followers are called by Tabarl, iii,1015, al-ydwiddniyya}) only adding to them, in the words ofthe Fihrist above cited," murder, rapine, wars, and cruelpunishments, hitherto unknown to them." He certainlyseems to have been of a bloodthirsty disposition, for accordingto Tabarl (iii, p. 1233) he slew in twenty years 255,500persons, while Mas'udi (Kitdbut-tanbih^ p. 353) estimates thenumber of his victims as " 500,000 at the lowest computation."As regardshis relation to the other sects which we havementioned, he was, as the Fihrist tells us, " to restore the"doctrines of the Mazdakites ; and we find (Siydsat-ndma,p. 20 1 one of his ) generals bearing the name of 'AH Mazdak.He is generally called at-Khurraml, a title which the Fihristalso applies to Jawlddn and his rival Abu 'Imrdn, and which,according to the Siydsat-ndma (p.1 82) was simply synonymouswith Mazdakite. His followers are commonly spoken of asp, 1232.