A literary history of Persia

392 THE ISMAlLi SECT(especially those of Persia) attached great importance to thefact that all their Imams subsequent to 'All (who was theProphet's cousin) were descended also from Fatima (theProphet's daughter), and hence were the direct and linealdescendants of the Prophet himself and to the; alleged fact(see pp. 130-134 and 229 supra] that all the Imdms subsequentto al-Husayn (the third) were also the lineal descendants of theSasanians, the old Royal Family of Persia.There were, however, other sects of the ShJ'a (Kaysaniyyaand Zaydiyya) who recognised as Imams descendants not onlyof al-Husayn's brother al-Hasan (Imams, that is to say, whomade no claim of descent from the House of Sasan) but of hishalf-brother Muhammad Ibnu'l-Hanafiyya ("the son of theHanafite woman "),who were not children of1Fitima, andThesehence were not the direct descendants of the Prophet.sects, however, seem, as a rule, to have had comparativelylittle hold in Persia save in Tabaristan (where, as we haveseen, a dynasty of "Zaydite" Imams flourished from A.D. 864to 928), and need not further claim our attention, which mustrather be concentrated on the Imdmiyya, or Imamites proper,and its two great branches, the " Sect of the Twelve " (Ithnalashariyya\ which prevailsin Persia to-day, and the " Sect ofthe Seven " (Sab'iyya) or Isma'ilis, with its various branches,including the notorious Assassins (Maldhida^ or " heretics "parexcellence, as they were generally called by their opponents in-.Persia), who will form the subject of a later chapter. TheIfourth and subsequent Imams of both these important branches1 of the Sh{ { a were descendants of al-Husayn, and, as has been\already emphasised, enjoyed in the eyes of their followers theIdouble prestige of representing at the same time the PropheticJHouse of Arabia and the Royal House of Persia.1Rashidu'd-Din Fadlu'llah says in the section of his great history (theJdmi'u't-Tawdrikh), which deals with the Isma'ilis, that in Abu Muslim'stime the descendants of 'Ali based their claim to the " Caliphate on thenobility of their descent from Fatima."