A literary history of Persia

394 ^HE ISMA'/Lf SECTMaymtin al-Qaddih (of whom we shall speak presently) aboutA.H. 260 T (A.D. 873-4), "the sect of the Isma'ilis had beenmerely an ordinary sect of the Shf'ites, distinguished fromothers by its recognition of Muhammad b. Isma'il as the lastImdm, and by its profession of that allegorical doctrine ofwhich this Muhammad, or perhaps his grandfather Ja'faras-Sadiq, had been the author.The genius which gave to this comparatively insignificantsect the first impulse towards that might and influence whichitenjoyed for nearly four centuries came, as usual, from Persia,and in describingit I cannot do better than cite the words ofthose great Dutch scholars de Goeje and Dozy." It was," says the former," " an inveterate hatred against theArabs and Islam which, towards the middle of the third century ofthe hijra, suggested to a certain '^hdii'llahb. Mavmuq ran oculist(Qadddh} by profession and a Persian by race, a project as amazingfor the boldness and genius with which it was conceived as for theassurance and vigour with which it was carried out.""To bind3together in one association the conquered and theconquerors to combine in one secret;society, wherein there shouldbe several grades of initiation, the free-thinkers, who saw in religiononly a curb for the common people, and the bigots of all sects ;tomake use of the believers to bring about a reign of the unbelievers,and of the conquerors to overthrow the empire which themselveshad founded ;to form for himself, in short, a party, numerous,compact, and schooled to obedience, which, when the moment wascome, would give the throne, if not to himself, at least to hisdescendants ;such was the dominant idea of 'Abdu'llah b.Maymim an idea which, grotesque and audacious though it was,;he realised with astonishing tact, incomparable skill, and a profoundknowledge of the human heart." 4"To attain this end a conjunction of means was devised whichmay fairly be described as Satanic human weakness was attacked;1 Fihrist, p. 187. *Memoire sur les Cartnathes, Leyden, 1886.3 Here speaks Dozy (Histoire des Musuhnans de I'Espagne, vol. iii, pp. 8et seqq.),whom de Goeje cites in this place.Here the citation from Dozy ends, and what follows is in the wordsof de Goeje.