A literary history of Persia

NOT SO BLACK AS PAINTED 395on every side ;devoutness was offered to the believing ; liberty,not to say licence, to the reckless; philosophy to the strongminded; mystical hopes to the fanatical, and marvels to thecommon folk. So also a Messiah was presented to the Jews, aParaclete to the Christians, a Mahdi to the Mussulmans, and,lastly, a philosophical system of theology to the votaries of Persianand Syrian paganism. And this system was put in movement witha calm resolve which excites our astonishment, and which, if wecould forget the object, would merit our liveliest admiration."'The only criticism I would make on thisluminous descriptionof the Isma'ili propaganda is that it hardly does justice tothose, at any rate, by whose efforts the doctrines were taught,amidst a thousand dangers and difficulties ;to that host of mis-lsionaries (dd {, plural diSat] whose sincerity and self-abnegationat least are wholly admirable. And here I cannot refrainfrom quoting a passage from the recently published Histoire etReligion des Nosairis (Paris, 1900) of Ren6 Dussaud, one ofthe very few Europeans who have, as I think, appreciated thegood points of this remarkable sect."Certain excessess," he says (p. 49), "rendered these doctrineshateful to orthodox Musulmans, and led them definitely to condemnthem. It must be recognised that many Isma'ili preceptswere borrowed from the Mu'tazilites, who, amongst other things,repudiated the Attributes of God and proclaimed the doctrine pfJVee WilL Notwithstanding this lack of originality, itappears thatThe judgments pronounced by Western scholars are marked by anexcessive severity. It is certainly wrong to confound, as do theMusulman doctors, all these sects in one common reprobation.Thus, the disappearance of the Fatimids, who brought about thetriumph of the Isma'ili religion in Egypt, concludes an era of prosperity,splendour, and toleration such as the East will never againenjoy."And in a note at the foot of the page the same scholarremarks with justicethat even that branch of the Isma'flfsfrom whom was derived the word " Assassin," and to whom itwas originally applied, were by no means the firstcommunityto make use of this weapon of a persecuted minority against