A literary history of Persia

406 THE ISMA'lLf SECTTo Europeans these speculations about 'Names' ana 'Numbers'and ' Letters ' ;this talk of Essences, Quiddities, and Theophanies ;these far-fetched analogies and wondrous hair-splittings, appear, as arule, not merely barren and unattractive, but absurd and incomprehensibleand; consequently, when great self-devotion andfearlessness of death and torture are witnessed amongst the adherentsof such a creed, attempts are instinctively made by Europeans toattribute to that creed some ethical or political aim. Such aim mayor may not exist, but, even if it does, it is, I believe, as a rule, ofquite secondary and subordinate importance in the eyes of thosewho have evolved and those who have accepted the doctrine. . . ." The same difference of ideal exists as to the quality and natureof Scripture, the Revealed Word of God. Provided the ethicalteaching be sublime, and there be peace for the troubled andcomfort for the sorrowful, we care little, comparatively, for theoutward form. But in the eyes of the Musulmans (including, ofcourse, the followers of all those sects, even the most heretical,which have arisen in the bosom of Islam) this outward form is amatter of the very first importance. Every letter and line of theQur'an (which always remains the model and prototype of aRevealed Book, even amongst those sects who claim that it hasbeen abrogated by a newer Revelation) issupposed to be fraughtwith unutterable mystery and filled with unfathomable truth.Generations of acute minds expend their energies in attempts tofathom these depths and penetrate these mysteries. What wonderif the same discoveries are made quite independently by differentminds in different ages, working with the same bent on the samematerial ? In studying the religious history of the East, andespecially of Persia, let us therefore be on our guard againstattaching too much importance to resemblances which may be thenatural outcome of similar minds working on similar lines, ratherthan the result of any historical filiation or connection."The Isma'ilf doctrine was, as we have seen, mainly devisedand elaborated (though largely from ideas and conceptionsalready ancient, and, as has been remarked, almost endemic inPersia) by 'Abdu'llah b. Maymun al-Qaddah. Great stress isgenerally laid, bothby Oriental and European writers, on theprimarily political motive which is supposed to have inspiredhim, the desire, namely, to destroy the power of the Arabs,and the religionof Islam whence that power was derived, and