A literary history of Persia

RELATION TO OTHER SECTS 423even scholarsespecially such as have never visited the Eastoften speak of such sects as the Isma'ilis or the Babi's of to-dayas though they were akin to the whereas Siiffs,a great hostilityusually exists between them, the natural antagonism betweendogmatism and eclecticism. The Babfs in particular equaltheir Shf'ite foes in their hatred of the Sufi's,whose point ofview isquite incompatible with the exclusive claims of apositive and dogmatic creed, and this same abhorrence of theSuff latitudinarianism is very noticeable in the writings of theChristian missionary Henry Martyn. As for the ShI'ite mul/ds,their general attitude towards the Sufi's is admirably depictedby Morier in the twentieth chapter of his incomparable HajjiBaba. Yet Svifiism has at various times, more especially,perhaps, in Sunn! countries, stood the orthodox in good stead,and any one who is familiar with the Mathnaiul of thatgreatest of all the Stiff poets, Jalalu'd-Dfn Rumi, will recallpassages directed against the Mu'tazilites, philosophers, and otherfree-thinkers. And many of those who suffered death fortheir religious opinions, though subsequently canonised by theSufis, were inreality the exponents of various hereticaldoctrines ;as was the case, for instance, with Husayn b.Mansur al-Hallaj (of whom something will be said later inthis chapter), who appears to have been a dangerous and ableintriguer,in close touch with the Carmathians ;withShaykh Shihabu'd-Dm Yahya Suhrawardf "the Martyr"(al-Maqtul, put to death in A.D. 1191),the author of theHikmatul-hhrAq (" Philosophy of Illumination,") T who, asJamf tells us (Nafahdt, pp. 683-4) was charged with atheism,heresy, and believing in the ancient philosophers ;withFadlu'llah the inventor of the Hurufi 2 doctrine, who was putto death by Timur in A.D. 14012, and his follower Nasfmf,1Not to be confounded with Shaykh Shihabu'd-Din 'Umar Suhrawardf,with whom Sa'di was acquainted (Bustdn. ed. Graf, p. 150), and who diedin A.D. 1234-5.1 See my article on this sect in the J. R. A. S. for January, 1898,pp. 61-94 iand Gibb's History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. i, pp. 336-388.