The Devils Deception by Imam Ibn AL-Jawzi

T H E D E V I L ' S
D E C E P T I O N S
days of Malik Shah J alal al-Daulah was that they met for the prayer
of the Feast at Sawah; the police official learned about them, arrested
and imprisoned them, and then released them. Then they
assassinated aMu'adhdhin of Sawah, whom they endeavoured to proselytize;
when he refused; they, fearing that he might delate them,
they put him to death treacherously. The matter came to the ears of
Niqham al-Mulk who ordered the arrest and execution of the man
suspected of the murder. He was a carpenter. Their first murder of
consequence was that of Niqham al-Mulk; they used to say: You
slew one of our carpenters and we have slain in retaliation Niqham
al-Mulk. Their movement acquired serious proportions in Isfahan,
and when Malik Shah died things reached such a pitch that they
would kidnap a man, murder him, and fling him into a well, and
people began to despair about anyone who had not returned home
when afternoon approached. They examined various places, and
found a woman lying on matting and never moving; they removed
her and found underneath the matting forty corpses. They killed the
woman and burned the house and the whole quarter. A blind man
used to sit at the gate of the street in which this house was. He
would ask a passerby to lead him a few steps to the street; when the
passenger had got within it, the people of the house would pull him
and get him in their power. The Muslims of Isfahan made a keen
search after them and slew a great number of them.
The first fort of which the Batiniyyah got possession was one in a
Dailemite district called Rudhbar; it had belonged to Malik Shah's
friend Dumah, who when he had been put in charge of it had been
suspected of adherence to these people's doctrine. In the year 483
in the time of Malik Shah this man sold the fort to them for 1200
dinars. Its first chieftain was al-I:lasan Ibn SabaJ:i; originally of Marv,
and secretary to the Chief 'Abdu'l-Razzaq Ibn Bahram. This was in
his youth; then he went to Egypt where he learned their doctrine
from these people's missionaries, to return as a leading missionary
194