Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

THE PERSIAN MIRACLE PLAY. 221
spread admiration of the ShT'a for the House of 'Aly,
Men must have believed in the greatness and goodness
of 'Aly and his sons, and their just title to the throne,
before they came to idealise all the virtues they pos-
sessed or did not possess. There were many influences
that made for the ShI'y cause, especially in Persia ;
and once firmly planted there, it soon found the means
of widening its boundaries and spreading over a great
part of the Mohammadan empire. The Persians, as a
down-trodden race, instinctively sympathised with the /
family that had suffered at the hands of the same
oppressors as themselves. How quickly this sympathy
was kindled, and how widely it was felt, may
be judged from the fact that the famous Klialif
El-Mamun, the son of Harim er-Rashid, and the
descendant of Khalifs of unimpeachable orthodoxy,
himself recognised the title of the Imams to reign on
his throne, and went so far as to appoint (though the
death of the Imam annulled the appointment) the thenliving
representative of the family of 'Aly, the Imam
Er-Riza, to whose splendid tomb in Khorasan the pious
Persian still retires to die, as his successor on the
throne of the Khalifs of Baghdad, and to inscribe the
heretical name upon his coinage : and
why ?—because
El-Mamun was the representative of the Persians, by
whose aid he had triumphed over his brother El-Amin,
and was bound to favour the sympathies of his
supporters. And once the Persians had adopted the
Shi'y cause, it forthwith gained in attractiveness by
their developrnent of its mystical side. There were
many mysterious properties assigned to the members
'