[184] The correspondence is fully reported by Tabari; and Weil, recognising its historical interest, has translated in full three of the letters. Cf. Weil, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 27, 28.
[185] Tabari, Annales, Series III. p. 122.
[186] An account of this man may be found in the Siasset Namèh, pp. 122–23 of Schefer’s text.
[187] In the Arabic, Wadhālika innahu kāna min sanāyi`ihi.
[188] Numbering 6000 men.
[189] Wrongly read by Weil as Jumhur.
[190] Tabari, loc cit. p. 120.
[191] According to both versions of Tabari, he fell from a window and broke his back.
[192] El-Mahdi, who was at this time about twenty years of age, had, we are told, a lieutenant to assist him in his duties as governor.
[193] The Rāvandīs believed in the transmigration of souls, and held that the soul of the Deity was temporarily resident in the body of the Caliph, while the souls of Adam and Gabriel were residing in the bodies of two of his generals. For accounts of this sect, see Weil, Geschichte der Khalifen, vol. ii. p. 36 et seq.; Muir, The Caliphate, p. 448; Tabari, Annales, Series III. p. 129 et seq.; and Zotenberg, Chroniques de Tabari, vol. iv. p. 137 et seq.