[546] We have already (see vol. I. p. 100, note) touched upon the enmity which existed between the family of Alí and that of Moaviah, the son of Abu Sofian and of Hinda, a woman famous for her animosity against Muhammed, the prophet. Nevertheless Moaviah became one of the secretaries of Muhammed, after whose death he was appointed to the government of Syria by Omar, and confirmed in that station by Osman. After the violent death of this khalif, Moaviah declared himself the avenger of his protector, and would not submit to Alí, upon whom he waged war during four years, and after whose death he opposed with equal ardour Hasan, who succeeded his father in the khalifat. Surrounded by rebellion in his own camp, Hasan could not resist, but resigned his right and person to Moaviah. He died in Medina of poison given him, as some say, by his wife, Jáda, or by his minister, at the injunction of Moaviah (see Elmacin, trad. Erpenii, p. 56); according to others, in concordance with the Dabistán, by the fraud of Moaviah’s son, Yazid, who seduced Jáda, and instigated her to poison her husband, promising to marry her, but after the perpetration of the act, rejected, with scorn, the woman supplicating for the price of her deed. I shall add, according to Abulfeda (edit. of Reiske, p. 350), that in Hasan terminated (A. D. 661) the legitimate khalifat, or the succession of chiefs whom the free consent of the Muslims called and established, and thus was fulfilled the prediction of the prophet, which from the mouth of Safina, his freeman, is recorded in the traditions as follows: “Thirty years after his decease shall last the true and legitimate khalifat, and then be succeeded by tyranny.”
[547] After Moaviah’s death, A. D. 679, Yazid, his son, assumed the khalifat, but Hosain, another son of Alí, still lived, and was invited by the inhabitants of Kufa to their town for receiving their oath of allegiance. Yielding to their invitation, he set out from Mecca, where he had concealed himself, with thirty-two horsemen and forty men on foot. Not far from Kerbela, in an arid tract of country in Jrak Arabi, he was encountered by five or ten thousand men, sent by Yazid to destroy him. The son of Alí bravely fought this superior force during one-half of the day, but at last fell, with four of his brothers, as many of his own sons, and all his surrounding friends, seventy-two in number. The survivors, his women, were conducted to Damascus, where Hosain’s head, severed from his body, rejoiced the savage eyes of Yazid, now fixed in the khalifat. Hosain’s relics (as mentioned vol. I. p. 48) lie buried at Kerbela. The anniversary of his death, the 30th September, A. D. 680, is still celebrated by the Shiâhs, with every imaginable demonstration of grief about the fate of Alí’s posterity, and of execration of their oppressors.
[548] Ommiah, according to Herbelot (sub voce) is the name of a respectable personage among the Arabians, who was the son of Abd-ul-shems, and whose posterity bears the title of benu Ommiah, “the children of Ommiah.” But their celebrity begins with the before mentioned Moaviah; he was the first of fourteen khalifs of this family, who reigned in succession ninety-one years. The last of them was Mervan Muhammed ben Mervan, ben Hakem, and after him there remained of this family but Abd-ur-rahmen, who escaped from the hands of the Abbasides, and later (in 756 A. D.) established the dynasty of the Ommiades in Spain, where fifteen of them held successively the government during nearly two hundred years, until 986 A. D., when the Alides seized the sovereignty of that country.
Section ii: an account of the second sect of the people of Islam, which sect is known under the name of Shíahs.—The author of this book was informed, by the learned of this sect, that they agreed to attribute the office of Imám and the khalifat, with the title of Amir of the believers, in particular to Alí (the peace of God be with him!) that he was established by clear tradition, or by manifestation or by testament; and they maintain that the khalifat was not alienable from the descendants of his highness, and if such a transgression happened, it can have been only by violence and by tyranny; they also said, that the office of an Imám is not to be given by the decision of a council, which may depend upon the choice of the vulgar, so that the Imám may be appointed by their injunction, but the true decision is that which derives its origin and support from the pillars of the faith; and the dignity of the prophetic asylum, Muhammed (may the benedictions of God be upon him!) does not deserve that there be negligence used or carelessness shown in such a matter, or that it be committed to the multitude. They argue thus upon the condition necessary for the appointment of an Imám, upon its establishment and stability, which requires to be defended by the inferior and higher people. These are the opinions in which they agree about opposing or appointing an Imám, about words or deeds in the state of religion.
Some however, called Zaydiyat,[549] opposed them in what was said; and there is among the Shiâhs a great difference of opinion about the establishment of the Imám’s office, and at all times, before us until later days, there was much discoursing about it: they differ widely about the number of the Imáms. They are divided in different sects, and we shall in this book give an account of what we have seen of them.
OF THE TWELVE SECTS OF THE SHIAHS.
The author of this book relates what he has learned from Mulla Muhammed Mâsúm, from Muhammed Múmin, and from Mulla Ibrahim, who in the year of the Hejira 1053 (A. D. 1643) were in Lahore, and from others. The Mulla Ibrahim had great faith in his religion, and had a great aversion to the followers of the Sonna and the Jamaât, whom he never approached at meals; he did not during six months taste any butter in Lahore, because it happened to be a Hindu or Sonnite who was selling it. He said: “In the beginning of my manhood, I once slept in a field, and saw in a dream a great host of luminous beings, who said to me: ‘Be a Muselman.’ I answered: ‘Such is my inclination.’ They said again: ‘Take care of not being a Sonnite;’ and they added much about this subject to dissuade me from it. When they had disappeared, I asked their followers: ‘Who were they?’ They replied: ‘Imáms.’ When I awoke, from that moment I never associated with the Sonnites.”
With this sect there is but one Lord God, and no other: he is one, living, omniscient, self-acting, almighty, hearing and seeing every thing, and the first of speakers; they acknowledge his power, not only over possible, but even impossible things; they consider God Almighty as possessed of qualities necessarily inherent in his essence; they hold the servant of God to be master of his own actions. With them the word of God is not ancient, but it is a novelty, because its meaning is understood from sounds. They adduce the words of Abu Jâfr Túsî[550] (the mercy of God be with him!), who says that, fundamentally considered, the seventy and three sects are only two religions, namely: Navá seb, “the enemies of Alí,” and Ravafés, “heretics” (the Shiâhs), because on the day on which Muhammed (the peace of God be upon him!) left the mortal garment, there were forty thousand companions present, who all acknowledged, with approbation and satisfaction, Abubekr as khalif, except eighteen persons, who were attached to Alí (the peace of God be with him!) who were joined by seventeen other individuals, who, averse to Abubekr, did not acknowledge him, nor give their consent to his khalifat. He said of these seventeen, rafas á na, “they abandoned me,” or “they separated from me,” whence they received the name raváfés, “schismatics;” and those eighteen persons said to the companions: