After him, Muhammed Buzerg Umíd took the government. In the beginning of his reign Alráshid billah[661] was killed by a band of fedáyís, and from this time, fearing the swords of the Almútían, the khalifs concealed themselves. Muhammed Buzerg also followed the example of Hassan.
After him came Muhammed, the son of Hassan, the son of Muhammed, who is known under the name Alí zikrihi-al-sálam, which means “let peace be upon him.” Concerning Hossan there are many tales. His adversaries assert, that he was the son of Muhammed Umíd, and a class of the Ismâílíah of Rúdbár and Kohistan said that, in the time of the reign of our Sáid, one year after the death of Mont´aser the High, a person called Abul Hassan Sayidí, who had been in the particular confidence of the khalif, came from Egypt to Almut, and brought with him a boy descended from Nazár, the son of Montaśer, to whom the Imámate belonged, and nobody was informed of this secret except our Sáid, that is, Hassan, who treated Abul Hassan with regard and respect, and made the Imám reside in a village at the foot of Almút. After a delay of six months, he gave Abul Hassan leave to depart. The Imám was inclined to the worship of God and to retirement, and united himself in wedlock with a modest woman in the village. When she became pregnant, he committed her to Muhammed, the son of Buzerg Umíd, and recommended secresy in that affair, saying: “When a boy comes to light, take the woman.” Muhammed acted according to the injunction, and during the reign of Muhammed, son of Buzerg Umíd, the belief in the appearance of a son, identified with Alí zikrichi-al salam, gained the way of splendor, and the report was this—that he was the son of Muhammed. Many asserted that whatever deed and action emanates from the Imám is not only lawful but laudable. The son of Nazar, whom Abul Hassan Sâyídí had brought to Almút, when arrived at the age of virility, had connexion with the lawful wife of Muhammed, the son of Buzerg Umíd, and Ali zikrichi al salam was the fruit of it. Although, because proceeding from a prophet and Imám, this action be legal, yet it was not necessary. The relation between Alî zikrichi al salam and Montaśer Billah is derived from this cause. The Ismâílíah acknowledge as a legitimate Imám the victorious by the power of God, Hassan, the son of Mahdi, the son of Ilhádi, the son of Nazár, the son of Montas ar. They call his precious spirit “the resurrection;”[662] because they believe that the resurection takes place at the lord’s time, when men join God, and when the inconveniences of the law are taken off; this meaning is expressed by “resurrection;” and that the lord, at the time of his Imámate, having united the creatures with the Creator, threw off the observances of the law.
It is reported that, when this lord placed his foot upon the cushion of the khiláfet, in the year of the Hejira 559 (A. D. 1163-4), he convoked all the chiefs and nobles of his dominion in Buldet ul ikbál, and ordered that, in the meeting-place of that fortunate fort, a pulpit should be placed towards the Kiblah, and four flags, one red, another green, the third yellow, and the fourth white, should be fixed in the four corners of the pulpit. On the seventeenth day of the blessed Ramzan of the said year, he ascended the pulpit, and unfolding the tongue of prodigious speeches, he said: “I am the Imám of the age; and I took off the hardship of the ordinances and prohibitions from the inhabitants of the world, and I held the commands of the law for nothing; now is the period of the lord of the resurrection; the creatures are to be bound by ties of love to God, and enjoy the external things in whatever manner they like.” He then descended from the top of the pulpit, and, having broken fast, ordered that, in the manner of a festival, all should occupy themselves with mirth and cheerfulness, and playing and gaming; and this fortunate day was entitled “the festival of resurrection,” and made the beginning of a new era. This is also the day on which, according to the reckoning of many historians, the lord Amír Almumin Alí, “the Amír of the believers,” was wounded by Abd ul rahmen. As to escape from this world and to join heaven is the object of enjoyment of perfect spirits, so do they on this day chiefly devote themselves to pleasure. The creed of this lord was, that the world is ancient, and time infinite; that the other world is spiritual, and heaven and hell figurative; that the resurrection is the particular death of every one. This lord was stabbed with a dagger in the month Rubiâ (August) of the year of the Hejira 561[663] (A. D. 1165-6) by Hassan, the son of Namvár, who descended from Bavíah.[664] On account of the last will of his father, he occupied the Imámate; like his celebrated father, he upheld the faith.
Jelál eddin, of the same family, made a martyr of his father by means of poison. As he obtained the Imámate in an undue manner, and seized the government by usurpation, he also abandoned the religion of the Ismâilíah. After eleven years, in the month Ramzan of the year of the Hejirah 618[665] (A. D. 1221-2) he died of dysentery.
After him, Ala eddin Muhammed, son of Jelál eddin Hassan, put to death all those who, by orders of Jelál eddin, had given poison to his grandfather, and who had also participated in the opinions and behaviour of Jelál eddin; he conformed himself to the manners of his ancestors, and denied those of his father. He let himself be bled without the advice of a medical man, and as too much blood was taken from him, he was overcome by melancholy.
The Ismâílíah say, that prophets and saints cannot live free from bodily defects: thus Músi (Moses) was a stammerer, Shâyeb (Jethro, father in law of Moses) was blind, and Ayúb (Job) was full of plagues. It was in the time of the lord Ala eddin Muhammed, that Náśer Motashem, who was the lord of Kohistan, and to whom the book Akhlák Naśeri[666] is dedicated, sent Khájah Náśir to Almút. Hassan Mázinderáni was contrary to Ismâílism; he made Alá-eddin a martyr (by killing him). In the time of Ala eddin there was among the learned men of the age the shaikh Jamál Gíli: in Kazvin, occupied with the instruction of the people, he was in secret addicted, and made proselytes, to the creed of the Ismâílíah; on that account, Alâ-eddin showed him respect, and conferred favors on the inhabitants of Kazvin, to whom he said that, if the shaikh did not live in that place, he would carry the ground of Kazvin in a beggar’s wallet to Almút; but the learned, who were not Ismâílíah, did not acknowledge an Ismâílíah shaikh. In giving an account of his (Ala-eddin’s) death it was said:
“The ornament of faith and religion, the polar-star of the elect of God,
He whose threshold was the Kiblah of hopes,
In the year six hundred and fifty-one[667] (A. D. 1253) he went to the Lord,
At night, on Monday, on the fourth day of Shavál (the tenth Arabian month).”