The Ismâilahs are often confounded with the Batenian. The first who maintained this doctrine of mystic interpretation was Marzaban, ben Abdullah, ben Maimun al Kadah. He was the servant of Imám Jâfer Sadík, and also served Jâfer’s son Ismâil, after whose death he attended Muhammed, the son of the latter. When Jâfer was poisoned, Abdullah carried off Jâfer’s grandson, from Medina to Misr (Egypt). When Muhammed died, he left a concubine pregnant, and Abdullah, having put her to death, substituted a woman of his own in her room. This woman brought forth a son, whom Abdullah asserted to be Muhammed’s son; and when this son had grown up, he succeeded in making him acknowledged as the Imám by many. Some of this person’s descendants attained the rank of sovereigns, and the doctrine of the Batenian spread afar. The first of these who sat on the throne of the khalifat was Sáid, under the name of Abu-Muhammed Obaid-alla, the founder of the Fatimite khalifs, in Africa, in the year of the Hejira 296, A. D. 908. He took the title of Al Mahdi, “the Director.”—(See, upon this sect, Asiatic Researches, vol. II. p. 424.)
The Fatimites claim their descent from Alí, the fourth legitimate khalif, and from Fatima, the daughter of the prophet; but their adversaries give an account of their origin similar to that just stated: the opinions of historians are divided about this fact.
[599] The manuscript of Oude reads here âkl instead of fêz, which the edition of Calcutta repeats twice; I adopted the first.
[600] This part of the doctrine reminds us of the sentiments expressed in Plato’s Symposion, by Agathon, one of the interlocutors in this admirable dialogue upon love and the beautiful.
[601] According to the Ismàilahs, each speaker or legislator is associated with a vicar, whom they call śamet, “silent,” because he has nothing new to teach; and of these vicars he who assisted the legislator, and succeeded immediately to him, receives the name of asás, “fundamental,” or sús, “root, source.” The seven natíks, or “legislators of the revolution, past,” and their vicars, are as follow: I. Adam and Seth; II. Noah and Sem; III. Abraham and Ismâil; IV. Moses and Aarún, replaced afterwards by Joshua; V. Jesus and Simon Kefas; VI. Muhammed and Alí; VII. Muhammed, son of Jsmâil, who is designated by the title قايم الزمان Kaím al zemán, or صاحب الزمان śáheb al zeman, “the chief, the lord of the age;” in him all the doctrines of the ancients are terminated.—(See Journal asiatique, 1824, t. IV. p. 298 et seq.; Recherches sur l’initiation à la secte des Ismaéliens. Par Silvestre de Sacy.)
[602] “There are twenty-nine chapters of the Koran, which have this peculiarity, that they begin with certain letters of the alphabet, some with a single one, others with more. These letters the Muhammedans believe to be the peculiar marks of the Koran, and to conceal several profound mysteries; the certain understanding of which the more intelligent confess, has not been communicated to any mortal, their prophet only excepted. Notwithstanding which, some will take the liberty of guessing at their meaning, by that species of cabala called by the Jews Notarikon, and suppose the letters to stand for as many words, expressing the names and attributes of God, his works, ordinances, and decrees: and therefore these mysterious letters, as well as the verses themselves, seem in the Koran to be called signs. Others explain the intent of these letters from their nature or organ, or else from their value in numbers, according to another species of the Jewish cabbala, called gematria; the uncertainty of which conjectures sufficiently appears from their disagreement.”—(Sale’s Koran, Preliminary Discourse, pp. 78-79.)
[603] The questions asked for perplexing the neophyte are of various natures; for instance, What signifies the throwing of stones by the pilgrims at Mecca, whilst running between the hills of Merva and Safa?—Why did God create the world in six days, when one moment might have sufficed for it?—What mean the eight angels, bearers of God’s throne?—What the seven gates of hell, and the eight gates of paradise?—Further, what is the difference between the life of a vegetable and that of a man?—Why has a man ten toes, ten fingers, and why in each three joints, but only two in the thumb?—Why has a man at the head seven orifices (eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth), and only two for the rest of his body? Why twelve dorsal, and only seven vertical vertebras? etc., etc.—(See Journal asiatique, 1824, tome IV. p. 309; and Gemäldesaal moslimisher Heersher. IIIter Band, 1837, Seite 237.)
[604] See upon this subject, the Journal Asiatique, tome VI. 1825. pp. 334-335.
The above account of the proceeding by which the Ismâilahs made proselytes to their creed exhibits one of the most insidious systems that has ever been invented to ensnare men. Silvestre de Sacy, in the Memoir quoted, [note 2], p. 405, enumerates nine degrees of initiation by which a neophyte, under the direction of a Dâí, or “teacher,” was to pass, to be made a perfect Ismâilah. The first degree is to perplex the disciple by difficult questions; the second degree is to fix that the Imáms only have received the divine mission to instruct Muselmans; the third, establishes the series of seven Imáms, beginning at Alí and terminating at Ismâil, son of Jâfer; the fourth makes known the seven periods of prophets (as shown in note 1, p. 407); the fifth, conducts to contempt of the traditions and of the literal sense of the Koran, and is connected with some principles of philosophy and mathematics, or rather with fantastic notions on the power of particular numbers, such as seven, twelve, etc., applied to some phenomena of nature; the sixth degree imposes an entire submission to the Imám, and reveals that all legal and religious ordinances are nothing else but political contrivances, for keeping the vulgar in necessary dependence and subordination. At this degree the initiation stops for the greatest number of the candidates, and even of the Dáis. The seventh degree shows two principles in the organization of the universe: the one gives, the other receives; the one male, the other female: thus is duality substituted for the unity of the Divine nature; the eighth degree is consecrated to the development of the above mentioned notions; two beings are supposed to exist: the one sabik, “the antecedent;” the other, larik, “the subsequent.” Some of the Ismâilahs, however, admit a being not to be defined, without name and attributes, above the “antecedent.” To this degree is subjoined the dogma of a possible ascension, from the undermost stage of hierarchy to the highest being, by an endless series of periods and revolutions; a new religion is established upon the ruins of the former; the resurrection, the end of the world, the last judgment, the rewards and punishments, are only emblematic expressions of the successive periodical revolutions of the stars and of the universe, of the destruction and renovation of all beings, produced by the disposition and combination of the elements. Arrived at the ninth degree, the proselyte knows of no religion, nor submission to any other authority but his own, and is left to himself for choosing among the systems of philosophy the one he likes best.
[605] Koran, chap. XXIX. v. 44.