﻿ON THE ORIGIX AND PECULIAR TENETS, &C. 337 



IsmaIl, eldest son and nominated successor of Imam 

 Jafek, surnamed Sddik. They consider Ismail 

 as the true heir of the Imamet, and do not acknow- 

 ledge the leu'al succession of his brother I^.Il'sa and 

 of the five last Imams. This sect flourislicd under 

 the Egyptian dynasty of Khallfs founded by ]\Iu- 

 H a MM ED AIahat:)], who claimed descent from the 

 Imam Ismail himself. It was also conspicuous 

 under a dynasty of princes of this sect, the first of 

 Avhora, Hasan Sabah, founded a principality in 

 Irak*. The sect may still exist in Syria, but it does 

 not seem to be at present known in the Indian por- 

 tion of Asia. 



A 



The Alfdahiyahs, on the contrary, are become 

 numerous in India. This sect is mentioned by the 

 author of the Dabistan, as prevalent in his time, 

 only at Uzbil, or Azbal, in the mountainous tract 

 near Khatd. It now prevails, according to informa- 

 tion M'hich I have received, in a part of the domi- 

 nions of Nawa'b Niza'mu'l mulc. The singular 

 tenets of this heretical sect are thus stated by Moh- 



SEN Fa'ni'. " The Ali-Uahiyahsho\d, that celes- 

 tial spirits, which cannot otherwise be known to 

 mankind, have frequently appeared in palpable 

 shapes. GOD himself has been manifested in the 



A 



human form, but especially in the person of Ali 



A 



Murteza', whose image, being that of AlI Ullah, 



A 



or Ali' GOD, these sectaries deem it lawful to wor- 

 ship. They believe in the metempsychosis ; and, 

 like others mIio maintain that doctrine, abstain 



A 



from fleshmeat. They imagine, that Ali ^NIulteza', 

 when he quitted this earth, returned to the sun, 



Z ^vhich 



* See the Dabhtan of Mulla Mghsen Fa'ni' ; and D'Herbe- 

 LOT's Eibliotheque Orientaie. If the industrious Bohrahs and the 

 remorseless *' assassins " had really arisen out of the same seft, it would 

 be a new faft in the history of the human mind. 



