AND ITS FOUNDER. 421 



5. 'Human souls transmigrate into other bodies, and re-appear In oilier forms, 

 and the resurrection, day of judgment, paradise and hell, are only meta- 

 phors to express these mundane changes. 



6, The Koran and Hadis are not to 'he interpreted literally, or according to the 



apparent sense, but according to the mystic, secret, or interior meaning. 

 The ordinances of the law have therefore a mystical meaning, and are 

 ordained only as the means of acquiring religious perfection. 



7. This mystic sense of the law, is only attainable by religious exercises, and the 



instructions of a P/r; it is the source of religious perfection ; and this per- 

 fection being attained, the exterior ordinances of the law cease. to be bind- 

 ing, and are virtually annulled. 



If this be considered as a corre<5l summary of the peculiar doftrines 



of Ba'yezid, and the Rosheniah se6t, very little discussion is necessary 

 ■to show, that all these do6lrines had been maintained by the Ismailiyah 



se6t, for several centuries, before either Ba'yezid or the Afghan illumU 

 ^.nati existed. This, I imagine will sufficiently appear from the following 



account of the Ismailiyah secSl, translated from an intelligent and popular 



Moslem 2i\x\\\0T. 



It is necessary to observe that the Shidhs are divided into four se6ls: 

 1. The Imdmiah. 2. The Zeidiah. 3. The Ismailiyah. 4. The Kas'ariah. 



A 



'Of the Ismailiyah seOi, 'M.\3'KTlz^ Alem-al-Khoda, in his Tabsirat-aU 

 Awdm, gives the following account: 



•* The Ismailiyah are also denorpinated Bdt'aniah, Kardmitah, Khur^ 

 ramiah, Sqfiah, Babeciah, and Majmirah. They have received the name 

 of Bdtaniah from maintaining that whatever is to be found in the Kord?i 

 :and Hadis has two significations, the apparent, and the secret or mystical 

 (zdher and bdi'en) of which the first is, as it were the shell, and the second 

 • the kernel; and they quote the following text as a proof of this, " the 



I r. 



