184 The Preliminary Difcourfe. Se£t. VIII,
be ravifhed before his face; for fo Babec ufed to treat his prifoners.
Afjhtd, having the arch-rebel in his power, condufted him to al
MotaJ'em, by whofe order he was put to an ignominious and cruel
death. This man had maintained his ground againft the power of
the Khaltfs for twenty years, and had cruelly put to death above
two hundred and fifty thoufand people; it being his cuftom never
to fpare man, woman or child, either of the Mohammedans or their
allies \ The fedtaries of Babec which remained after his death,
feem to have been entirely difperfed, there being little or no mention
made of them by hiftorians.
O f Mab- About the year 235, one Mahmud Ebn Faraj pretended to be
■ miJEbn Mofes refufcitated, and plaid his part fo well that feveral people believed
on him, and attended him when he was brought before the
Khaltf al Motawakkel. That prince, having been an ear-witnefs of
his extravagant difcourfes, condemned him to receive ten buffets from
every one of his followers, and then to be drubbed to death; which
was accordingly executed; and his difciples were imprifoned till they
came to their right minds *.
of the The Karmatians, a fed: which bore an inveterate malice againft
~°irma~ the Mohammedans, began firft to raife difturbances in the year of the
Hejra 278, and the latter end of the reign of al Motamed. Their
•origin is not well known; but the common tradition is, that a poor
fellow, whom fome call Karmata, came from Khuzijlan to the villages
near Cufa, and there feigned great fandity and ftridnefs of life, and
that G o d had injoined him to pray fifty times a day, pretending a l f o
to invite people to the obedience of a certain Imam of the family of
Mohammed: and this way of life he continued till he had made a
very great party, out o f whom he chofe twelve, as his apoftles, to
govern the reft, and to propagate his dodrines. But the governor
o f the province, finding men negleded their work, and their huf-
bandry in particular, to fay thofe fifty prayers a day, feized the fellow,
and having put him in prifon, fwore that he Ihould die; which
being over-heard by a girl belonging to the governor, fhe, pitying
the man, at night took the key o f the dungeon from under her
mafter’s head as he flept, and having let the prifoner out, returned
the key to the place whence fhe had it. The next morning the go-.
- vernor found the bird flown; and the accident being publickly known
raifed great admiration, his adherents giving it out that G o d 1
1 Ex Abulfarag. p. 252, See. Elmacin. p. 141, See. Ss Khondamir. V. D’Herbel. Art. Ba-
•fcec. 2 Ebn Shohnah. V. D’Herbel. p. 537. h a d
Sed, VIII. The Preliminary Dijcourje. 185
had taken him into heaven. Afterwards he appeared in another
province, and declared to a great number of people he had got about
him, that it was not in the power of any to do him hurt; notwith-
ftanding which,. his courage failing him, he retired into Syria, and
was not heard of any more. His fedt, however, continued and en-
creafed, pretending that their mafter had manifefted himfelf to be a,
true prophet, and had left them a new law, wherein he had changed
the ceremonies and form of prayer ufed by the Mojlems, and introduced
a new kind of faft ; and that he had alfo allowed them to
drink wine, and difpenfed with feveral things commanded in the
■ Koran. They alfo, turned the precepts of that book into allegory;
■ teaching that prayer, was the fymbol of obedience to their Imam,
I and falling that of filence, o r concealing their dogms from ftrangers:
■ they alfo believed fornication to be the fin of infidelity; and the guilt
■ thereof to be incurred by thofe who revealed the myfteries of their
■ religion, of.;paid not a blind obedience to their chief. They are faid
to have produced a book, wherein was written (among other things,)
Win the name ofithe mojl merciful G o d. Al Faraj Ebn Othmin of
Mtbe town o f Nafrana faith, that Chrift appeared unto him in a human
Wform, and faid, Fhou art the invitation: thou art the demonftration:
Wthoie art the camel: thou art the beajl: thou art John the fon of Za-
■ charias: thou art the Holy Ghojl '. From the year above-mentioned
I the Karmatians, under feveral leaders, gave almoft continual difturb-
■ ance tp the Khaltfs and their Mohammedan fubjedts for feveral years;
■ committing great diforders and outrages in Chaldea, Arabia, Syria,
■ and Mefopotamia, and at length eftablifhing a confiderable principali-
■ ty, the power whereof was in its meridian in the reign of Abu
I Dhah(r,. famous for his taking of Mecca, and the indignities by him
■ offered to the temple there, but which declined fpon after his time
I and came, to nothing 2.
To the Karmatians the Ifmaelians of Afia were very near of kin, The „
I if they were not a branch of them. For thefe, who were alfo matham.
I called al Moldhedah, or the Impious, and by the writers of the hif-
■ tory of the holy wars, Ajfafjins, agreed with the former in many re-
I fpedts; fuch as their inveterate malice againft thofe of other religions,
I and efpecially the Mohammedan, their unlimited obedience to their
I prince, at whofe command they were ready for affaflinations, or any
I other bloody and dangerous enterprize, their pretended attachment to
I 1 Apud Abujfar. p. 275. 2 Ex Abulfar. ibid. Elmacino, p. 174, See. Ebn Shohnah, Khon-
I damir. V. D’Hcrbel. Art. Carmath.
b b a