diffenfions concerning the Imams,- or rightful fucceffors of their pro-
phet, which were ftirred up and fomented by intsreft and ambition’
the Arabs continual employment in the wars, during that time, allow’
ing them little or no leifure to enter into nice enquiries and fuiitle
diftindions: but no fooner was the ardour of conqueft a little abated
than they began to examine the Koran more nearly; whereupon differences
in opinion became unavoidable, and at length fo greatly multiplied,
that the number o f their feds, according to the common
opinion, are feventy three. For the Mohammedans feem. ambitious
that their religion ffiould exceed others even in this refped; faying,
that the Magians are divided into feventy feds, the Jews into feventy
one, the Chriftians into feventy two, and the Mojlems into feventy
three, as Mohammed had foretold of which feds they reckon one to
be always orthodox, and intitled to falvation 2.
The firft herely was that of the Khdrejites, who revolted from
A li in the 37th year of the Hejra ; and not long after, Mdbad al
Johns, Gbailan of Damafcus, and Jonas al Afwari broached heterodox
opinions concerning predeftination, and the afcribing of good
and^ evil unto G o d ; whofe opinions were followed by Wafel Elm
A td 3. This latter was thefcholar of Hafan of Bafra, in whofe fchool a
queftion being propofed, whether he who had committed a grievous fin
was to be deemed an infidel or not, the Khdrejites (who ufed to come
and difpute there) maintaining the affirmative, and the orthodox the
negative, Wafel, without waiting his matter's decifion, withdrew abruptly,
and began to publiffi among his fellow fcholars a new opinion
o f his own, to wit, that fuch a finner was in a middle ftate; and
he was thereupon expelled the fchool; he and his followers being
thenceforth called Mótazalites, or Separates *.
The feveral fedts which have arifen fince this time are varioufly
compounded and decompounded of the opinions o f four chief feds,
the Mótazalites, the Sefdtians, the Khdrejites, and the Shiites s.
of the I* The Mótazalites were the followers of the before-mentioned
Wafel Ebn Atd. As to their chief and general tenets, 1. They entirely
■ ,V - £?c; ib ! i „ * ,AI ShahreflSni. apod eund. p. 211. 3 Idem, & Auftor Sharh al Mawatek,
ubj fup. * Iidem, lb. p. 211, 212. Et Ebn Khalecan, in vita Wafeli. AlShab-
rejiani, wholalfo reduces them to four chief fefts, puts the Kadarians in the place of the Milazf
Sites. Abu Ifaragms (Hift. Dyn. p, 166.) reckons fix principal fefts, adding the Jabariatts and the
Mot-pans i and the author of Shark al Mawakef, eight, viz. the Mótazalites, the Shiites, the
Kbarejites, the Morgsans, the Najarians, the Jabarians, the Mojbabbehites, and the feft which
he cads al Afc//a, becaufe that alone will be faved, being according to him the fed of the Alba-
riatti. Y. roc. Spec. p. 209.
rejeded
reieded all eternal attributes of G o d , to avoid the diftindion of
perfons made by the Chriftians; faying that eternity is the proper or
formal attribute of his ejjence; that G od knows by his ejfence, and
not by his knowledge 1; and the fame they affirmed of his other attributes1
(though all the Motazalites do not underftand thefe words in
one fenfe ;) and hence this fed were alfo named Moattalites, from
their diveJUng G od of his attributes 3: and they went fo far as to
fay, that to affirm thefe attributes is the fame thing as to make more
eternals than one, and that the unity of G od is inconfiftent with
fuch an opinion + ; and this was the true dodrine of Wdfel their
matter, who declared that whoever afferted an eternal attribute, af-
ferted there were two G ods 3. This point of fpeculation concerning
the divine attributes was not ripe at firft, but was at length
brought to maturity by Wajel’s followers, after they had read the
books of the philofophers 6. 2. They believed the word o fG o D
to have been created in fubjeclo (as the fchoolmen term it,) and to
confift of letters and found ; copies thereof being written in books,
to exprefs or imitate the original. They alfo went farther, and affirmed
that whatever is created in fubjeSlo, is alfo an accident, and liable
to periffi 7. 3. They denied abfolute predeftination, holding that
G od was not the author of evil, but of good only; and that man
was a free agent8: which being properly the opinion of the Kadarians,
we defer what may be farther faid thereof till we come to
fpeak of that fed. On account of this tenet and the firft, the Motazalites
look on themfelves as the defenders of the unity and juftice
of G o D 9. 4. They held that if a profeffor of the true religion be
guilty of a grievous fin, and die without repentance, he will be
eternally damned, though his punilhment will be lighter than that
of the infidels io. 5. They denied all vifion of G o d in paradife by
the corporeal eye, and rejeded all comparifons or fimilitudes applied
to G od ” .
This fed are faid to have been the firft inventors of fcholaftic divinity
and are fubdivided into feveral inferior feds, amounting,
as fome reckon, to twenty, which mutually brand one another with
infidelity *3: the mod remarkable of them are,
1 Maimonides teaches the fame, not as the doftrine of the Motazalites, but his own. V. More'
Nev. 1. r. c. 57. 2 Al Shahreftani, apud Poc. Spec. p. 214. Abu’lfarag. p. 167. I f V. Poe.
Spec. p. 224. * Sharh al Mawakef, Sc a] Shahreft. apud Poc. p. 216 Maimonides (in ProJeg.
ad Pirke Aboth, §. viif ) aflerts the fame thing. 1 V Poc. ibid. 6 Al Shahreft. ib. p. 215.
1 Abulfarag. & al'Shahreft. ubi fup. p. 217. See before, fe£t. III. p. 67. 8 V. Poc. Spec.,
p. 240. 9 Al Shahreft. Sc Sharh-al Mawakef, apud Poc. ubi fup. p. 2 14. 10 Marracc. Prodr.
ad ref. Alcor. part. 111. p. 74. 11 Idem, ib. 12 V. Poc. Spec. p. 213. & D Herbel. Art.
Motazelah. . 23 Audtor al Mawakef. apud Poc. ib. I . The