Secret Societies of the Middle Ages
Secret Societies of the Middle AgesINTRODUCTION.THE ASSASSINS[3].Chapter I.Chapter II.Chapter III.Chapter IV.Chapter V.Chapter VI.Chapter VII.Chapter VIII.Chapter IX.Chapter X.Chapter XI.Chapter XII.THE TEMPLARS.Chapter I.Chapter II.Chapter III.Chapter IV.Chapter V.Chapter VI.Chapter VII.Chapter VIII.Chapter IX.Chapter X.Chapter XI.THE SECRET TRIBUNALS OF WESTPHALIA[110].Chapter I.Chapter II.Chapter III.Chapter IV.Chapter V.Chapter VI.Chapter VII.footnotesCopyright
Secret Societies of the Middle Ages
Thomas Keightley
INTRODUCTION.
If we had the means of investigating historically the origin
of Secret Societies, we should probably find that they began to be
formed almost as soon as any knowledge had been accumulated by
particular individuals beyond what constituted the common stock.
The same thing has happened to knowledge that has happened to all
other human possessions,—its actual holders have striven to keep it
to themselves. It is true that in this case the possessor of the
advantage does not seem to have the same reason for being averse to
share it with others which naturally operates in regard to many
good things of a different kind; he does not, by imparting it to
those around him, diminish his own store. This is true, in so far
as regards the possession of knowledge considered in its character
of a real good; the owner of the treasure does not impoverish
himself by giving it away, as he would by giving away his money,
but remains as rich as ever, even after he has made ever so many
others as rich as himself. But still there is one thing that he
loses, and a thing upon which the human mind is apt to set a very
high value; he loses the distinction which he derived from his
knowledge. This distinction really serves, in many respects, the
same purpose that money itself does. Like money, it brings
observation and worship. Like money, it is the dearest of all
things, power. Knowledge, however held, is indeed essentially
power; token, that is, to
know, is the same word and the same thing with tocan, that is, to be able. But there is
an additional and a different species of power conferred by
knowledge when it exists as the distinction of a few individuals in
the midst of general ignorance. Here it is power not only to do
those things the methods of doing which it teaches; it is, besides,
the power of governing other men through your comparative strength
and their weakness.So strong is the motive thus prompting the possessor of
knowledge to the exclusive retention of his acquisitions, that
unless it had been met by another motive appealing in like manner
directly to our self-interest, it appears probable that scarcely
any general dissemination of knowledge would ever have taken place.
The powerful counteracting motive in question is derived from the
consideration that in most cases one of the most effective ways
which the possessor of knowledge can take of exciting the
admiration of others, is to communicate what he knows. The light
must give itself forth, and illuminate the world, even that it may
be itself seen and admired. In the very darkest times, the scholar
or philosopher may find his ambition sufficiently gratified by the
mere reputation of superior attainments, and the stupid wonder, or
it may be superstitious terror, of the uninquiring multitude. But
as soon as any thing like a spirit of intelligence or of curiosity
has sprung up in the general mind, all who aspire to fame or
consideration from their learning, their discoveries, or their
intellectual powers, address themselves to awaken the admiration of
their fellow-men, not by concealing, but by displaying their
knowledge—not by sealing up the precious fountain, but by allowing
its waters to flow freely forth, that all who choose may drink of
them. From this time science ceases almost to have any secrets;
and, all the influences to which it is exposed acting in the same
direction, the tendency of knowledge becomes wholly
diffusive.But in the preceding state of things the case was altogether
the reverse. Then there was little or no inducement to the
communication of knowledge, and every motive for those who were in
possession of it to keep it to themselves. There was not
intelligence enough abroad to appreciate, or even to understand,
the truths of philosophy if they had been announced in their
simplicity, and explained according to their principles; all that
was cared for, all that was capable of arousing the vulgar
attention, was some display, made as surprising and mysterious as
possible, of their practical application. It would even have been
attended with danger in many cases to attempt to teach true
philosophy openly, or to make open profession of it; it was too
much in opposition to some of the strongest prejudices which
everywhere held sway. It is not, then, to be wondered at, that its
cultivators should have sought to guard and preserve it by means of
secret associations, which, besides excluding the multitude from a
participation in the thing thus fenced round and hidden, answered
also divers other convenient purposes. They afforded opportunities
of free conference, which could not otherwise have been obtained.
There was much in the very forms of mystery and concealment thus
adopted calculated to impress the popular imagination, and to
excite its reverence and awe. Finally, the veil which they drew
around their proceedings enabled the members of these secret
societies to combine their efforts, and arrange their plans, in
security and without interruption, whenever they cherished any
designs of political innovation, or other projects, the open avowal
and prosecution of which the established authorities would not have
tolerated.The facilities afforded by the system of secret association,
and it may even be said the temptations which it presents, to the
pursuit of political objects forbidden by the laws, are so great as
to justify all governments in prohibiting it, under whatever
pretence it may be attempted to be introduced. It is nothing to the
purpose to argue that under bad governments valuable political
reforms have sometimes been effected by such secret associations
which would not otherwise have been attained. The same mode of
proceeding, in the nature of the thing, is equally efficacious for
the overthrow of a good government. Bad men are as likely to
combine in the dark for their objects as good men are for theirs.
In any circumstances, a secret association is animperium in imperio, a power separate
from, and independent of, that which is recognized as the supreme
power in the state, and therefore something essentially
disorganizing, and which it is contrary to the first principles of
all government for any state to tolerate. In the case of a bad
government, indeed, all means are fairly available for its
overthrow which are not morally objectionable, the simple rule for
their application being that it shall be directed by considerations
of prudence and discretion. In such a case a secret association of
the friends of reform may sometimes be found to supply the most
effective means for accomplishing the desired end; but that end,
however desirable it may be, is not one which the constitution of
the state itself can rationally contemplate. The constitution
cannot be founded upon the supposition that even necessary
alterations of it are to be brought about through agencies out of
itself, and forming no part of its regular mechanism. Whenever such
agencies are successfully brought into operation, there is a
revolution, and the constitution is at an end. Even the amendment
of the constitution so effected is its destruction.Yet most of the more remarkable secret associations which
have existed in different ages and countries have probably either
been originally formed to accomplish some political end, or have
come to contemplate such an object as their chief design. Even when
nothing more than a reformation of the national religion has been,
as far as can be discovered, the direct aim of the association, it
may still be fairly considered as of a political character, from
the manner in which religion has been mixed up in almost every
country with the civil institutions of the state. The effect which
it was desired to produce upon the government may in many cases
have been very far from extending to its complete abolition, and
the substitution of another form of polity; an alteration in some
one particular may have been all that was sought, or the object of
the association may even have been to support some original
principle of the constitution against the influence of
circumstances which threatened its subversion or modification.
Whether directed to the alteration or to the maintenance of the
existing order of things, the irregular and dangerous action of
secret combinations is, as we have said, a species of force which
no state can reasonably be expected to recognize. But it may
nevertheless have happened at particular emergencies, and during
times of very imperfect civilization, that valuable service has
been rendered by such combinations to some of the most important
interests of society, and that they have to a considerable extent
supplied the defects of the rude and imperfect arrangements of the
ordinary government.The system of secret association is, indeed, the natural
resource of the friends of political reform, in times when the
general mind is not sufficiently enlightened to appreciate or to
support their schemes for the improvement of the existing
institutions and order of things. To proclaim their views openly in
such circumstances would be of no more use than haranguing to the
desert. They might even expose themselves to destruction by the
attempt. But, united in a secret association, and availing
themselves of all the advantages at once of their superior
knowledge and intelligence, and of their opportunities of acting in
concert, a very few individuals may work with an effect altogether
out of proportion to their number. They may force in a wedge which
in time shall even split and shiver into fragments the strength of
the existing social system, no matter by how many ages of barbarism
it may be consolidated. Or, in the absence of a more regular law
and police, they may maintain the empire of justice by stretching
forth the arm of their own authority in substitution for that of
the state, which lies paralysed and powerless, and turning to
account even the superstitions and terrors of the popular
imagination by making these, as excited by their dark organization
and mysterious forms of procedure, the chain whereby to secure the
popular obedience.On the whole, the system of secret association for political
objects, even when there is no dispute about the desirableness of
the ends sought to be accomplished, may be pronounced to be a
corrective of which good men will avail themselves only in times of
general ignorance, or under governments that sin against the first
principles of all good government, by endeavouring to put a stop to
the advancement of society through the prohibition of the open
expression of opinion; but, in countries where the liberty of
discussion exists, and where the public mind is tolerably
enlightened, as entirely unsuited to the circumstances of the case
as it is opposed to the rules and maxims on which every government
must take its stand that would provide for its own preservation. In
these happier circumstances the course for the friends of social
improvement to follow is to come forward into the full light of day
as the only place worthy of their mission, and to seek the
realization of their views by directly appealing to the
understandings of their fellow-citizens.One evil to which secret societies are always exposed is the
chance of the objects and principles of their members being
misrepresented by those interested in resisting their power and
influence. As the wakeful eyes of the government, and of those
concerned in the maintenance of the actual system, will be ever
upon them, they must strictly confine the knowledge of their real
views and proceedings to the initiated, and as their meetings must
for the same reason be held in retired places, and frequently by
night, an opportunity, which is rarely neglected, is afforded to
their enemies of spreading the most calumnious reports of their
secret practices, which, though conscious of innocence, they may
not venture openly to confute. By arts of this kind the suspicions
and aversion of the people are excited, and they are often thus
made to persecute their best friends, and still to bow beneath the
yoke of their real foes. The similarity of the accusations made
against secret associations in all parts of the world is a
sufficient proof of their falsehood, and we should always listen to
them with the utmost suspicion, recollecting the quarter from which
they proceed. Of the spotless purity of the Christian religion when
first promulgated through the Roman world no one can entertain a
doubt; yet when persecution obliged its professors to form as it
were a secret society, the same charges of Thyestian banquets, and
of the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, were made against
them, which they themselves afterwards brought, and with probably
as little truth, against the various sects of the Gnostic heresy.
Wherever there is secrecy there will be suspicion, and charges of
something unable to bear the light of day will be
made.The ancient world presents one secret society of a
professedly political character—that of the Pythagoreans. Of
religious ones it might be expected to yield a rich harvest to the
inquirer, when we call to mind all that has been written in ancient
and modern times concerning the celebrated mysteries. But the
original Grecian mysteries, such as those of Eleusis, appear to
have been nothing more than public services of the gods, with some
peculiar ceremonies performed at the charge of the state, and
presided over by the magistrates, in which there were no secrets
communicated to the initiated, no revelation of knowledge beyond
that which was generally attainable. Theprivatemysteries, namely, the Orphic,
Isiac, and Mithraic, which were introduced from the East, were
merely modes employed by cunning and profligate impostors for
taking advantage of the weakness and credulity of the sinful and
the superstitious, by persuading them that by secret and peculiar
rites, and the invocation of strange deities, the apprehended
punishment of sin might be averted. The nocturnal assemblies for
the celebration of these mysteries were but too often scenes of
vice and debauchery, and they were discountenanced by all good
governments. It is to these last, and not to the Eleusinian
mysteries, that the severe strictures of the fathers of the church
apply[1].The history of Pythagoras and his doctrines is extremely
obscure. The accounts of this sage which have come down to us were
not written till many centuries after his death, and but little
reliance is to be placed on their details. Pythagoras was a Samian
by birth; he flourished in the sixth century before Christ, at the
time when Egypt exercised so much influence over Greece, and its
sages sought the banks of the Nile in search of wisdom. There is,
therefore, no improbability in the tradition of Pythagoras also
having visited that land of mystery, and perhaps other parts of the
East, and marked the tranquil order of things where those who were
esteemed the wise ruled over the ignorant people. He may therefore
have conceived the idea of uniting this sacerdotal system with the
rigid morals and aristocratic constitution of the Dorian states of
Greece. His native isle, which was then under the tyranny of
Polycrates, not appearing to him suited for the introduction of his
new system of government, he turned his eyes to the towns of Magna
Græcia, or Southern Italy, which were at that time in a highly
flourishing condition, whose inhabitants were eager in the pursuit
of knowledge, and some of which already possessed written codes of
law. He fixed his view on Croton, one of the wealthiest and most
distinguished of those towns.Aristocracy was the soul of the Dorian political
constitutions, and the towns of Magna Græcia were all Dorian
colonies; but in consequence of their extensive commerce the
tendency of the people was at that time towards democracy. To
preserve the aristocratic principle was the object of Pythagoras;
but he wished to make the aristocracy not merely one of birth; he
desired that, like the sacerdotal castes of the East, it should
also have the supremacy in knowledge. As his system was contrary to
the general feeling, Pythagoras saw that it was only by gaining the
veneration of the people that he could carry it into effect; and by
his personal advantages of beauty of form, skill in gymnastic
exercises, eloquence, and dignity, he drew to himself the popular
favour by casting the mantle of mystery over his doctrines. He thus
at once inspired the people with awe for them, and the nobles with
zeal to become initiated in his secrets.The most perfect success, we are told, attended the project
of the philosopher. A total change of manners took place in Croton;
the constitution became nearly Spartan; a body of 300 nobles,
rendered by the lessons of the sage as superior to the people in
knowledge of every kind as they were in birth, ruled over it. The
nobles of the other states flocked to Croton to learn how to govern
by wisdom; Pythagorean missionaries went about everywhere preaching
the new political creed; they inculcated on the people religion,
humility, and obedience; such of the nobles as were deemed capable
were initiated in the wisdom of the order, and taught its maxims
and principles; a golden age, in which power was united with wisdom
and virtue, seemed to have begun upon earth.But, like every thing which struggles against the spirit of
the age, such a political system was not fated to endure. While
Croton was the chief seat of Pythagoreanism, luxury had fixed her
throne in the neighbouring city of Sybaris. The towns were rivals:
one or the other must fall. It was little more than thirty years
after the arrival of Pythagoras in Croton that a furious war broke
out between them. Led by Milo and other Pythagoreans, who were as
expert in military affairs as skilled in philosophy, the
Crotoniates utterly annihilated the power of their rivals, and
Sybaris sank to rise no more. But with her sank the power of the
Pythagoreans. They judged it inexpedient to give a large share of
the booty to the people; the popular discontent rose; Cylon, a man
who had been refused admittance into the order, took advantage of
it, and urged the people on; the Pythagoreans were all massacred,
and a democracy established. All the other towns took example by
Croton, a general persecution of the order commenced, and
Pythagoras himself was obliged to seek safety in flight, and died
far away from the town which once had received him as a prophet.
The Pythagoreans never made any further attempts at attaining
political power, but became a mere sect of mystic philosophers,
distinguished by peculiarities of food and dress.Ancient times present us with no other society of any
importance to which we can properly apply the termsecret.The different sects of the Gnostics, who are by the fathers
of the church styled heretics, were to a certain extent secret
societies, as they did not propound their doctrines openly and
publicly; but their history is so scanty, and so devoid of
interest, that an examination of it would offer little to detain
ordinary readers.The present volume is devoted to the history of three
celebrated societies which flourished during the middle ages, and
of which, as far as we know, no full and satisfactory account is to
be found in English literature. These are the Assassins, or
Ismaïlites, of the East, whose name has become in all the languages
of Europe synonymous with murderer, whowerea secret society, and of whom we
have in general such vague and indistinct conceptions; the military
order of the Knights Templars, who were most barbarously persecuted
under the pretext of their holding a secret doctrine, and against
whom the charge has been renewed at the present day; and, finally,
the Secret Tribunals of Westphalia, in Germany, concerning which
all our information has hitherto been derived from the incorrect
statements of dramatists and romancers[2].It is the simplicity of truth, and not the excitement of
romance, that the reader is to expect to find in the following
pages,—pictures of manners and modes of thinking different from our
own,—knowledge, notmereentertainment, yet as large an infusion of the latter as is
consistent with truth and instruction.
THE ASSASSINS[3].
Chapter I.
State of the World in the 7th Century—Western
Empire—Eastern Empire—Persia—Arabia—Mohammed—His probable
Motives—Character of his Religion—The Koran.At the commencement of the 7th century of the Christian era a
new character was about to be impressed on a large portion of the
world. During the two centuries which preceded, the Goths, Vandals,
Huns, and other martial tribes of the Germanic race, had succeeded
in beating down the barriers opposed to them, and in conquering and
dismembering the Western Empire. They brought with them and
retained their love of freedom and spirit of dauntless valour, but
abandoned their ancient and ferocious superstitions, and embraced
the corrupt system which then degraded the name of Christianity.
This system, hardened, as it were, by ideas retained and
transferred from the original faith of its new disciples, which
ideas were fostered by those passages of the books of the Hebrew
Scriptures which accorded with their natural sentiments,
afterwards, when allied with feudalism, engendered the spirit which
poured the hosts of Western Europe over the mountains and plains of
Asia for the conquest of the Holy Land.A different picture was at this time presented by the empire
of the East. It still retained the extent assigned to it by
Theodosius; and all the countries from the Danube, round the east
and south coasts of the Mediterranean, to the straits of Gades,
yielded a more or less perfect obedience to the successors of
Constantine. But a despotism more degrading, though less ferocious,
than those of Asia paralyzed the patriotism and the energy of their
subjects; and the acuteness, the contentiousness, and the
imagination of the Greeks, combined with mysticism and the wild
fancy of the Asiatics to transform the simplicity of the religion
of Christ into a revolting system of intricate metaphysics and
gross idolatry, which aided the influence of their political
condition in chilling the martial ardour of the people. The various
provinces of the empire were held together by the loosest and
feeblest connexion, and it was apparent that a vigorous shock would
suffice to dissolve the union.The mountains of Armenia and the course of the Euphrates
separated the Eastern Empire from that of Persia. This country had
been under the dominion of the people named Parthians at the time
when the eagles of the Roman republic first appeared on the
Euphrates, and defeat had more than once attended the Roman armies
which attempted to enter their confines. Like every dominion not
founded on the freedom of the people, that of the Arsacides (the
Parthian royal line) grew feeble with time, and after a continuance
of nearly five centuries the sceptre of Arsaces passed from the
weak hand of the last monarch of his line to that of Ardeshir
Babegan (that is the son of Babec), a valiant officer of the royal
army, and a pretended descendant of the ancient monarchs of Persia.
Ardeshir, to accomplish this revolution, availed himself of the
religious prejudices of the Persian people. The Parthian monarchs
had inclined to the manners and the religion of the Greeks, and the
Light-religion—the original faith of Persia, and one of the purest
and most spiritual of those to which a divine origin may not be
assigned—had been held in slight estimation, and its priests
unvisited by royal favour. It was the pride and the policy of
Ardeshir to restore the ancient religion to the dignity which it
had enjoyed under the descendants of Cyrus, and Religion, in
return, lent her powerful aid to his plans of restoring the royal
dignity to its pristine vigour, and of infusing into the breast of
the people the love of country and the ardour for extending the
Persian dominion to what it had been of old; and for 400 years the
Sassanides[4]were the most
formidable enemies of the Roman empire. But their dominion had, at
the period of which we write, nearly attained the greatest limit
allotted to Oriental dynasties; and though Noosheerwan the Just had
attained great warlike fame, and governed with a vigour and justice
that have made his name proverbial in the East, and Khoosroo
Purveez displayed a magnificence which is still the theme of
Persian poetry and romance, and carried his victorious arms over
Syria and Egypt, and further along the African coast than even
those of Darius I. had been able to advance, yet defeat from the
gallant Emperor Heraclius clouded his latter days, and the
thirteenth year after his death, by showing the Persian armies in
flight, and the palladium of the empire, the jewel-set apron of the
blacksmith Kawah, in the hands of the rovers of the deserts,
revealed the secret that her strength was departed from Persia. The
brilliancy of the early part of the reign of Khoosroo Purveez had
been but the flash before death which at times is displayed in
empires as in individuals. The vigour was gone which was requisite
to stem the torrent of fanatic valour about to burst forth from the
wilds of Arabia.It is the boast of Arabia that it has never been conquered.
This immunity from subjugation has, however, been only partial, and
is owing to the nature of the country; for although the barren
sands of the Hejaz and Nejed have always baffled the efforts of
hostile armies, yet the more inviting region of Yemen, the Happy
Arabia of the ancients, has more than once allured a conqueror, and
submitted to his sway. The inhabitants of this country have been
the same in blood and in manners from the dawn of history. Brave,
but not sanguinary, robbers, but kind and hospitable, of lively and
acute intellect, we find the Arabs, from the days of Abraham to the
present times, leading the pastoral and nomadic life in the desert,
agriculturists in Yemen, traders on the coasts and on the confines
of Syria and Egypt. Their foreign military operations had hitherto
been confined to plundering expeditions into the last-mentioned
countries, unless they were the Hycsos, or Shepherd Kings, who,
according to tradition, once made the conquest of Egypt. Arabia
forming a kind of world in itself, its various tribes were in
ceaseless hostility with each other; but it was apparent that if
its brave and skilful horsemen could be united under one head, and
animated by motives which would inspire constancy and rouse valour,
they might present a force capable of giving a fatal shock to the
empires of Persia and of Rome.It is impossible, on taking a survey of the history of the
world, not to recognize a great predisposing cause, which appoints
the time and circumstances of every event which is to produce any
considerable change in the state of human affairs. The agency of
this overruling providence is nowhere more perceptible than in the
present instance. The time was come for the Arabs to leave their
deserts and march to the conquest of the world, and the man was
born who was to inspire them with the necessary
motives.Mohammed (Illustrious[5]) was the son of Abd-Allah
(Servant of God), a noble Arab
of the tribe of Koreish, which had the guardianship of the Kaaba
(Square House of Mecca),
theBlack Stonecontained in
which (probably an aerolite) had been for ages an object of
religious veneration to the tribes of Arabia. His mother was
Amineh, the daughter of a chief of princely rank. He was early left
an orphan, with the slender patrimony of five camels and a female
Æthiopian slave. His uncle, Aboo Talib, brought him up. At an early
age the young Mohammed accompanied his uncle to the fair of Bozra,
on the verge of Syria, and in his 18th year he signalized his
valour in an engagement between the Koreish and a hostile tribe. At
the age of 25 he entered the service of Khadijah, a wealthy widow,
with whose merchandise he visited one of the great fairs of Syria.
Mohammed, though poor, was noble, handsome, acute, and brave;
Khadijah, who was fifteen years his senior, was inspired with love;
her passion was returned; and the gift of her hand and wealth gave
the nephew of Aboo Talib affluence and consideration.Mohammed's original turn of mind appears to have been
serious, and it is not unlikely that the great truth of the Unity
of the Deity had been early impressed on his mind by his mother or
his Jewish kindred. The Koreish and the rest of his countrymen were
idolaters; Christianity was now corrupted by the intermixture of
many superstitions; the fire-worship of the Persians was a
worshipping of the Deity under a material form; the Mosaic religion
had been debased by the dreams and absurd distinctions of the
Rabbis. A simpler form than any of these seemed wanted for man.
God, moreover, was believed to have at sundry times sent prophets
into the world for its reformation, and might do so again; the Jews
still looked for their promised Messiah; many Christians held that
the Paraclete was yet to come. Who can take upon him to assert that
Mohammed may not have believed himself to be set apart to the
service of God, and appointed by the divine decree to be the
preacher of a purer faith than any which he then saw existing? Who
will say that in his annual seclusions of fifteen days in the cave
of Hira he may not have fallen into ecstatic visions, and that in
one of these waking dreams the angel Gabriel may not have appeared
to his distempered fancy to descend to nominate him to the office
of a prophet of God, and present to him, in a visible form, that
portion of his future law which had probably already passed through
his mind[6]? A certain
portion of self-delusion is always mingled with successful
imposture; the impostor, as it were, makes his first experiment on
himself. It is much more reasonable to conclude that Mohammed had
at first no other object than the dissemination of truth by
persuasion, and that he may have beguiled himself into a belief of
his being the instrument selected for that purpose, than that the
citizen of a town in the secluded region of Arabia beheld in
ambitious vision from his mountain-cave his victorious banners
waving on the banks of the Oxus and the Ebro, and his name saluted
as that of the Prophet of God by a fourth part of the human race.
Still we must not pass by another, and perhaps a truer supposition,
namely, that, in the mind of Mohammed, as in that of so many
others, the end justified the means, and that he deemed it lawful
to feign a vision and a commission from God in order to procure
from men a hearing for the truth.Whatever the ideas and projects of Mohammed may originally
have been, he waited till he had attained his fortieth year (the
age at which Moses showed himself first to the Israelites), and
then revealed his divine commission to his wife Khadijah, his slave
Zeid, his cousin Ali, the son of Aboo Talib, and his friend, the
virtuous and wealthy Aboo Bekr. It is difficult to conceive any
motive but conviction to have operated on the minds of these
different persons, who at once acknowledged his claim to the
prophetic office; and it speaks not a little for the purity of the
previous life of the new Prophet, that he could venture to claim
the faith of those who were most intimately acquainted with him.
The voice of wisdom has assured us that a prophet has no honour in
his own country and among his own kindred, and the example of
Mohammed testified the truth of the declaration. During thirteen
years the new religion made but slow and painful progress in the
town of Mecca; but the people of Yathreb, a town afterwards
dignified with the appellation of the City of the Prophet (Medinat-en-Nabi), were more susceptive
of faith; and when, on the death of Aboo Talib, who protected his
nephew, though he rejected his claims, his celebrated Flight
(Hejra) brought him to
Yathreb, the people of that town took arms in his defence against
the Koreish. It was probably now that new views opened to the mind
of the Prophet. Prince of Yathreb, he might hope to extend his sway
over the ungrateful Mecca; and those who had scoffed at his
arguments and persuasions might be taught lessons of wisdom by the
sword. These anticipations were correct, and in less than ten years
after the battle of Bedr (the first he fought) he saw his temporal
power and his prophetic character acknowledged by the whole of the
Arabian peninsula.It commonly happens that, when a new form of religion is
proposed for the acceptance of mankind, it surpasses in purity that
which it is intended to supersede. The Arabs of the days of
Mohammed were idolaters; 300 is said to have been the number of the
images which claimed their adoration in the Caaba. A gross
licentiousness prevailed among them; their polygamy had no limits
assigned to it[7]. For this
the Prophet substituted the worship of One God, and placed a check
on the sensual propensities of his people. His religion contained
descriptions of the future state of rewards and punishments, by
which he allured to obedience and terrified from contumacy or
opposition. The pains of hell which he menaced were such as were
most offensive to the body and its organs; the joys of Paradise
were verdant meads, shady trees, murmuring brooks, gentle airs,
precious wines in cups of gold and silver, stately tents, and
splendid sofas; the melody of the songs of angels was to ravish the
souls of the blessed; the black-eyed Hoories were to be the
ever-blooming brides of the faithful servants of God. Yet, though
sensual bliss was to be his ultimate reward, the votary was taught
that its attainment demanded self-denial on earth; and it has been
justly observed that "a devout Mussulman exhibits more of the
Stoical than of the Epicurean character[8]." As the Prophet had resolved
that the sword should be unsparingly employed for the diffusion of
the truth, the highest degree of the future bliss was pronounced to
be the portion of the martyrs, i. e., of those who fell in the holy
wars waged for the dissemination of the faith. "Paradise," says the
Prophet, "is beneath the shadow of swords." At the day of judgment
the wounds of the fallen warrior were to be resplendent as
vermilion, and odoriferous as musk; and the wings of angels were to
supply the loss of limbs. The religion of Mohammed was entitled
Islam (resignation), whence
its votaries were called by the Arabs Moslems, and in Persian
Mussulmans. Its articles of belief were five—belief in God, in his
angels, in his Prophet, in the last day, and in predestination. Its
positive duties were also five—purification, prayer, fasting, alms,
and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Various rites and observances which
the Arabs had hitherto practised were retained by the Prophet,
either out of regard for the prejudices of his followers, or
because he did not, or could not, divest his own mind of respect
for usages in which he had been reared up from
infancy.Such is a slight sketch of the religion which Mohammed
substituted for the idolatry of Arabia. It contained little that
was original; all its details of the future state were borrowed
from Judaism or from the Magian system of Persia. The book which
contains it, entitled the Koran (reading), was composed in detached
pieces, during a long series of years, by theilliterateProphet, and taken down from
his lips by his scribes. His own account of its origin was that
each Sura, or revelation, was brought to him from heaven by the
angel Gabriel. It is regarded by the Mohammedan East, and by most
European Orientalists, as the masterpiece of Arabian literature;
and when we make due allowance for the difference of European and
Arabian models and taste, and consider that the rhyme[9]which in prose is insufferable to
the former, may to the latter sound grateful, we may allow that the
praises lavished on it are not unmerited. Though tedious and often
childish legends, and long and tiresome civil regulations, occupy
the greater part of it, it is pervaded by a fine strain of fervid
piety and humble resignation to the will of God, not unworthy of
the inspired seers of Israel; and the sublime doctrine of the Unity
of God runs like a vein of pure gold through each portion of the
mass, giving lustre and dignity to all. Might we not venture to say
that Christianity itself has derived advantage from the imposture
of Mohammed, and that the clear and open profession of the Divine
Unity by their Mohammedan enemies kept the Christians of the dark
ages from smothering it beneath the mass of superstition and fable
by which they corrupted and deformed so much of the majestic
simplicity of the Gospel? No one, certainly, would dream of
comparing the son of Abd-Allah with the Son of God, of setting
darkness by the side of light; but still we may confess him to have
been an agent in the hands of the Almighty, and admit that his
assumption of the prophetic office was productive of good as well
as of evil.The Mohammedan religion is so intimately connected with
history, law, manners, and opinions, in the part of the East of
which we are about to write, that this brief view of its origin and
nature was indispensable. We now proceed to our
history.
Chapter II.
Origin of the Khalifat—The first Khalifs—Extent of
the Arabian Empire—Schism among the Mohammedans—Soonees and
Sheähs—Sects of the latter—The Keissanee—The Zeidites—The
Ghoollat—The Imamee—Sects of the Imamee—Their political
Character—The Carmathites—Origin of the Fatimite Khalifs—Secret
Society at Cairo—Doctrines taught in it—Its
Decline.
The civil and ecclesiastical dignities were united in the
person of Mohammed. As Emir (prince) he administered justice and led his followers to battle; as
Imam (director) he on every
Friday (the Mohammedan sabbath) taught the principles and duties of
religion from his pulpit. Though his wives were numerous, the
Prophet had no male issue surviving at the time when he felt the
approaches of death; but his daughter Fatima was married to his
cousin Ali, his early and faithful disciple, and it was naturally
to be expected that the expiring voice of the Prophet would
nominate him as his Khalif (successor) over the followers of his faith. But Ayesha, the daughter
of Aboo Bekr, Mohammed's youthful and best beloved wife, was
vehemently hostile to the son of Aboo Talib, and she may have
exerted all the influence of a revengeful woman over the mind of
the dying Prophet. Or perhaps Mohammed, like Alexander, perplexed
with the extent of dominion to which he had attained, and aware
that only a vigour of character similar to his own would avail to
retain and enlarge it, and, it may be, thinking himself answerable
to God for the choice he should make, deemed it the safest course
to leave the matter to the free decision of his surviving
followers. His appointing Aboo Bekr, a few days before his death,
to officiate in his pulpit, might seem to indicate an intention of
conferring the khalifat on him; and he is said to have at one time
declared that the strength of character displayed by his
distinguished follower, Omar, evinced his possession of the virtues
of a prophet and a khalif. Tradition records no equally strong
declaration respecting the mild and virtuous Ali.
At all events the Prophet expired without having named a
successor, and the choice devolving on his companions dissension
was ready to break out, when Omar, abandoning his own claims, gave
his voice for Aboo Bekr. All opposition was thus silenced, and the
father of Ayesha reigned for two years over the faithful. Ali at
first refused obedience, but he finally acknowledged the successor
of the Prophet. When dying, Aboo Bekr bequeathed the sceptre to
Omar, as the worthiest, and when, twelve years afterwards, Omar
perished by the dagger of an assassin, six electors conferred the
vacant dignity on Othman, who had been the secretary of the
Prophet. Age having enfeebled the powers of Othman, the reins of
authority were slackened, and a spirit of discord pervaded all
Arabia, illustrative of the Prophet's declaration of vigour being
essential to a khalif. A numerous body of rebels besieged the aged
Othman in Medina, and he was slain, holding the Koran in his lap,
by a band of murderers, headed by the brother of Ayesha, who, the
firebrand of Islam, it is probable had been secretly active in
exciting the rebellion.
The popular choice now fell upon Ali, but the implacable
Ayesha stimulated to revolt against his authority two powerful Arab
chiefs, named Telha and Zobeir, who raised their standards in the
province of Arabian Irak. Ayesha, mounted on a camel, appeared in
the thickest of the battle, in which the rebel chiefs were defeated
and slain. The generous Ali sent her to dwell at the tomb of the
Prophet, where she passed in tranquillity the remainder of her
days. The khalif himself was less fortunate. Moawiya, the Governor
of Syria, son of Aboo Sofian, the most violent of the opponents of
the Prophet, assumed the office of the avenger of Othman, whose
death he charged on Ali and his party, and, declaring himself to be
the rightful khalif, roused Syria to arms against the Prophet's
son-in-law. In the war success was on the side of Ali, till the
superstition of his troops obliged him to agree to a treaty; and
shortly afterwards he was murdered by a fanatic in the mosk of
Coofa. His son Hassan was induced by Moawiya to resign his claims
and retire to the city of Medina; but his more high-spirited
brother, Hussein, took arms against the khalif Yezid, the son of
Moawiya; and the narrative of his death is one of the most pathetic
and best related incidents of Oriental history[10]. The sisters and
children of Hussein were spared by the clemency of the victorious
Yezid, and from them descend a numerous race, glorying in the blood
of Ali and the Prophet.
The Arabian empire was now of immense extent. Egypt, Syria,
and Persia had been conquered in the reign of Omar. Under the first
khalifs of the dynasty of the Ommiades (so called from Ommiyah, the
great-grandfather of Moawiya), the conquest of Africa and Spain was
achieved, and the later princes of this family ruled over the most
extensive empire of the world.
The great schism of the Mohammedan church (we must be
permitted to employ this term, the only one our language affords)
commences with the accession of the house of Ommiyah. The
Mohammedans have, as is generally known, been from that time to the
present day divided into two great sects, the Soonees and the
Sheähs, the orthodox and the dissenters, as we might venture to
call them, whose opposite doctrines, like those of the Catholics
and the Protestants of the Christian church, are each the
established faith of great and independent nations. The Ottoman and
the Usbeg Turks hold the Soonee faith; the Persians are violent
Sheähs; and national and religious animosity concur in making them
the determined and inveterate foes of each other.
The Soonees hold that the first four khalifs were all
legitimate successors of the Prophet; but as their order was
determined by their degree of sanctity, they assign the lowest rank
to Ali. The Sheähs, on the contrary, maintain that the dignity of
the Prophet rightfully descended to the son of his uncle and the
husband of his daughter. They therefore regard Aboo Bekr, Omar, and
Othman, as usurpers, and curse and revile their memory, more
especially that of the rigid Omar, whose murderer they venerate as
a saint. It must be steadily kept in mind, in every discussion
respecting the Mohammedan religion, that Mohammed and his
successors succeeded in establishing what the lofty and capacious
mind of Gregory VII. attempted in vain—the union of the civil and
ecclesiastical powers in the same person. Unlike the schisms of the
eastern and western, of the Catholic and Protestant churches, which
originated in difference of opinion on points of discipline or
matters of doctrine, that of the Mohammedans arose solely from
ambition and the struggle for temporal power. The sceptre of the
greatest empire of the world was to be the reward of the party who
could gain the greatest number of believers in his right to grasp
the staff and ascend the pulpit of the Prophet of God. Afterwards,
when the learning of the Greeks and the Persians became familiar to
the Arabs, theological and metaphysical niceties and distinctions
were introduced, and the two great stems of religion threw out
numerous sectarian branches. The Soonees are divided into four main
sects, all of which are, however, regarded as orthodox, for they
agree in the main points, though they differ in subordinate ones.
The division of the Sheähs is also into four sects, the point of
agreement being the assertion of the right of Ali and his
descendants to the imamat, or supreme ecclesiastical dignity; the
point of difference being the nature of the proof on which his
rights are founded, and the order of succession among his
descendants. These four sects and their opinions are as
follows:—
I. The first and most innocuous of the sects which maintained
the rights of the family of Ali were the Keissanee, so named from
Keissan, one of his freed-men. These, who were subdivided into
several branches, held that Ali's rights descended, not to Hassan
or Hussein, but to their brother, Mohammed-ben-Hanfee. One of these
branch-sects maintained that the imamatremained[11]in the person of
this Mohammed, who had never died, but had since appeared, from
time to time, on earth, under various names. Another branch, named
the Hashemites, held that the imamat descended from
Mohammed-ben-Hanfee to his son Aboo-Hashem, who transmitted it to
Mohammed, of the family of Abbas, from whom it descended to Saffah,
the founder of the Abbasside dynasty of khalifs[12]. It is quite
evident that the object of this sect was to give a colour to the
claims of the family of Abbas, who stigmatized the family of
Ommiyah as usurpers, and insisted that the khalifat belonged of
right to themselves. Aboo-Moslem, the great general who first gave
dominion to the family of Abbas, was a real or pretended maintainer
of the tenets of this sect, the only branch, by the way, of the
Sheähs which supported the house of Abbas.
II. A second branch of the Sheähs was named Zeidites. These
held that the imamat descended through Hassan and Hussein to
Zein-al-Abedeen, the son of this last, and thence passed to Zeid
(whence their name), the son of Zein; whereas most other Sheähs
regarded Mohammed Bakir, the brother of Zeid, as the lawful imam.
The Zeidites differed from the other Sheähs in acknowledging the
three first khalifs to have been legitimate successors of the
Prophet. Edris, who wrested a part of Africa from the Abbasside
khalifs, and founded the kingdom of Fez, was a real or pretended
descendant of Zeid.
III. The Ghoollat (Ultras), so named from the extravagance of their doctrines, which,
passing all bounds of common sense, were held in equal abomination
by the other Sheähs and by the Soonees. This sect is said to have
existed as early as the time of Ali himself, who is related to have
burnt some of them on account of their impious and extravagant
opinions. They held, as we are told, that there was but one imam,
and they ascribed the qualities of divinity to Ali. Some maintained
that there were two natures (the divine and the human) in him,
others that the last alone was his. Some again said that this
perfect nature of Ali passed by transmigration through his
descendants, and would continue so to do till the end of all
things; others that the transmission stopped with Mohammed Bakir,
the son of Zein-al-Abedeen, who still abode on earth, but unseen,
like Khizer, the Guardian of the Well of Life, according to the
beautiful eastern legend[13]. Others, still
more bold, denied the transmission, and asserted that the divine
Ali sat enthroned in the clouds, where the thunder was the voice
and the lightning the scourge wherewith he terrified and chastised
the wicked. This sect presents the first (though a very early)
instance of the introduction into Islam of that mysticism which
appears to have had its original birth-place in the dreamy groves
of India. As a political party the Ghoollat never seem to have been
formidable.
IV. Such, however, was not the case with the Imamee, the most
dangerous enemies of the house of Abbas. Agreeing with the Ghoollat
in the doctrine of aninvisibleimam, they maintained that there had been a series ofvisibleimams antecedent to him, who
had vanished. One branch of this sect (thence called the
Seveners—Sebiïn) closed the
series with Ismaïl, the grandson of Mohammed Bakir, theseventhimam, reckoning Ali himself the
first. These were also called Ismaïlites, from Ismaïl. The other
branch, called Imamites, continued the series from Ismaïl, through
his brother Moosa Casim, down to Askeree, the twelfth imam. These
were hence called the Twelvers (Esnaashree). They believed that the
imam Askeree had vanished in a cavern at Hilla, on the banks of the
Euphrates, where he would remain invisible till the end of the
world, when he would again appear under the name of the Guide
(Mehdee) to lead mankind into
the truth. The Imamee, wherever they might stop in the series of
the visible imams, saw that, for their political purposes, it was
necessary to acknowledge a kind oflocum
tenentesimams; but, while the Zeidites, who
agreed with them in this point, required in these princes the royal
virtues of valour, generosity, justice, knowledge, the Imamee
declared themselves satisfied if they possessed the saintly ones of
the practice of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. Hence artful and
ambitious men could set up any puppet who was said to be descended
from the last of the visible imams, and aspire to govern the
Mohammedan world in his name.
The Twelvers were very near obtaining possession of the
khalifat in the time of the first Abbassides; for the celebrated
Haroon Er-Rasheed's son, Al-Mamoon, the eighth khalif of that
house, moved either by the strength or preponderance which the
Sheäh party had arrived at, or, as the eastern historians tell us,
yielding to the suggestions of his vizir, who was devoted to that
sect, named Ali Riza, the eighth imam, to be his successor on the
throne. He even laid aside the black habiliments peculiar to his
family, and wore green, the colour of Ali and the Prophet. But the
family of Abbas, which now numbered 30,000 persons, refused their
assent to this renunciation of the rights of their line. They rose
in arms, and proclaimed as khalif Al-Mamoon's uncle Ibrahim. The
obnoxious vizir perished, and the opportune death of Ali Riza (by
poison, as was said) relieved the son of Haroon Er-Rasheed from
embarrassment. Ali Riza was interred at Meshed, in the province of
Khorasan; and his tomb is, to the present day, a place of
pilgrimage for devout Persians[14].
The Ismaïlites were more successful in their attempts at
obtaining temporal power; and, as we shall presently see, a
considerable portion of their dominions was wrested from the house
of Abbas.
Religion has, in all ages, and in all parts of the world,
been made the mask of ambition, for which its powerful influence
over the minds of the ignorant so well qualifies it. But the
political influence of religion among the calmer and more reasoning
nations of Europe is slight compared with its power over the more
ardent and susceptible natives of Asia. Owing to the effects of
this principle the despotism of the East has never been of that
still, undisturbed nature which we might suppose to be its
character. To say nothing of the bloody wars and massacres which
have taken place under the pretext of religion in the countries
from Japan to the Indus, the Mohammedan portion of the East has
been, almost without ceasing, the theatre of sanguinary dramas,
where ambition, under the disguise of religion, sought for empire;
and our own days have seen, in the case of the Wahabees, a bold
though unsuccessful attempt of fanaticism to achieve a revolution
in a part of the Ottoman empire. It was this union of religion with
policy which placed the Suffavee family on the throne of Persia in
the fifteenth century; and it was this also which, at a much
earlier period, established the dominion of the Fatimite khalifs of
Egypt. The progress of this last event is thus traced by oriental
historians[15]:—
The encouragement given to literature and science by the
enlightened Al-Mamoon had diffused a degree of boldness of
speculation and inquiry hitherto unknown in the empire of the
Arabs. The subtile philosophy of the Greeks was now brought into
contact with the sublime but corrupted theology of the Persians,
and the mysticism of India secretly mingled itself with the mass of
knowledge. We are not, perhaps, to give credit to the assertion of
the Arab historian that it was the secret and settled plan of the
Persians to undermine and corrupt the religion, and thus sap the
empire, of those who had overcome them in the field; but it is not
a little remarkable that, as the transformation of the Mosaic
religion into Judaism may be traced to Persia, and as the same
country sent forth the monstrous opinions which corrupted the
simplicity of the Gospel, so it is in Persia that we find the
origin of most of the sects which have sprung up in Islam. Without
agreeing with those who would derive all knowledge from India, it
may be held not improbable that the intricate metaphysics and
mysticism of that country have been the source of much of the
corruption of the various religions which have prevailed in
Cis-Indian Asia. It is at least remarkable that the north-east of
Persia, the part nearest to India, has been the place where many of
the impostors who pretended to intercourse with the Deity made
their appearance. It was here that Mani (Manes), the head of the Manichæans,
displayed his arts, and it was in Khorasan (Sun-land) that Hakem, who gave himself
out for an incarnation of the Deity, raised the standard of revolt
against the house of Abbas. But, be this as it may, on surveying
the early centuries of Islam, we may observe that all the
rebellions which agitated the empire of the khalifs arose from a
union of the claims of the family of Ali with the philosophical
doctrines current in Persia.
We are told that, in the ninth century of the Christian era,
Abdallah, a man of Persian lineage, residing at Ahwaz, in the south
of Persia, conceived the design of overturning the empire of the
khalifs by secretly introducing into Islam a system of atheism and
impiety. Not to shock deep-rooted prejudices in favour of the
established religion and government, he resolved to communicate his
doctrines gradually, and he fixed on the mystic number seven as
that of the degrees through which his disciples should pass to the
grand revelation of the vanity of all religions and the
indifference of all actions. The political cloak of his system was
the assertion of the claims of the descendants of Mohammed, the son
of Ismaïl, to the imamat, and his missionaries (dais) engaged with activity in the
task of making proselytes throughout the empire of the khalifs.
Abdallah afterwards removed to Syria, where he died. His son and
grandsons followed up his plans, and in their time a convert was
made who speedily brought the system into active operation[16].
The name of this person was Carmath, a native of the district
of Koofa, and from him the sect was called Carmathites. He made
great alterations in the original system of Abdallah; and as the
sect was now grown numerous and powerful, he resolved to venture on
putting the claims of the descendants of Ismaïl to the test of the
sword. He maintained that the indefeasible right to earthly
dominion lay with what he styled the imam Maässoom (spotless), a sort of ideal of a
perfect prince, like the wise man of the Stoics; consequently all
the reigning princes were usurpers, by reason of their vices and
imperfections; and the warriors of the perfect prince were to
precipitate them all, without distinction, from their thrones.
Carmath also taught his disciples to understand the precepts and
observances of Islam in a figurative sense. Prayer signified
obedience to the imam Maässoom, alms-giving was paying the tithe
due to him (that is, augmenting the funds of the society), fasting
was keeping the political secrets relating to the imam and his
service. It was not the tenseel, or outward word of the Koran,
which was to be attended to; the taweel, or exposition, was alone
worthy of note. Like those of Mokanna, and other opponents of the
house of Abbas, the followers of Carmath distinguished themselves
by wearing white raiment to mark their hostility to the reigning
khalifs, whose garments and standards retained the black hue which
they had displayed against the white banners of the house of
Ommiyah. A bloody war was renewed at various periods during an
entire century between the followers of Carmath and the troops of
the khalifs, with varying success. In the course of this war the
holy city of Mecca was taken by the sectaries (as it has been of
late years by the Wahabees), after the fall of 30,000 Moslems in
its defence. The celebrated black stone was taken and conveyed in
triumph to Hajar, where it remained for two-and-twenty years, till
it was redeemed for 50,000 ducats by the emir of Irak, and replaced
in its original seat. Finally, like so many of their predecessors,
the Carmathites were vanquished by the yet vigorous power of the
empire, and their name, though not their principles, was
extinguished.
During this period of contest between the house of Abbas and
the Carmathites, a dai (missionary) of the latter, named Abdallah, contrived to liberate from
the prison into which he had been thrown by the khalif Motadhad a
real or pretended descendant of Fatima, named Obeid-Allah[17], whom he conveyed
to Africa, and, proclaiming him to be the promised Mehdi (guide), succeeded in establishing for
him a dominion on the north coast of that country. The gratitude of
Obeid-Allah was shown by his putting to death him to whom he was
indebted for his power; but talent and valour can exist without the
presence of virtue, and Obeid-Allah and his two next descendants
extended their sway to the shores of the Atlantic.
Moez-ladin-Allah, his great-grandson, having achieved the conquest
of Egypt and Syria, wisely abandoned his former more distant
dominions along the coast of the Mediterranean, his eye being fixed
on the more valuable Asiatic empire of the Abbassides. This dynasty
of Fatimite khalifs, as they were called, reigned during two
centuries at Cairo, on the Nile, the foes and rivals of those who
sat in Bagdad, on the banks of the Tigris. Like every other eastern
dynasty, they gradually sank into impotence and imbecility, and
their throne was finally occupied by the renowned Koord
Saladin.
Obeid-Allah derived his pedigree from Ismaïl, the seventh
imam. His house, therefore, looked to the support of the whole sect
of the Seveners, or Ismaïlites, in their projects for extending
their sway over the Mohammedan world; and it was evidently their
interest to increase the numbers and power of that sect as much as
possible. We are accordingly justified in giving credit to the
assurances of the eastern historians, that there was a secret
institution at Cairo, at the head of which was the Fatimite khalif,
and of which the object was the dissemination of the doctrines of
the sect of the Ismaïlites, though we may be allowed to hesitate as
to the correctness of some of the details.
This society, we are told, comprised both men and women, who
met in separate assemblies, for the common supposition of the
insignificance of the latter sex in the east is erroneous. It was
presided over by the chief missionary (Dai-al-Doat[18]), who was always a
person of importance in the state, and not unfrequently supreme
judge (Kadhi-al-kodhat[19]). Their
assemblies, called Societies of Wisdom (Mejalis-al-hicmet), were held twice
a-week, on Mondays and Wednesdays. All the members appeared clad in
white. The president, having first waited on the khalif, and read
to him the intended lecture, or, if that could not be done, having
gotten his signature on the back of it, proceeded to the assembly
and delivered a written discourse. At the conclusion of it those
present kissed his hand and reverently touched with their forehead
the hand-writing of the khalif. In this state the society continued
till the reign of that extraordinary madman the khalif
Hakem-bi-emr-illah (Judge by the command of
God), who determined to place it on a splendid
footing. He erected for it a stately edifice, styled the House of
Wisdom (Dar-al-hicmet),
abundantly furnished with books and mathematical instruments. Its
doors were open to all, and paper, pens, and ink were profusely
supplied for the use of those who chose to frequent it. Professors
of law, mathematics, logic, and medicine were appointed to give
instructions; and at the learned disputations which were frequently
held in presence of the khalif, these professors appeared in their
state caftans (Khalaä), which,
it is said, exactly resembled the robes worn at the English
universities. The income assigned to this establishment, by the
munificence of the khalif, was 257,000 ducats annually, arising
from the tenths paid to the crown.
The course of instruction in this university proceeded,
according to Macrisi, by the following nine degrees:—1. The object
of the first, which was long and tedious, was to infuse doubts and
difficulties into the mind of the aspirant, and to lead him to
repose a blind confidence in the knowledge and wisdom of his
teacher. To this end he was perplexed with captious questions; the
absurdities of the literal sense of the Koran, and its repugnance
to reason, were studiously pointed out, and dark hints were given
that beneath this shell lay a kernel sweet to the taste and
nutritive to the soul. But all further information was most
rigorously withheld till he had consented to bind himself by a most
solemn oath to absolute faith and blind obedience to his
instructor. 2. When he had taken the oath he was admitted to the
second degree, which inculcated the acknowledgment of the imams
appointed by God as the sources of all knowledge. 3. The third
degree informed him what was the number of these blessed and holy
imams; and this was the mystic seven; for, as God had made seven
heavens, seven earths, seas, planets, metals, tones, and colours,
so seven was the number of these noblest of God's creatures. 4. In
the fourth degree the pupil learned that God had sentsevenlawgivers into the world, each of
whom was commissioned to alter and improve the system of his
predecessor; that each of these hadsevenhelpers, who appeared in the
interval between him and his successor; these helpers, as they did
not appear as public teachers, were called the mute (samit), in contradistinction to
thespeakinglawgivers. The
seven lawgivers were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed,
and Ismaïl, the son of Jaaffer; the seven principal helpers, called
Seats (soos), were Seth, Shem,
Ishmael (the son of Abraham), Aaron, Simon, Ali, and Mohammed, the
son of Ismaïl. It is justly observed[20]