SINCERE BRETHREN, OR TRUE FRIENDS, is the name of a semi-religions, semi' scientific Mohammedan order, the beginnings of which are shrouded in obscurity, bii which, about 970 A.D., manifested its existence by one of the boldest and most compre. hensive literary undertakings—viz., an encyclopmdic treatment of philosophy, theology, science, ethics, and metaphysics, in a series of no less than fifty-one treatises. Under the head of MOHAMMEDAN SECTS, and more especially under MotrazimTEs, mention has been made of that immense religious straggle that arose but a few generations after Mohammed, in the bosom of Islam, bringing forth sect after sect; and which. under whatever name and war-cry, simply denoted the reaction of the thinking minds against the deadweight of dogmas and formulas, such as the successors of the prophet tried in his name, and often enough in direct contradiction to his explicit dicta, to impose upon the faithful. What the Alotazilites had attempted was the reconciliation of scientific speculation, as it had irresistibly grown up at the first contact of the Arabs with Greek literature, with the religious dogma of Islam. This new period of development of Arabic culture, which chiefly characterizes the epoch of the first Abbaside rulers, however, was of no long duration. The representatives of the "orthodox" schools, who would not hear of reconciliation, but insisted all the more uncompromisingly upon the most literal interpretation, dexterously used against Ahem those same weapons of dialectics which their adversaries themselves had first taught them how to wield. Setting to work with proper. Systems and methods, they soon built up a scholastic edifice of theology, not easy to be attacked without the most direct outspokenness; and from this the new schools, the terror of the caliphate strong upon them, shrank. It was thus that the M otaz Bites soon disappeared from the arena. But their labors had not been in vain: Silently and by small degrees this new and mysterious union of the Sincere Brethren arose. Though widely spread, their schools, their houses of assembly, their rules, their doctrines—everything remained, for we do not know how long, a profound mystery: and apart from that which they themselves have thought fit to reveal of it, neither ancient nor modern investigation has been able to discover many traces of their inner organization and activity. Not even many of their names have come clown to us, though the'" treatises" they have left point to a multitude of authors, and to many stages of development. The tone of these treatises is much more free, and their entire tendency
more radical than that of any of the books of their predecessors. Yet, the desire not to attend the less advanced in religions matters, and above all to reunite rather than to make the- breach wider, is perceptible in their endeavor to use what Koranic quotations and traditions can he pressed into the service of free thought, by often very unnatural processes of allegory and mysticism.
Before speaking of the treatises themselves, we shall briefly summarize what can be gathered as to the mutual relations of the brethren of this secreet lodge, and the aims of their associntion. There is special mention made of the "secret doctrine" which the Brethrlt should communicate to each other in their houses of assembly at those "stated periods." at which co stranger was to he admitted on any condition. The prin eipal subjects toward which their conservation was to be directed were to be the knowl edge of the soul or psychology, the knowledge of the action of the senses and the things perceptible through them. the contemplation and investigation of the mysteries of the sacred books, of tile prophetical revelations, and the ideas contained in the divine laws. Their attention was further to be directed toward the four " mathematical" sciences arithmeti^, geometry, astronomy, and (musical) composition. But the chief subject of their investigations should be the knowledge of divine things. which are the cud and aim of all bill(1V. The most catholic spirit was to prevail among them with regard to the various systems, or books; since "our own system comprises all, without exception, and inchdes all science." "The F culat inns of our school extend simply to all things—the sensual and the intellectual—from the moment of their beginning to their end, according to their outer and inner life—that which is palpable and clear about them, and that which is bidden and secret—the truth, in fact. For the true essence everything is derived from one primeval origin and general cause, since there is but one world and one supreme mind, to which all the most manifold phenomena, species and kinds, and divisions, are to lie traced back." With these words, the encyclopedic ten dency of the lodge and their essays is best characterized.