Meanwhile both Karmat and Abu Said bad become—by what means is matter of great obscurity—faithless to their own creed. We have no certain dates about the death of Karmat. Abu SaYd was killed, together with some of his principal officers, in the bath in his own castle at Lahsa, in 301 Hedjrah, by one of his eunuchs; and four years later •his son, Abu Tahir, became his successor, and he has left his name indelibly stampettupon the annals of Islam. In 311 he seized the town of Basra. In the next year he pillaged the caravan which went to Mecca, and ransacked Kufa. In 315 he once more reappeared in Kufa and in Irak, and gained so decided a victory over the Caliph's troops that Bagdad began to tremble before him. In 317 (930 A.D.) the great and decisive blow against Mohammedanism was struck. When the great caravan of pilgrims for the annual pilgrimage had arrived at Mecca, the news suddenly spread that Abu Tahir, the terror of. Islam, had appeared at the head of an army in the holy city itself. All attempts to buy him off failed, and a massacre of the most fearful description ensued. With barbarous irony, he asked the victims what had become of the sacred protection of the place. Every one, they had always been told, was safe and inviolable at Mecca. Why was lie allowed thus easily to kill them—the race of donkeys? Accord ing to some, for 6 days, to others for 11 or 17, the massacre lasted. The numbers killed within the precincts of the temple itself are variously given. The holy places were desecrated, irredeemably almost. But not satisfied with this, Abu Tahir laid hands on the supreme palladium, the black stone itself.
Yet he was apparently mistaken in his calculations. Solar from' turning the hearts of the faithful from is worship which god did not seem to have defended, the remaining Moslems clung all the more fervently to it. God's decree had certainly permitted all those indignities to be put upon his house, but it was not for them to murmur. The stone gone, they covered the place where it had lain with their kisses. As often as Abu Tahir did not distinctly hinder them by force, the caravans went on their usual annual pilgrim age. In the year 327 the emir of the pilgrimage, Abu Tapir's own personal friend, first succeeded in persuading him to conclude a treaty by which the pilgrimage was allowed again, on payment of five denars fOr every camel and seven for every horse. Yet the black stone, notwithstanding all efforts on the part of the court of Bagdad, was not returned. Abu Tahir seems altogether to have been a man of extraordinary abilities. Of his valor, with which he also knew how to imbue his followers, the following is told: When he had taken away the black stone and desecrated the holy places, he marched,. with 500 horse. upon Bagdad. The caliph Moktader sent 30,000 men, under his best general, to meet him. Having ascertained how small were the rebel's resources, the caliph sent a friendly message to him by the general himself, adjuring him by their previous friendship to desist from his insane attempt, and to make good his escape in time, Whereupon he asked the messenger of how many the caliph's forces consisted. " Thirty thousand," was the answer. " Then zo," he said, " and • tel your master that lie has just sent three men too little." And calling for three of his own men, he com manded one of them to stab himself, the second to throw himself into the Tigris, and the third to jump over a precipice, all of which was instantly done. "You see," he
continued, "what my warriors are like, and what numbers mean against such as these." The following night he made is sudden attack upon the enemy, routed them completely, and took the general himself prisoner.
Regarding the special form of belief of the Karmathians, as far as it has been pre served to us, it seems in the beginning—before Ismailism became that mixture of "naturalism," "materialism," of whilom Sab.seism, and of Indian incarnations and transmigrations of later days—to have only been a kind of " reformed " Islam. The prophet Karmat, it was held, had brought a new law into the world. By this, many of the Mohammedan tenets are altered, many ancient ceremonies are abrogated, new forms of prayer are introduced, and an entirely new kind of fast is inculcated. Wine is per mitted, as well as a few other things prohibited by the Koran. Certain other of the pre cepts met in this book are turned into mere allegories. Instead of tithes they gave the fifth part of their property to the Imam. Prayer is but the symbol of obedience to their Imam. Fasting is the symbol of silence, or rather of concealment of the religious doc trine from the stranger.
Alm Tahir died almost absolute master of Arabia, Syria, and Irak, in 332 Hedjrah. It was not until seven years later (950 A. D. ), under the reign of two of his brothers who had succeeded him, that the black stone was returned to Mecca for an enormous ransom, and fixed there on the seventh pillar of the mosque called Rahmat (God's mercy), in the presence of the emir of the mosque and others, a Spaniard amongst them. Yet the Kermathians were accused of not having returned the stone itself, or, at all events, of having broken it. Forty camels, it was also said, had been unable to carry it away, while a single one had brought it back; one, moreover, that had been lean when it started, and had become fat when it had reached Mecca.
From that time forth, however, the star of the Karmathians began to wane. Little is heard of them of any import till 375, when they were defeated before Kufa—an event which seems to have put an end to their dominion in Irak and Syria. In 378 they were further defeated in battle by Asfar, and their chief lost his life. They retreated to Lahsa, where they fortified themselves: whereupon Asfar marched to Elkatif, took it, and carried away all the leiggage, slaves, and animals of the Karmarthians of that town, and retired to Basra. This seems to have finally ruMed the already weak band of dia.. once formidable power, and nothing further is heard of them in history, although they retained Lahsa down to 430, and later still. Even to this day there exist, according to Palgrave, sonic disaffected remnants of them at Ham (the modern name of their whilom center and stronghold). and other tracts of the peninsula; and their antagonism against Mohammedanism, which they have utterly abrogated among themselves, so far from being abated. bids fair to break out anew into open rebellion at the first opportunity.• See Weil, Giese& d. Chalifen; De Goeje, Memoire sur les Carmathes, etc.; Silvestre de Sacy, Religion des Drums; Sale, Koran; Paigrave, Arabia, etc.