ISMAILIS, is the name of a very advanced "free-thinking" Mohammedan sect, of the Shiite branch of Islam (see SuirrEs), which sprang up in the 9th c. Al)... and spread throughout Mohammedanism. Recognizing All alone as the rightful successor of the prophet, they held Abu Bekr, Omar, Othman, Moawia, to be usurpers, and counted their imams, or representative prophets, from Ali only. The seventh imam was one Ismael, who lived about 150 Hedjrah (772 A.D.), the son of Jafar Assadik, or rather of his son, Mohammed. He was supposed to be the righteous prophet, the only orthodox. spiritual head. The notion of the imam, in general, is that of an ever-living, though, at times, hidden, supreme guide of the people, who, after a time, is restored to humanity, or at least to the believing part of it. A prayer, preserved to us by Ibn Chaldun, will best show the peculiar notion connected with this belief, to which no small part of Islam confessed. Every evening, a certain number of imamiehs prayed: "O imam, appear unto us! Hutnanity is awaiting•thee; for righteousness and truth have perished, and the world is gone down in darkness and violence. Appear unto us, that we may, through I hee, return unto God's mercy." It was thought, in fact, that Ali himself had reappeared in every imam, and that he would descend again, some day, " from the clouds," to unite all believers,•and to restore the pure faith. The real importance of this sect, which had existed unobserved for some time, dates from Abdallah Ihn Mai mini, whose father bad been executed for professing materialistic doctrines, and trying to turn people away from the doctrines of Islam. Abdallalt seems to have practically carried out his father's notions, but more cautiously. He is described by the Arabic writers as an utterly irreligious and unscrupulous materialist or " Zendik." The Mes siah, whom he preached, stood higher than Mohammed himself, and though he did not exactly reject the Koran en, bloc, he yet contrived to allegorize and symbolize away nearly all its narratives and precepts. But the systematic way in which Abdallah went to work, in trying to undermine, and eventually to abrogate, all Islam, and, as his biogra phers have it, to replace it by materialism, atheism, and immorality, is very remarkable indeed.
He established missionary schools; and the instructions given to the young mission aries were artfully designed to win over not merely all the different Mohammedan sects, both Sunnites and Shiites, but also Jews and Christians. The missionary's (dars) first
task was to win for himself the perfect confidence of the proselyte to be, by the affec tation of great orthodoxy, and by a vast display of pious learning, chiefly Koranic. The disciple is by degrees to be cross-examined on difficult passages, on their "spir itual meaning," and on some points touched upon belonging to the physical sciences. Only matters of acknowledged obscurity and uncertainty are chosen as subjects of dis course, matters the real understanding of which belongs exclusively to the "aristocracy of learning." Generally, the youth is so deeply impressed with the erudition displayed, the expectations raised, the mystery, and the rest, that he will follow gladly to the end. But, at times, the missionary meets with a less docile subject, a man who may be accus tomed to discussions on these topics, who may have pondered over these things him self: the dal shall appear to accommodate himself to such a one's views: applaud an he says, and thus ingratiate himself with him; all the while taking care to show himself well informed on thosenoints which may be in favor with his disciple, and that mode of faith which he professes. All this is to be done very carefully, lest the other might "suspect and betray." The ordinary individual, on the other hand, is, after the first preliminaries, to be told that religion is a secret science, that most people know nothing of it, or utterly misunderstand it, that if the Moslems knew what degree of science God has imparted to the imams, by quite a special favor, there would no longer be any dis sensions among them. The disciple, whose curiosity has by that time been fully mused, is then to be instructed in a few allegorical interpretations of both the practice and theory of the Koran; and when lie is convinced of the desirability to know more, and everything that the master knows, the latter is merely to point out to him that all this knowledge belonged of right to all Islam, but that the wickedness and perverSeness of those who followed the wrong successor, has caused all dissension and infidelity in the community of the believers. is the imams who are the dispensers of the right inter pretation, not people's own reason and judgment.