ISMAEL, from whom originated the IsmazuTzs, or Ism/imam, originally a branch of the Shiites, or followers of ALI BEN Ana TALEB, was the elder son of Djafar Madeck, the sixth Imaum in a direct line from Ali. On the death of Ismael, Djafar Madeck appointed his younger son Mouse to be his successor. This caused a schism among the Shiites iu the second century of the Hegira. Those who con tended that the office of Dna= ought to have descended to the posterity of Ismael, and not to his younger brother, were called Ismaelitea, and also Karmathi and Batcnis ; in Persia they were called Talimis, from the word Talimi, which means 'learning,' because they maintained, contrary to the orthodox Mussulmans, that man can learn the truth only by studying. They established two powerful dynasties, one in Egypt [Femur/Es), and another in the Irak Ajemi, a part of Persia, the capital of which was Casbin. The Assassins of Persia and Syria were a fanatical sect of Ismaelites. The Ismaclites of Persia, Syria, and Arabia had frequent wars against the Abbaside kalifs and the other Sunned Mussulmans, until the dynasty of Casbin was over thrown by the Tartars about the middle of the 13th century. After that time the Iaruaelitee became scattered through Asia, maintaining their tenets, and observing their rites in concealment and obscurity. Their tenets appear to have been of a loose kind ; they were the free thinkers of Mohammedanism. At the end of the last century they were still existing in Persia, and bad their imaum at Khakh, a village in the district of Khom, enjoying the protection of the shah, although considered as heretics by the Persian Shiites. They had followers
even in India. (J. F. Rousseau, eur les Iamaelia et les Nosairis,' with notes by De Sacy.) Those of Syria have continued to live in the mountains of Semmak, which join Lebanon, and their chief place was Maszyad, near Ilamah, on the Orontes. The Druses are supposed by some to be a ramification of the old Ismaolitea, but they are a distinct people, both in their religious and social character, from the present Ismaeliaus. In 1809 tho Noseiris, another sect living in the same mountainous tract, took Maszyad by surprise, murdered the emir, with most of the Ismaelian inhabitants, and carried off a large booty. The 'matliens of Syria have never recovered from that blow, bet have remained poor in importance and numbers, and are under the nominal dominion of the Turks. Their tenets are not well known, but they seem to hays deviated from the original doctrines of the great benaelite sect, and to have mixed them up with gross super stiller's. They can hardly be called lifussulmans; they have no mosques, but are caroometsed, and they still visit tho tomb of Ali at Meshed. They are said to be simple and hospitable, and have a better reputation than their neighbours the Newkirk