Besides the Assassins and Nosairians. a third sect with Ismailian tendencies found refuge in the Syrian mountain DarsEs. When Abol Allah ion Mainumn found himself secuted by the authorities he Iled to Syria, and continued to preach there the coming of the \lalmoli. Ills son \lohammuned continued the propa ganda, and finally the \LIMB himself appeared among the of North .\ frica. This mabdi founded the Egyptian dynasty of the Fatimites the sixth of whieli. Hakim. prohably under Ismailian intInenee, declared himself an incarnation of the deity. Ile disappeared teriously, which helped to support his tion. Ilaniza and (whence the name 'Druze') were his propagandists ((Pei), and gained many followers in the Lebanon moun tains, Jt is interesting to note that one of Hainza's treatises was intended as a refutation of the Nosairian doctrines, and tried to show that Hakim, not Ali, was God. See DnusEs.
A sectary whose name has become familiar through the use made of his story by Thomas Moore in his ',Oki Rookh was Hakim ibn Al lah, better known as al-1\b?kamea, 'the veiled,' because he wore a mask to conceal the disfigure ment of his face. He lived in the eighth century, and headed a revolt against the Natoli, the third Abbasside Caliph. He claimed to be an incarna tion of the deity, and won repute as a miracle worker. He made ninny followers, and for a time maintained himself against the Caliph, hut was ultimately defeated and committed suicide. He left word that lie would reappear as a gray man riding a gray beast, and his followers long expected his coming. They dressed only in white. See HAKIM PIN ALLAH.
All of these Shiite sects were political, or at least politico-religious, sects, whose doctrines turned about the question of tin- imamah. But there were in Islam also some sects purely theo logical, differing on such questions as predestina tion, free will, belief, idea of God, and revela tion — points upon which Mohammed had not expressed himself clearly. It was again in Per sia that the movement looking toward inde pendent religious views took its rise, under the influence of Greek philosophy.
The most important of these theological or philosophical sects was perhaps the rationalistic sect of the AiOTAZILITES, or \lu••r:vzti.rrEs (.11 le tuzilah, from to separate). They were called also Moattalites—i.e. those who divest God of Hi. attributes (Ar. Mu'utti/un)—and Kadarites—i.e. "those who hold that man has a free will (Ar, liudgr), and deny the strict doc trine of predestination." The first beginnings of this sect are traced to Mabad, who already in the time of :Mohammed himself began to question predestination by pointing out how kings carry on unjust wars. kill men. and steal
their goods, and all the while pretend to be merely executing God's decrees. The real founder of the sect. as such, however, was \Vasil ilm Ala (c.74.51. He denied God's 'qualities,' such as knowledge, power, will, life, as to, if not directly implying, polytheism. As to predestina tion, he held that it existed only with regard to the outward good or evil that befalls man, such as illness or recovery, death or life, while man's ac tions are entirely in his own hands. God, he said, had given commandments to mankind, and it was not to be supposed that Ile had at the same time preordained that scone should disobey these eommandments, and that, further. they should be punished for it. Man alone is the agent in his good or evil actions, in his belief or unbelief, obedience or disobedience, and he is rewarded ac cording to his deeds. These doctrines were further developed by Wasil's disciple Alm al-Itudhail al Alla f (died e.S4 5), who did not deny so absolute ly God's 'qualities,' hut modified their meaning, in the manner of the Greek philosophers, hold ing that every quality was also God's essence. The attributes are thus not without, but within and so far from being a multiplicity. they merely designate the various ways of the manifestations of the Godhead. God's will he declared to lie a peculiar kind of knowledge, through which God did what He foresaw to he salutary in the end.
I ui's freedom of action is possible only in this world. In the next all will be according to necessary laws immutably preordain d. The righteous will enjoy everlasting bliss, and for the wicked everlasting punishment will be de creed. A dangerous doctrine of this system was the assumption that before the Koran had been revealed, Dian had already conic to the conclusion of right and wrong. Ily his inner intellect, Abu al-Iludhail held, everybody must and does know —even without the aid of the divinely given com mandments—whether the Ildrig lie is doing be Tight or wrong. just or unjust, true or false. His belief in the traditions was also by no means all absolute one; indeed, it was held by the \lutazil itcs that even sonie of the earliest lraditioners' may have told untruths, or have been imposed upon, and every tradition was to he rejected which was opposed to the Koran. to more authentic tra ditions, or even to mere reason. As to the Koran, although its authority was recognized, it was held to be created and not an object of worship.