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392 THE DECLINE AND FALL Posterity of Maho- met and Ah [AlMahdi the well- guided] of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage to his sepulchre, his Persian votaries abandon their souls to the religious frenzy of sorrow and indignation. ^'-'^ When the sisters and children of Ali were brought in chains to the throne of Damascus, the caliph was advised to extirpate the enmity of a popular and hostile race, whom he had injured beyond the hope of reconciliation. But Yezid prefeiTed the counsels of mercy ; and the mourning family was honourably dismissed to mingle their tears with their kindred at Medina. The glory of martyrdom superseded the right of primogeniture ; and the twelve imams,!-'^ or pontiffs, of the Persian creed are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the lineal descendants of Hosein to the ninth generation. Mthout arms or treasures or subjects, they suc- cessively enjoyed the veneration of the people and provoked the jealousy of the reigning caliphs ; their tombs at Mecca or Medina, on the banks of the Euphrates or in the province of Chorasan, are still visited by the devotion of their sect. Their names were often the pretence of sedition and civil war ; but these royal saints despised the pomp of the world, submitted to the Avill of God and the injustice of man, and devoted their innocent lives to the study and practice of religion. The twelfth and last of the Imams, conspicuous by the title of Mahadi or the Guide, surpassed the solitude and sanctity of his predecessors. He concealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad; the time and place of his death are unknown ; and his votaries pretend that he still lives and will appear before the day of judgment to overthrow the tyranny of Dejal or the Antichrist. i'--' In the lapse of two or three centuries the posterit}'^ of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet, had nmlti])]ied to the number of thirty- three thousand ; -^'^ the race of Ali might be equally prolific ; the meanest individual was above the first and greatest of 19" Niebuhr the Dane (Voyages en Arabic, &.c. torn. ii. p. 208, &c. ) is perhaps the only European traveller who has dared to visit Meshed Ali and Meshed Hosein. The two sepulchres are in the hands of the Turks, who tolerate and tax the devo- tion of the Persian heretics. The festival of the death of Hosein is amply described by Sir John Chardin, a traveller whom I have often praised. [For the passion play which is represented yearly by theShiites, see Sir l^ewis Pelly, The Miracle Play <^f Hasan and Hosein, 1879 ; Matthew Arnold, Persian Passion-play, in Essays or Criticisms, 1st ser. ; .S. Lane-Poole, Studies in a Mosque, c. vii.] 18^ The general article of /;«aw, in d'Herbelot's Bibliotheque, will indicate the succession ; and the lives of the twelve are given under their respective names. 199 The name of Antichrist may seem ridiculous, but the Mahometans have liberally borrowed the fables of every religion (.Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 80, 82). In the royal stable of Ispahan, two horses were always kept saddled, one for the Mahadi himself, the other for his lieutenant, Jesus the son of Mary. 2"« In the year of the Hegira 200 (a.d. 815). See d'Herbelot, p. 546.