know; it being no easy matter for one who has any other view than God's glory to make so frank a confession of his ignorance. The doctrine of Mâlec is chiefly followed in Barbary and other parts of Africa. The author of the third orthodox sect was Mohammed Ebn Edrîs a. Shâfeï, born either at Gaza or Ascalon in Palestine, in the year of the Hejra one hundred and fifty, the same day (as some will have it), that Abu Hanîfa died, and was carried to Mecca at two years of age, and there educated. He died in two hundred and four, in Egypt, whither he went about five years before. This doctor is celebrated for his excellency in all parts of learning, and was much esteemed by Ebn Hanbal his contemporary, who used to say that "he was as the sun to the world, and as health to the body." Ebn Hanbal, however, had so ill an opinion of al Shâfeï, at first, that he forbade his scholars to go near him; but some time after one of them, meeting his master trudging on foot after al Shâfeï, who rode on a mule, asked him how it came about that he forbade them to follow him, and did it himself? to which Ebn Hanbal replied, "Hold thy peace; if thou but attend his mule, thou wilt profit thereby." Al Shafei is said to have been the first who discoursed of jurisprudence, and reduced that science into a method; one wittily saying, that the relators of the traditions of Mohammed were asleep till al Shâfeï came and waked them. He was a great enemy to the scholastic divines, as has been already observed. Al Ghazâli tells us that al Shâfeï used to divide the night into three parts, one for study, another for prayer, and the third for sleep. It is also related of him that he never so much as once swore by God, either to confirm a truth, or to affirm a falsehood; and that being once asked his opinion, he remained silent for some time, and when the reason of his silence was demanded he answered, "I am considering first whether it be better to speak or to hold my tongue." The following saying is also recorded of him, viz. "Whoever pretends to love the world and its Creator at the same time is a liar." The followers of this doctor are from him called Shâfeïtes, and were formerly spread into Mawara'lnahr and other parts eastward, but are now chiefly of Arabia and Persia. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the founder of the fourth sect, was born in the year of the Hejra one hundred and sixty-four; but as to the place of his birth there are two traditions: some say he was born at Merû in Khorasân, of which city his parents were, and that his mother brought him from thence to Baghdad at her breast; while others assure us that she was with child of him when she came to Baghdad, and that he was born there.2 Ebn Hanbal in process of time attained a great reputation on account of his virtue and knowledge; being so well versed in the traditions of Mohammed, in particular, that it is said he could repeat no less than a million of them.3 He was very intimate with al Shâfeï, from whom he received most of his traditionary knowledge, being his constant attendant till his departure for Egypt. Refusing to acknowledge the Korân to be created, he was, by order of the Khalif al Mótasem, severely scourged and imprisoned. Ebn Hanbal died at Baghdâd, in the year two hundred and forty-one, and was followed to his grave by eight hundred thousand men, and sixty thousand women. It is related, as something very extraordinary, if not miraculous, Al Ghazâli. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 294. he lived fifty-eight years. apud Poc. Spec. p. 296. Ebn Khalecân. Yet Abulfeda says Ebn Khalecân. • Idem. * Idem. • Al Záfarâni, See before, p. 109. 1 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 295-297. See before, sect. iii. p. 48, Ebn. ⚫ Ebn Ebn Khalecân. • Idem. • Idem. Khalecân, Abu'lfarag. Hist. Dyn. p. 252, &c. that on the day of his death no less than twenty thousand Christians, Jews, and Magians, embraced the Mohammedan faith. This sect increased so fast, and became so powerful and bold, that in the year three hundred and twenty-three, in the Khalifat of al Râdi, they raised a great commotion in Baghdad, entering people's houses, and spilling their wine, if they found any, and beating the singing women they met with, and breaking their instruments; and a severe edict was published against them, before they could be reduced to their duty : but the Hanbalites at present are not very numerous, few of them being to be met with out of the limits of Arabia. The heretical sects among the Mohammedans are those which hold heterodox opinions in fundamentals or matters of faith. The first controversies relating to fundamentals began when most of the companions of Mohammed were dead:9 for in their days was no dispute, unless about things of small moment, if we except only the dissensions concerning the Imâms, or rightful successors of their prophet, which were stirred up and fomented by interest and ambition; the Arabs' continual employment in the wars, during that time, allowing them little or no leisure to enter into nice inquiries and subtle distinctions: but no sooner was the ardour of conquest a little abated than they began to examine the Korân more nearly; whereupon differences in opinion became unavoidable, and at length so greatly multiplied, that the number of their sects, according to the common opinion, are seventy-three. For the Mohammedans seem ambitious that their religion should exceed others even in this respect; saying, that the Magians are divided into seventy sects, the Jews into seventy-one, the Christians into seventy-two, and the Moslems into seventy-three, as Mohammed had foretold: of which sects they reckon one to be always orthodox, and entitled to salvation.2 The first heresy was that of the Khârejites, who revolted from Ali in the thirty-seventh year of the Hejra; and not long after, Mábad al Johni, Ghailân of Damascus, and Jonas al Aswâri broached heterodox opinions concerning predestination, and the ascribing of good and evil unto God; whose opinions were followed by Wâsel Ebn Atâ.3 This latter was the scholar of Hasan of Basra, in whose school a question being proposed, whether he who had committed a grievous sin was to be deemed an infidel or not, the Khârejites (who used to come and dispute there) maintaining the affirmative, and the orthodox the negative, Wàsel, without waiting his master's decision, withdrew abruptly, and began to publish among his fellow-scholars a new opinion of his own, to wit, that such a sinner was in a middle state; and he was thereupon expelled the school; he and his followers being thenceforth called Mótazalites, or Separatists.* The several sects which have arisen since this time are variously com. pounded and decompounded of the opinions of four chief sects, the Móta. zalites, the Sefâtians, the Khârejites, and the Shiites." 1. The Mótazalites were the followers of the before-mentioned Wâsel Ebn Khalecân. Abu'lfar. ubi sup. p. 301, &c. 9 Al Shahrestâni, apud Poc. 1 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 194. Spec. p. 194, Auctor Sharh al Mawâkef. apud eund. p. 210. Al Shahrestani, apud eund. p. 211. 3 Idem, and Auctor Sharh al Mawâkef, ubi sup. Iidem, ib. p. 211, 212. Et Ebn Khalecân, in Vita Waseli. Al Shahrestâni, who also reduces them to four chief sects, puts the Kadarians in the place of the Mótazalites. Abu'lfaragius (Hist. Dyn. p. 166), reckons six principal sects, adding the Jabarians and the Morgians; and the author of Sharh al Mawâkef, eight, viz. the Motaza lites, the Shiites, the Khârejites, the Morgians, the Najarians, the Jabarians, the Moshabbehites, and the sect which he calls al Najia, because that alone will be saved, being ac cording to him the sect of the Ashárians. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 209. Ebn Atâ. As to their chief and general tenets, 1. They entirely rejected all eternal attributes of God, to avoid the distinction of persons made by the Christians; saying that eternity is the proper or formal attribute of his essence; that God knows by his essence, and not by his knowledge; and the same they affirmed of his other attributes" (though all the Mótazalites do not understand these words in one sense); and hence this sect were also named Moattalites, from their divesting God of his attributes: and they went so far as to say, that to affirm these attributes is the same thing as to make more eternals than one, and that the unity of God is inconsistent with such an opinion; and this was the true doctrine of Wâsel their master, who declared that whoever asserted an eternal attribute asserted there were two gods.' This point of speculation concerning the divine attributes was not ripe at first, but was at length brought to maturity by Wâsel's followers, after they had read the books of the philosophers.2 2. They believed the word of God to have been created in subjecto (as the schoolmen term it), and to consist of letters and sound; copies thereof being written in books, to express or imitate the original. They also went farther, and affirmed that whatever was created in subjecto is also an accident, and liable to perish. They denied absolute predestination, holding that God was not the author of evil, but of good only; and that man was a free agent : which being properly the opinion of the Kadarians, we defer what may be farther said thereof till we come to speak of that sect. On account of this tenet and the first, the Mótazalites look on themselves as the defenders of the unity and justice of God. 4. They held that if a professor of the true religion be guilty of a grievous sin, and die without repentance, he will be eternally damned, though his punishment will be lighter than that of the infidels. 5. They denied all vision of God in paradise by the corporeal eye, and rejected all comparisons or similitudes applied to God." This sect are said to have been the first inventors of scholastic divinity, and are subdivided into several inferior sects, amounting, as some reckon, to twenty, which mutually brand one another with infidelity; the most remarkable of them are: 1. The Hodeilians, or followers of Hamdan Abu Hodeil, a Mótazalite doctor, who differed something from the common form of expression used by this sect, saying that God knew by his knowledge, but that his knowledge was his essence; and so of the other attributes: which opinion he took from the philosophers, who affirm the essence of God to be simple, and without multiplicity, and that his attributes are not posterior or accessory to his essence, or subsisting therein, but are his essence itself: and this the more orthodox take to be next kin to making distinctions in the deity, which is the thing they so much abhor in the Christians.' As to the Koran's being uncreated, he made some distinction; holding the word of God to be partly not in subjecto (and therefore uncreated), as when he spake the word Kûn, i. e. Fiat, at the creation, and partly in e. 216 • Maimonides teaches the same, not as the doctrine of the Motazalites, but his own. Vide More Nev. lib. 1, c. 57. Al Shahrestâni, apud Poc. Spec. p. 214. Abu'lfarag. D. 167. * Vide Poc. Spec. p. 221. Sharh al Mawâkef, and al Shahrest. apud Por Maimonides (in Proleg. ad Pirke Aboth, sect. viii.) asserts the same thing. 2 Al Shahrest. ib. p. 215. Abu'lfarag, and al Shahrest. ubi See before, sect. iii. p. 48. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 240. Al Shahrest. Mawâkef, apud Poc. ubi sup. p. 214. Maracc. Prodr. ad Ref. Alcor. Vide Poc. ibid. sup. p. 217. and Sharh al part. i. p. 74. zelah. p. 215-217. * Idem. ib. "Vide Poc. Spec. p. 213, and D'Herbel. Art. Mota 'Auctor al Mawâkef, apud Poc. ib. Al Shahrestani, apud Poc. subjecto, as the precepts, prohibitions, &c. Marracc: mentions an opinion of Abu Holeil's concerning predestination, from an Arab writer, which being by him expressed in a manner not very intelligible, I choose to omit. 2. The Jobbâïans, or followers of Abu Ali Mohammed Ebn Abd al Wahhâb, surnamed al Jobbâï, whose meaning when he made use of the common expression of the Mótazalites, that God knows by his essence, &c. was, that God's being knowing is not an attribute, the same with knowledge, nor such a state as rendered his being knowing necessary. He held God's word to be created in subjecto, as in the preserved table, for example, the memory of Gabriel, Mahammed, &c. This sect, if Marracci has given the true sense of his author, denied that God could be seen in paradise without the assistance of corporeal eyes; and held that man produced his acts by a power superadded to health of body and soundness of limbs; that he who was guilty of a mortal sin was neither a believer nor an infidel, but a transgressor (which was the original opinion of Wâsel), and if he died in his sins would be doomed to hell for eternity; and that God conceals nothing of whatever he knows from his servants.7 3. The Hâshemians; who were so named from their master Abu Hâshem al Salâm, the son of Abu Ali al Jobbâï, and whose tenets nearly agreed with those of the preceding sect. Abu Hâshem took the Mótazalite form of expression, that God knows by his essence, in a different sense from others, supposing it to mean, that God hath or is endued with a disposition which is a known property, or quality, posterior or accessory to his exist ence. His followers were so much afraid of making God the author of evil, that they would not allow him to be said to create an infidel; because, according to their way of arguing, an infidel is a compound of infidelity and man, and God is not the creator of infidelity.1 Abu Hâshem, and his father Abu Ali al Jobbâï, were both celebrated for their skill in scholastic divinity.2 4. The Nodhâmians, or followers of Ibrahim al Nodhâm; who, having read books of philosophy, set up a new sect, and, imagining he could not sufficiently remove God from being the author of evil, without divesting him of his power in respect thereto, taught that no power ought to be ascribed to God concerning evil and rebellious actions: but this he affirmed against the opinion of his own disciples, who allowed that God could do evil, but did not, because of its turpitude. Of his opinion as to the Koran being created, we have spoken elsewhere.1 5. The Hâyetians, so named from Ahmed Ebn Hâyet, who had been of the sect of the Nodhâmians, but broached some new notions on reading the philosophers. His peculiar opinions were, 1. That Christ was the eternal Word incarnate, and took a true and real body, and will judge all creatures in the life to come: he also farther asserted, that there are two gods, or creators; the one eternal, viz. the most high God, and the other not eternal, viz. Christ; which opinion, though Dr. Pocock urges the same as an ar gument that he did not rightly understand the Christian mysteries," is not much different from that of the Arians and Socinians. 2. That there is a successive transmigration of the soul from one body into another; and that 2 Al Shahrestâni, apud Poc. p. 217, &c. Idem, apud Poc. Spec. p. 215. 2 Ebn In Prodr. part 3, p. 74. Al Shahrest. Idem, and Auctor al Mawâkef. ib. p. 218. • Vide Eund. ib. Al Shahrest. apud Khalecân. in vitis eorum. Al Shahrest. See before, sect. iii. p. 49. • Al Shahrest. al Mawâkef, e Marracci, ubi sup. p. 75, ex al Shahrest. Vide Poc. ib. the last body will enjoy the reward or suffer the punishment due to each soul; and 3. That God will be seen at the resurrection, not with the bodily eyes, but those of the understanding.9 6. The Jâhedhians, or followers of Amru Ebn Bahr, surnamed al Jâhedh, a great doctor of the Mótazalites, and very much admired for the elegance of his composures;' who differed from his brethren in that he imagined the damned would not be eternally tormented in hell, but should be changed into the nature of fire, and that the fire would of itself attract them, without any necessity of their going into it. He also taught that if a man believed God to be his Lord, and Mohammed the apostle of God, he became one of the faithful, and was obliged to nothing farther. His peculiar opinion as to the Korân has been taken notice of before." 7. The Mozdârians, who embraced the opinions of Isa Ebn Sobeih al Mozdâr, and those very absurd ones: for, besides his notions relating to the Korân, he went so directly counter to the opinion of those who abridged God of the power to do evil, that he affirmed it possible for God to be a liar, and unjust. He also pronounced him to be an infidel who thrust himself into the supreme government: nay he went so far as to assert men to be infidels while they said, There is no God but God, and even condemned all the rest of mankind as guilty of infidelity; upon which Ibrahim Ebn al Sendi asked him whether paradise, whose breadth equals that of heaven and earth, was created only for him and two or three more who thought as he did? to which it is said he could return no answer.s 8. The Basharians, who maintained the tenets of Bashar Ebn Mótamer, the master of al Mozdâr, and a principal man among the Mótazalites. He differed in some things from the general opinion of that sect, carrying man's free agency to a great excess, making it even independent: and yet he thought God might doom an infant to eternal punishment, but granted he would be unjust in so doing. He taught that God is not always obliged to do that which is best, for if he pleased he could make all men true believers. These sectaries also held, that if a man repent of a mortal sin, and afterwards return to it, he will be liable to suffer the punishment due to the former transgression.' 9. The Thamamians, who followed Thamâma Ebn Bashar, a chief Mó. tazalite. Their peculiar opinions were, 1. That sinners should remain in hell for ever. 2. That free actions have no producing author. 3. That at the resurrection all infidels, idolaters, atheists, Jews, Christians, Magians, and heretics, shall be reduced to dust.2 10. The Kadarians; which is really a more ancient name than that of Mótazalites; Mábad al Johni and his adherents being so called, who disputed the doctrine of predestination before Wâsel quitted his master; for which reason some use the denomination of Kadarians as more extensive than the other, and comprehend all the Mótazalites under it. This sect deny absolute predestination, saying that evil and injustice ought not to be attributed to God, but to man, who is a free agent, and may therefore be rewarded or punished for his actions, which God has granted him power either to do or to let alone. And hence it is said they are called Kada. rians, because they deny al Kadr, or God's absolute decree; though others |