Part I
SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
AND THE LEBANON
SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
AND THE LEBANON A
CONSIDERATION OF THEIR ORIGIN,
CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES,
AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH AND IN-
FLUENCE UPON MODERN FREEMASONRY
By BERNARD H. SPRINGETT, P.M., P.Z.
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD-
RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET,
First published in 1922
(All rights reserved)
Printed in Great Britain by
BROTHERS* LIMITED, THB GRESHAM PRESS^ LONDON AND WOKINO
INTRODUCTION
A SURPRISING amount of scorn and ridicule has been the
reception accorded by Freemasons, both in Great Britain
and in America, to previous attempts to place on record
some very plain proofs that we are justified in saying in our
Masonic Ritual that " we came from the East and proceeded
to the West/ 1 The plain fact that much of what we now
look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised
as part and parcel of the religions of the Middle East for many
thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop
and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and
scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student, and this
seems to betoken an unwillingness to credit Masonry with
an existence of more than two or three hundred years at
most. It is painful to those who, like myself, take a justifiable
pride in the antiquity of Masonry, far exceeding that of any
other religion in the world known to mankind, to hear it
so frequently condemned as completely legendary.
In the following pages I have attempted to bring together,
from a very large number of sources, reliable evidence as to
the prevalence amongst the inhabitants, ancient and modern,
of Syria in general and the mountains of the Lebanon in
particular, of various ceremonial rites, manners and customs.
These, with the accompanying initiations, signs, pass-words
and grips, together with the allegorical and symbolical
language ^employed, seem to me' to point 'to' an extremely
remote origin, and I hope some of my readers, at least, may
be equally convinced. So far, as some writers would like
us to believe, from the Templars who took part in the Crusades
leaving behind them among the Arabian and Syrian tribes
they came in contact with some traces of Masonry, we can
see, plainly enough, that they, on the contrary, found
6 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
own Masonic knowledge strengthened considerably by what
they came in touch with in the East. Thus, on their return
to their native land, a natural result would be some develop-
ment of the extremely ancient ritual of the Druids, remnants
of that Stellar Cult which seems to be the true source of
Freemasonry, which extended by the influencing visits of
Phoenician merchants, had been carefully preserved and added
to by the loving care of Alfred and Athelstan, as proved by
reliable documents in the Bodleian Library and the British
Museum.
Still further revised and modernized, altered in certain
attributes of the symbolism, altered, very materially of course,
in language, Freemasonry in its present form has preserved
for us unchanged, as being unchangeable, the Ancient
Landmarks, for some of which Enoch might even have been
responsible, as claimed by our traditions.
The late Mr. A. L. Rawson, the American artist
who illustrated several books on classical mythology for
J. W. Bouton, the New York publisher of Isis Unveiled?
wrote for Madam Blavatsky a long description, which will be
found further on in this present work, of his initiation into
the Druse sect, which gave me my first incentive to research
into Syrian Masonry. Mr. Rawson was very enthusiastic
indeed on the resemblances he found in the Druse system
with that of Freemasonry, but his views met with such ridicule
among American Masons that he considered it would be
a thankless and hopeless task to publish anything further
on the subject with a view to educating them. The Rev.
Haskett Smith, when reading a similarly interesting and
carefully prepared paper before the learned " Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum " met with equal coldness. It will be seen
from the note on the subject in the Appendix that while only
one learned Brother could praise the author, and he only
because he had introduced a fresh line of research, several
were prompt enough to ridicule his propositions ! Lyde,
Taylor, and Von Hammer, in the innumerable traces 'their
very interesting works have supplied me with of a connection
between Syrian religions and Masonry, have themselves
only found therein occasions for pouring contempt on the
practices of Freemasonry, as imitating the debasing customs
INTRODUCTION 7
of the Syrian tribes as it appeared to their non-Masonic
souls that all initiatory customs were only a prelude to
debauchery and excess. How much more we might have
gathered with regard to the subject of our inquiry, the
prevalence of Masonic rites amongst these tribes, had these
learned authors been themselves Freemasons ! Nor have
later writers on Masonry developed this connection with
Syria as they might have been expected to do. Yarker
has given only certain references where one might J^ave
expected him to go thoroughly into the subject. (Waite,
the great writer on mystic Masonry, with probably the
profoundest knowledge of ritual and tradition possessed
by anyone, would seem to have carefully avoided any
endeavour to confirm traditions, but rather to have discussed
resemblances, and explained symbolisms, on a groundwork
of mediaeval institution. Dr. Oliver refers to traditions as
if he believed in them, and took them as having, at least,
a vestige of foundation in fact. But most modern Masonic
authors treat him as visionary. Churchward went at length,
in his Arcana of Freemasonry, into the undoubted antiquity
of the signs, tokens and words used in modern Masonry,
and traced back their connection through all the ages with
the Stellar Cult of antediluvian times. But one may well
ask: "Who has believed his report ? " On the contrary,
the average Freemason, at any rate in this country, seems
quite willing to be told that all the ancient allusions in our
rituals are purely traditional, have no actual foundation in
fact or history, and are all due to the imagination of those
who compiled our present rituals and constitutions, some-
where in the eighteenth century.
Take, for instance, the Rosicrucians. One would have
thought that either Waite or Wynn Westcott, while clearly
showing the influence of the Arabian alchemists on the writings
and researches of European disciples, would have associated
the establishment by Christian Rosen- Kreutz of a " House
of the Holy Spirit, " on his return from his sojourn in the
East, as a very natural result of his becoming acquainted,
while passing through Egypt (the only available route for
him from Damascus to Fez), with the " House of Wisdom "
at Cairo. There can be little doubt in the minds of those
8 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
who study intelligently the Rosicrucian rituals, and reflect
thereon, that the close connection between Freemasonry and
Alchemy which they find revealed is due to the teaching he
received, during his Eastern wanderings, from Arabian
Freemasons, still holding to their Masonic tenets, even if
the " House " itself had been ruthlessly destroyed some
hundred years earlier.
I am dealing with this question more fully in a subsequent
chapter, as I am convinced that herein we find a very strong
corroboration of my contentions that to Asia in general and
to Syria in particular, we must look for the source of Masonic
tradition and ritual.
It is a vast subject, and has involved research in the works
of a large number of writers, as will be seen from the
Bibliography I include in the present volume. It has been
necessary, as a background, to survey the ancient Magian
schools, an inheritance from the earliest prehistoric times, and
to trace their influence, in Arabia, Persia and Egypt ; on
the early Syrian Gnostics, and on the Jews during their
Babylonian captivity, whence they evidently derived their
Kabalistic philosophy. We shall have to glance, if only
cursorily, at the doctrines and practices of sects which, at
first sight, may appear to have so little in common. These
include the Druids, the Manicheans and Gnostics, with all
their developments traceable through to the Pythagorean
system : the Templars ; the Essenes, Therapeutae, Nazarenes,
and their modern representatives, the Mandaites, or Christians
of St. John ; the Sabeans, Nabatheans and Samaritans ;
the Sufeites, and the various Dervish Orders ; the secret
sects of Islam, the Ismaeli, Batenians, Karmatians, and
Metawileh ; the Lodge of Wisdom at Cairo, the Assassins,
the Nusairis, and the Druses. The links in each case have
lain ready to hand throughout the ages. All that was needed
was some loving and careful hand to attempt to weld them
into an homogeneous chain, strong enough to bear the strain
of keen criticism from the majority of my Masonic brethren
which I am willing and prepared to brave, in the hopes that
some, perchance, may be strengthened in their own convictions
by the perusal of these pages.
It has been largely a task of collating the writings of
INTRODUCTION 9
others, putting them, as it were, in a fresh setting with the
points of view of other authors. There should be a gain
in lucidity and value, when a comparison is presented, or
a condensation made, of that which has been noticed and
described by men thoroughly engrossed in the subject they
have written about, in the majority of cases, from a non-
Masonic view-point. In order to ascertain more clearly the
reasons for many points of ritual in whic'i will be found the
connections with modern Freemasonry, it has been necessary
to deal at some length with the Creeds of Mohammedans,
Nusairis, and Druses. But this of itself will no doubt be
found an interesting study by most of those who purchase
and read this volume, who are interested in Craft Ritual,
or in the symbolism of the higher Masonic Degrees. In this
earnest hope I leave myself and my labours in their kindly
hands.
In the preparation of this work I have benefited laigely
by the kind suggestions of my good friend, Mr. William Tait,
of Belfast, and through him I have had access to some useful
notes of the late Mr. A. L. Rawson. I am most grateful also
to W. Bro. W. J. Songhurst, the Librarian and Secretary
of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, for permission to reprint
Mr. Haskett Smith's paper on The Druses ; and to the Theo-
sophical Society, for permission to reprint an article by
Madam Blavatsky. I have endeavoured to give full attribu-
tion to the many authors, alive or dead, from whom I have
quoted at more or less length, especially Miss Lucy Garnett,
whose unique details with regard to Dervish ceremonies
I have so fully made use of.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION 5
I. THE ROOT PRINCIPLES OF ALL FREEMASONRY . . . 15
II. THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 21
III. THE ANTIQUITY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LEBANON . 34
IV. THE SABEANS, WORSHIPPERS OF THE POLE STAR . . 43
V. THE GNOSTICS AND THE MANICHEANS .... 52
VI. OTHER GNOSTIC SECTS: THE OPHITES, BASILIDEANS, AND
FOLLOWERS OF SIMON MAGUS 6l
VII. THE SCHIITE SECTS : SUFEISM AND THE DERVISH ORDERS 68
VIII. INITIATION RITES AMONG THE DERVISHES ... 75
IX. OTHER SCHIITE SECTS : THE METAWILEH .... 83
X. THE SECT OF THE ESSENES AND THEIR TENETS . . 89
XI. PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYSTEM 98
XII. THE ISMAELI AND THEIR VARIOUS BRANCHES : ORIGIN
OF THE ASSASSINS IOJ
XIII. THE ASSASSINS Il6
XIV. THE MOHAMMEDAN CREED ; FROM AN ORIGINAL ARABIC
CONFESSION OF FAITH 123
XV. THE FIRST FOUR CALIPHS AND THE TWELVE IMAUMS . 133
XVI. THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSA1RIS . . . 140
XVII. THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS Continued . 154
XVIII. RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE NUSAIRIS . . . .165
XIX. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND DEEPER MYSTERIES OF
THE NUSAIRI RELIGION 175
XX. THE " HOUSE OF WISDOM " AT CAIRO, AND THE FOUNDING
OF THE DRUSE SECT BY EL DORAZI AND HAMZEH . l8o
11
12 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
CHAPTER PAGE
XXI. THE RELIGION OF THE DRUSES 1 88
XXII. RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES OF THE DRUSES .... ig8
XXIII. RELIGIOUS CREED OF THE DRUSES 2O8
XXIV. RESEMBLANCE OF THE DRUSE RELIGION TO THIBETAN
LAMAISM 234
XXV. THE RELATION OF THE DRUSES TO FREEMASONRY . 248
XXVI. THE YEZIDIS, OR DEVIL-WORSHIPPERS .... 259
XXVII. MODERN ARABIAN FREEMASONRY 270
XXVIII. SYRIAN INFLUENCES ON MODERN FREEMASONRY . . 275
XXIX. SYRIAN INFLUENCES ON THE ORDER OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
AND THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE . 288
BIBLIOGRAPHY 297
APPENDIX-
NEW YEAR'S EVE CEREMONY AMONG THE MANDATTES 303
THE NUSAIRI FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS, OR MEELAD 308
THE NUSAIRI FESTIVAL OF NUROOZ . . . . 310
MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL OF MOHURRAM . . 3IO
LAMENTATIONS FOR ADONIS 311
DISCUSSION OF IIASKE1T SMITH'S PATER ON THE
DRUSES 312
FAITH HEALING AMONG THE DRUSES . . . 313
THE TWO PILLARS OF NIMROD 314
TWO PILLARS IN THE CASTLE OF HARAN . . . 315
THE TWO PILLARS OF SETH 315
JACHIN AND BOAZ 316
LEGENDS OF ENOCH 317
MOSES' KNOWLEDGE OF ASTRONOMY . . . . 318
DISPUTE BETWEEN ADAM AND MOSES , . .318
MOSES DID NOT TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 319
CONTENTS 18
PAGE
APPENDIX (continued)
ELIAS THE FOUNDER OF THE ESSENES . . . 319
THE ANCIENT BOOK OF JASHER 319
CLASSIFICATION OF THE TEMPLE WORKMEN . .320
JEWISH FREEMASONRY IN THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY 32!
GNOSTIC EMPHASIS ON " RIGHT " AND " LEFT " . 32!
THE SPIRIT OF GNOSTICISM 322
PORPHYRY 322
MANES MEANS COMFORTER 323
GEBA1L, THE ANCIENT BYBLUS 323
ANTIQUITY OF SIDON 333
RUINS NEAR MARAH, WITH MASONS' MARKS . . 324
ANCIENT OLIVE GROVES OF SYRIA . . . .324
AQUEDUCT OF SEMIRAMIS 324
THE MYTH OF THE PHCENIX 325
WORSHIP OF THE PEACOCK 326
THE TRIQUETRA AND PENTALPHA .... 327
THE SANCTITY OF THE TREFOIL 328
EASTERN IDEAS OF PARADISE 328
NAMES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE SEVEN ARCHANGELS 329
ORIGIN OF THE KORAN 330
CREATION OF THE KORAN 330
ORIGIN OF THE SWASTIKA 33!
CIRCUMAMBULATING THE LODGE . . . 331
CIRCUIT WITH THE SUN, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT . 332
THE THREE STEPS OF VISHNU 332
ORIENTATION OF LODGES 333
MASONIC TRACING-BOARDS AND ANCIENT CHRISTIAN
CHURCHES 333
RELIGIOUS WORK OF THE ANCIENT FREEMASONS . 335
14 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
PAGE
APPENDIX (continued)
PATRIARCHAL SOURCE OF FREEMASONRY . . . 336
TRANSITION FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN INITIATIONS 336
KHONX-OM-PAX 337
THREE STARS OF ORION'S BELT 337
SYRIAN USE OF TOBACCO 337
FAMA FRATERNITATIS I THE FOUNDING OF THE
ROSICRUCIAN ORDER 338
KABALISM 340
THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH 340
MASONIC MEETING IN A MOSQUE .... 341
PRINCIPAL AUTHORS QUOTED 343
INDEX 345
SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
CHAPTER I
THE ROOT PRINCIPLES OF ALL FREEMASONRY
" FROM the commencement of the world/' says William
Pieston, 1 " we may trace the foundation of Masonry. Ever
since symmetry began, and harmony displayed her charms, our
Order has had a being. During many ages, and in many
different countries, it has flourished. No art, no science,
preceded it. In the dark periods of antiquity, when literature
was in a low state, and the rude manners of our forefathers
withheld from them that knowledge we now so amply share,
Masonry diffused its influence. This science unveiled, arts
arose, civilization took place, and the pi ogress of knowledge
and philosophy gradually dispelled the gloom of ignorance
and barbarism. Government being settled, authority was
given to law r s, and the assemblies of the fraternity acquired
the patronage of the great and the good, while the tenets
of the profession diffused unbounded utility.
" Masonry is a science confined to no particular country,
but ifextends over the whole terrestrial globe. Wherever
arts flourish, there it flourishes too, and by secret and in-
violable signs, carefully preserved among the fraternity,
it becomes a universal language. The distant Chinese,
the wild Arab, and the American savage will embrace a
brother Briton. The universal principles of the art unite in
one indissoluble bond of affection men of the most opposite
tenets, of the most distant countries, and of the most
contradictory opinions ; so that in every nation a Mason
will find a friend, and in every climate a home/ 1
* Illustrations of Masonry, p. 6. London, 1801.
15
16 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
No matter what degree of Masonry we are concerned
with, or in whatever country Masonic rites are practised,
the groundwork is ever the same, the Immortality of the
Soul, symbolized more or less dramatically by the death of
a victim, and the methods to be adopted to restore that
victim to life, of another kind. In tracing, therefore, the
antecedents of our present ritual we must endeavour to find
the earliest mention of this doctrine of the Resurrection.
The story of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the
Ascension would appear to have been clearly foreshadowed,
and pictorially represented, some two hundred thousand
years before our Christian era ! The combined discoveries
of geologists and Oriental scholars and decipherers of cunei-
form inscriptions leave no room for doubt on this important
point. A pictograph reproduced by Dr. Churchward, 1
taken from some ruins in Central America, which he reckons
to be over two hundred thousand years old, " represents the
Crucifixion during the period of the Stellar Cult, and shows
a victim crucified on the two Poles, North and South. The
hieroglyphics state that this is the GOD of the North and the
South, the Great One of the Seven Glorious Ones (attributes).
A Crown of Thorns is depicted on his head. His side is
pierced with a spear, from whence blood and water is falling
on his spiritual name, which, in Egyptian, is Amsu. He
is supported by his four brothers, Amsta, Hapi, Taumutf,
and Kabhsenuf, four ' Living Creatures ' represented else-
where in primeval drawings by a Lion, a Calf, a Man, and
an Eagle, symbols of the Four Evangelists : seen by St.
John in his Apocalyptic vision : and also handed down to
us, in the ritual of the Royal Arch, as the Banners of the four
armies of the Israelites. This Crucified Deity was known
by different names in different countries, namely : Horus,
of the Stellar Cult of the Egyptians ; Huitzilopochtli, of
the Astecs ; Zipe, of the Zapotics ; Hacaxipectli, of Guate-
mala ; Ptah-Seker-Ausar, of the Egyptians, in their Solar
Cult ; Tien-hwang Ta-Tici, of the Chinese ; Merodach,
of the Babylonians ; lu, or Ea, of the Chaldeans, Assyrians
and Druids of Britain ; Uiracocha, of the Peruvians, and
many other names in various parts of the world ; yet all
1 Arcana of Freemasonry, p. 41.
ROOT PRINCIPLES OF AIX* FREEMASONRY 17
one and the same, as proved by the same signs and symbols
always associated with him, in whatever part of the world
found." I From these ancient pictures, from hieroglyphics
in Egypt and Central and South Ameiica, above all from the
deciphering of the Book of the Dead, with its complete Ritual
of the Ancient Mysteries, we know for certain that, ages
before the Flood, our primeval brethfcrn were assembling
in the forerunners of Masonic Lodges, using signs, symbols,
and secret words, many of which are still in use in our own
Lodges : that they had three^ principal degrees, and thirty-
three in all : that their temples were built in the form of a
double cube : and that there were always two pillars at
the entrance to these temples.
But to deal with Masonry at this early period of the world's
history is not within the scope of the present work. Those
who need convincing proof of the extreme antiquity of the
Masonic ritual should study Dr. Churchward's two books
closely, 2 and also the Book of the Dead, of which an admirable
translation has been prepared by Dr. Wallis Budge.
According to this Book of the Dead,* the builders of
temples, who were the first originals of our Brotherhood,
and who were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries, were called
Craftsmen and Companions. At the time of the Stellar
Cult a body of these Craftsmen, it is recorded, left Egypt
and travelled into the Land of Chaldea. The Stellar Cult
became merged in the Solar Cult. The Sun and Moon in
addition to the Seven Stars became part and parcel of the
religion of the country. Then followed the Great Deluge,
which appears to have left Syria the centre of the habitable
earth, to carry Masonry back again into Egypt through the
agency of the Shepherd Kings. With the introduction of
the Sun as an object of worship, as symbolical of the Grand
Architect of the Universe, and representing to His human
creatures the magnificence of His Glory and Power, came a
change of name of that All-powerful Deity from Horus,
GOD of the North Pole-Star, to El-Shaddai, GOD of the South
Pole-Star. Here we find the origin of Operative, as distinct
1 Churchward's Arcana of Freemasonry, p. 42.
Arcana of Freemasonry and Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man.
3 Book of the Deaa, chap. Ixxx.
2
18 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
from Speculative, Freemasonry, as we have it at the present
day. iAey~us the same name for the Deity : they salute
the rising sun with the seven-fold salute which was originally
Stellar, but continued as an early Solar custom : they have
a circular altar in the centre exactly under the plumb-line
which comes down fiom the God of the Pole Star North.
El-Shaddai was the Phoenician name for Sut, to whom the
Egyptians erected the Second Pyramid, the First being
dedicated to Horus, the North Polar Star, called by the
Chaldeans "Jtao/' probably from " lu," one of the Egyptian
names for Horus. Both lao and El-Shaddai were divine
names in use amongst the Phoenicians. Whilst the Sacred
Name of lao, as well as its Egyptian origin, lu, developed
amongst the Hebrews into Jah, and its extension, Jahovah
as handed down in the ritual of the Royal Arch Degree, the
Druids in Britain worshipped the Deity under the names of
lau and Hu. Here, then, would seem to be convincing
proof, sufficient one would think for the most sceptical of
English Masons, that it is to the Phoenicians, journeying from
the East to the Western Isles, that we owe knowledge of
signs, symbols, and words, unchanged in most respects,
certainly in the more important aspects, from those used by
our extremely ancient brethren, in pre-historic ages.
If further proof is wanted of the Eastern source of our
rituals let us again turn to the Royal Arch Degree which,
while commemorating Masonry as practised by the Jews
in their Babylonian captivity, makes use of certain words
long anterior to that epoch. Probably few Egyptian scholars
will attempt to refute the fact that the Chaldee words made
use of in Royal Arch Masonry were in use, of a certainty,
in this country, at least a hundred years before the discovery
of the Rosetta Stone enabled the ancient Chaldee language
to be read, by deciphering Babylonian and Assyrian tablets.
Obviously, therefore, such words as were used in our rituals
must have been transmitted orally. And if transmitted
orally, it very naturally follows, equally plainly one would
think, that they have been transmitted from the age when
they were in use as the Babylonian and Chaldee language,
that is, before the conquest by the Persians, and their
introduction of their own language. I am a member of two
ROOT PRINCIPLES OF ALL FREEMASONRY 19
Orders of extreme antiquity, both closely allied to Masonry,
though probably unknown to the large majority of English
Freemasons, too many of whom seem to imagine that the three
Craft Degrees constitute the sum total of Masonry. In both
of these the Sacred Name lao is employed in speaking of
the Almighty Father of the Universe, in one accompanied
by the ancient Chaldean words Khonx-Om-Pax, 1 following
the Egyptian words Khabs-Am-Pekht, a very significant
proof of the antiquity of the source from which this particular
ritual is derived. The other Order to which I refer claims
to have preserved its ritual from the inhabitants of the
submerged Atlantis. And however remote may seem this
origin, it is a peculiar fact that the symbolical representation
of the Sun and the Moon in this Order, the arrangement
of the Temple, and much of the ritual, would appear to
synchronize solely with the very earliest hieroglyphic
descriptions of both Stellar and Solar worship.
The universality of the science, to which attention is
called in our Masonic ritual, is evidenced by the unexpected
quarters in which Masonic signs and secrets are suddenly
found available. While the Solar ritual alluded to just
above is in many respects similar to one in use amongst
the Aborigines of Australia, the three steps of our First
Degree will admit one, it is said on good authority, to the
innermost and most sacred shrines of certain Hindu temples.
Later on in this work will be found an instance of the Five
Points of Fellowship being hailed with delight by the Nusairi,
as showing that their visitor was indeed a Brother Mason.
My own sponsor in Masonry, when prospecting in Mexico,
was received into blood-brotherhood by the chief of an Indian
tribe far remote from civilization, with signs, unknown to
him then, but afterwards entrusted to him when being made
a Knight of Malta.
Scotch Masons may be interested to learn that in some
extremely ancient remains of a Druidic temple at Glammis,
the Five Points of Fellowship are very clearly defined on a
stone known locally as the Gravestone of Malcolm II, but
certainly of much earlier date than his reign, which ended,
in 1302. Here this world-wide sign of Masonic brotherhood
1 See Appendix.
20 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
is surmounted by a square vessel, into which two forms
are disappearing, only their legs showing, a solstitial symbol
of the commencing of a fresh year which we may presume it
was thus hoped would be distinguished for an especial display
of brotherly love. And on surrounding stones are to be
be found emblems showing a very close connection with the
symbolical religions of the Hindus and other Asiatic peoples
of the earliest pre-historic origin.
CHAPTER II
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES
" THE institution of the Mysteries/' says G. S. Mead, "is the
most interesting phenomenon in the study of religion. The
idea of antiquity was that there was something to be known
in religion, secrets or mysteries into which it was possible
to be initiated ; that there was a gradual process of unfolding
in thjng^jeligious ; in fine, that thertTw as a~ science of the
soul, a knowledge of things unseen.
" A persistent tradition in connection with all the great
Mystery-institutions was that their several founders were
the introducers of all the arts of civilization ; that they
were either themselves gods or were instructed in them
by the gods in brief, that they were men of far greater
knowledge than any who had come after ; they were the
teachers of infant races. And not only did they teach them
the arts, but they instructed them in the nature of the gods
of the human soul, and the unseen world, and set forth how
the world came into existence and much else/ 1 1
The first and most important secret of the Mysteries,
whether celebrated in Eastern Asia, Egypt, or Greece, was,
of course, that which is the grandest truth in theJUniverse^
the absolute Unity in Trinity oT^GoD, and His Eternal"
Nature, apart from all other existences. The second was
the existence of the Holy_ Spirit, the femina nature of the
Deity, and the medium by which all creation was made
manifest. The third secret was the Birth, Life, Death,
Resurrection and^Ascension of the Third Person of the Trinity
arid the " Blessed hope of Everlasting Life/ 1 thereby revealed
to the human race. These principles were only in part
communicated to those initiated into the Lesser Mysteries,
1 Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 46. London, 1906.
21
22 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
a full revelation being rigidly preserved for those privileged
to obtain admission into the Greater Mysteries: Epiphanius
says that Enoch l was the founder of the Mysteries, although
he does not say whether of the Lesser, the Greater, or of
both.
Under the name of Mithraic Worship, the Supreme Deity
was symbolized for adoration as the Sun, which the name
Mithras signifies, while it also, if taken at its numerical
value in the Greek letters, produced the number 365, the
days of the year, just as does the name Abraxas of the
Gnostics, and Belenos, the name given to the Sun in ancient
Gaul. On Mithraic monuments we find representations of
the globe of the sun, the club, and the bull, symbols of the
highest truth, the highest creative activity, and the highest
vital power. Such a Trinity agrees with that of Plato,
which consists of the Supreme Good, The Word, and the
Soul of the World : with that of Hermes Trismegistus,
consisting of Light, Intelligence and Soul ; and with that of
Porphyry, which consists of Father, Word and Supreme Soul.
The religion of the Magi, says Franz Curnont, the great
authority on Mithraism, 1 "which was the highest blossom of
the genius of Iran, exercised a deep influence on Occidental
culture at three different periods. In the first place, Parseeism
had made a very distinct impression on Judaism in its
formative stage, and several of its cardinal doctrines were
disseminated by Jewish colonists throughout the entire
basin of the Mediterranean, and subsequently even forced
themselves on Orthodox Catholicism."
" The influence of Mazdaism on European thought was
still more direct when Asia Minor was conquered by the
Romans. Here, from time immemorial, colonies of Magi
who had migrated from Babylon lived in obscurity, and
welding together their traditional beliefs and the doctrines
of the Grecian thinkers, had elaborated, little by little, in
these barbaric regions a religion original despite its complexity.
At the beginning of our era we see this religion suddenly
emerging from the darkness, and pressing forward, rapidly
1 See Appendix : " Legend of Enoch."
a Mysteries oj Mithra, American translation, Chicago, 1903 : preface to
the French edition.
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 28
and simultaneously, into the valleys of the Danube and the
Rhine, and even into the heart of Italy. The nations of
the Occident felt vividly the superiority of the Mazdean faith
over their ancient national creeds, and the populace thronged
to the altars of the exotic god. But the progress of the
conquering religion was checked when it came in contact
with Christianity. The two adversaries discovered with
amazement, but with no inkling of their origin, the similarities
which united them. The defeat which ensued for Mithraism
was not due entirely to the superiority of the evangelical
ethics, nor to that of the Apostolic doctrine regarding the
teaching of the Mysteries ; it perished, not only because
it was encumbered with the onerous heritage of a
superannuated past, but also because its liturgy and its
theology had retained too much of its Asiatic colouring to
be accepted by the Latin spirit without repugnance. For
a converse reason the same battle, waged in the same epoch
in Persia between these same two rivals, was without success,
if not without honour, for the Christians ; and in the realms
of the Sassanids Zoroastrianism never once was in serious
danger of being overthrown."
The defeat of Mithraism did not, however, utterly
annihilate its power. It had prepared the minds of the
Occident for the reception of a new faith which, like itself,
came also from the banks of the Euphrates, and which
resumed hostilities with entirely different tactics. Mani-
cheism appeared as its successor. This was the final assault
made by Persia on the Occident an assault more sanguinary
than the preceding, but one which was ultimately destined
to be repulsed by the powerful resistance offered to it by the
Christian empire.
A scrupulous respect for the traditional practices of their
sect characterized the Magi of Asia Minor, and continued
to be manifested with unabated ardour among their Latin
successors. On the downfall of paganism the latter still
took pride in worshipping the gods according to the ancient
Persian rites which Zoroaster is said to have instituted.
These rites sharply distinguished their religion from all others
that were practised at the same time in Rome, and prevented
its Persian origin from ever being forgotten.
24 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Amongst the few reliable details that have been preserved
for us of the Mithraic ceremonies, a text of -St. Jerome,
confirmed by a series of inscriptions, informs us that there
were seven degrees of initiation, and that the mystic
successively assumed the name of Raven, Occult, Soldier,
Lion, Persian, Runner of the Sun, and Father. On the
bas-reliefs they are represented in garbs suitable to those
titles, which, or something similar, appear to have been
common survivals of an extremely primitive cult amongst
all nations of antiquity. The seven degrees of initiation
through which the candidate was forced to pass, in order
to acquire perfect wisdom and purity, answered to the seven
planetary spheres which the soul was forced to traverse in
order to reach the abode of the blessed. From being Ravens
the initiated were promoted to the ranks of Occult in which,
hidden by a veil, they remained invisible to the rest of the
congregation, to exhibit them constituting a special and
solemn rite. The Soldier formed part of the sacred militia
of the invincible god, and waged war under his direction
on the powers of evil. The dignity of Persian recalled the
first origin of the Mazdean religion, and he who obtained it
assumed, during the sacred ceremonies, the Oriental custom
of wearing the Phrygian cap, which had also been bestowed
on Mithra. The latter having been identified with the Sun,
his servitors invested themselves with the name of Runner
of the Sun (Heliodromoi) ; lastly, the title of Fathers was
borrowed from the Greeks, among whom this honorable
appellation frequently designated the directors of the
community.
In this septuple division of the rite, according to Porphyry,
the taking of the first three degrees did not authorize participa-
tion in the Mysteries. These Initiates, comparable to the
Christian Catechumens, were the servants (Huperetountes).
Only those who had received the Lion degree became
Participants (Metechontes) and it is for this reason that the
grade of Leo is mentioned more frequently in the inscriptions
than any other. Finally, at the summit of the hierarchy
were placed the Fathers (Patres Sacrorum) who appear to
have presided over the sacred ceremonies, and retained until
their death the general direction of the cult. We do not
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 25
know if the initiates were obliged to remain in any one of
the grades for a fixed time. The Fathers probably decided
when they were sufficiently prepared to receive the higher
initiation, which they conferred in person.
In the degree of Soldier (Miles), after taking a solemn
obligation of secrecy, and numerous lustrations with
consecrated water, the candidate was " sealed," not as in the
Christian liturgy with an unction on the iorehead, but with
a mark burnt in with a red-hot iron. In the degree of Lion
there were fresh purifications, but with honey poured on
the hands, and applied to the tongue. A loaf of bread and
a goblet of water were placed before the officiating priest,
who consecrated them with a sacred formula. Wine was
at a later date mingled with the water, replacing the
intoxicating juice of the Haoma, used in the original
Mazdean service. Only initiates who had attained the
grade of Lion were allowed to partake of these oblations,
from which was probably derived their title of Participants.
It was after the imbibing of this sacred wine, to which super-
natural effects, which were possibly akin to intoxication,
were ascribed, that the candidate underwent the awe-
inspiring trials which have always been associated with the
Mysteries by the early Christian writers.
The Sanctuaries of the Mysteries were always subterranean,
and in each was placed a ladder with seven steps, by which
ascent was made to the Mansions of Felicity. The candidate
for initiation was prepared by numerous lustrations with
fire, water, and honey, after which he had to pass through
numerous probations, ending with a fast of fifty days'
continuance, spent in perpetual silence and solitude. If
the candidate escaped partial or complete insanity, an
occurrence of great frequency, and surmounted the trials of
his fortitude, he was eligible for higher honours and the
superior degrees.
According to Heckethorn * the first degree was in-
augurated with purifying lustrations, and a sign was set
on the neophyte's brow, whilst he offered to the Deity a
loaf and a cup of water. A crown was presented to him
on the point of a sword, and he put it on his head with the
1 Secret Societies, p. 31,
26 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
words " Mithras is my crown." In the second degree the
candidate put on armour, to meet the representatives of
giants and wild beasts whom he was sent to encounter in
the subterranean vaults of the temple, the characters being
entrusted to priests perfectly prepared to attack the candidate
fiercely and often inflict serious wounds on him, possibly
causing loss of life. In the next degree he was robed with
a mantle on which were painted the signs of the Zodiac,
in which he again encountered appalling sights of terrifying
monsters. Escaping these in due course, he was saluted as
a " Lion of Mithras/' alluding to the Zodiacal sign in which
the Sun obtained his greatest power. Then the grand secret
was imparted to him, which, from the most authenticated
traditions, we may conclude was the highest knowledge
concerning the origin of the universe, and the attributes,
perfections, and works of the Almighty Creator.
The Lesser Mysteries, says Banier, served as a preparation
for the Greater, celebrated at Eleusis, and by their means
candidates were initiated into the secret rites of Ceres.
After having passed through a good many trials, the candidate
was termed Mystes, that is, qualified for being very soon
initiated into the Greater Mysteries, and to become Epoptes,
or the witness of the most secret Mysteries, which was not
permitted until after five years' probation, during which he
might enter into the vestibule of the temple, but not into
the Sanctuary. And even when he was Epoptes, and enjoyed
that privilege, there were still many things of which the
knowledge was reserved to the priests alone. At his initiation,
the candidate was introduced into the Temple by night,
after washing his hands at the entry, and placing on his head
a crown of myrtle. Then he was presented with a little
box, containing the Laws of Ceres, and the ceremonies of
her Mysteries, which he was told to read, and transcribe.
After this, terrifying darkness, peals of thunder, vivid flashes
of lightning, and the appearance of multitudes of terrifying
figures were succeeded by visions of charming beauty.
It may be said, says Theo of Smyrna, that " philosophy
is the initiation into and the tradition of real and true
Mysteries. But of initiation there were five parts. That
which has the precedency indeed, and is the first, is purifica-
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 27
tion. For the Mysteries are not to be imparted to all who are
willing to be initiated, but to the pure only. And the second
thing after purification is the Tradition of the Mystery. The
third stage is denominated Inspection. Then comes binding
the head, and placing on it crowns : so that he who is initiated
is now able to deliver to others the Mysteries which he has
himself received, whether it be the mystery of a torch-bearer,
or of the interpretation of the sacred ceremonies, or of some
other priesthood. But the fifth thing, which arises from
these others, is the felicity which results from being dear to
Divinity, and the associate of the Gods/' The Epoptae
in the Mysteries, says Faber, in his Pagan Idolatry, were
supposed invariably to have " experienced a certain regenera-
tion, or new birth, by which they entered upon a new state
of existence, and were deemed to have acquired a great
increase of light and knowledge. Hitherto they were exoteric
and profane now they become esoteric and holy. The rite
itself consisted sometimes in the aspirant's being born,
as it were, out of a small covered boat, in which he had been
previously committed to the mercy of the ocean ; sometimes
in his being produced from the image of a cow, within which
he had been first enclosed ; and sometimes in his coming
forth through the door of a dark, rocky cave, or artificial
stone cell, in which he had been shut up during the time
appointed by the Hierophant."
The Elysian fields, into which the Epoptae were conducted
after their fearful progress through the realms of death and
darkness, were variously said to be situated on the summit
of a lofty mountain, in the orb of the Moon, and in the midst
of the Ocean. According to the Chaldean teaching, the
soul, after its various migratory purgations, is exhorted to
hasten to the luminous abode of the Almighty Father from
whom it emanated, and to seek for Paradise.
In the archaeology of Wales, says Kenealy, 1 where the
Eleusinian Mysteries passed under the name of Ceridwen,
the Holy Spirit, we find traces of the oath which was imposed
on the aspirant. The latter, led by an accompanying priest
before the Hierophant, or Chief Priest, solemnly pledged
himself, under terrible penalties in case of violation, to
1 Book of God, ii, p. 53.
28 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
preserve the laws of the Sanctuary, however he might be
assaulted by his enemies, or deserted by his friends. In
the Isle of Anglesea, these rites took place in a sacred twilight,
gradually replacing the pitch darkness into which the
candidate was first taken, and he passed through fire, as
the symbol of GOD, and then through water, as the symbol
of the Holy Spirit.
In the Eleusinian Misteries the candidates received on
their foreheads the mark of the Tau Cross, symbolizing the
Light they were admitted into, and they were given at the
same time a sprig of acacia, an evergreen plant opening
its leaves in the morning and shutting them at night,
symbolizing Innocence, or freedom from sin, as its name
implies, conveying the same idea as the myrtle of the Mithraic
Mysteries, and the palm used in the Egyptian Rites. Its
use by Freemasons, though attributed to a different reason,
has evidently had its origin in the Mysteries, as will be clear
to every intelligent student.
The ancient Mithraic Mysteries were celebrated on the
25th of December, which was called The Day of the Nativity
of the Invincible. In Greece, the Eleusinian Mysteries com-
menced on the I5th of September, and lasted to the 23rd,
thus being held at the same period as the Hebrew Feast
of Tabernacles.
In a subsequent stage of the Mysteries the fully initiated
were made to undergo circumcision, and from this would
appear to have originated the idea of non-Masons that all
candidates for admission into the Craft had to suffer branding
or mutilation, with the satisfaction in consequence of the
initiate on finding this was merely a myth.
Among the ancient Hindus, the periods of initiation
were regulated by the increase and decrease of the moon,
and the Mysteries were divided into four degrees, the age
at which the candidate might be initiated into the first
degree being as early as eight years. He was then prepared
by a Brahmin who became his spiritual guide of the second
degree, the probationary ceremonies of which consisted in
incessant occupation in prayers, fastings, ablutions, and the
study of astronomy. In the hot season he sat exposed to
five fires, four blazing around him, with the sun above ; in
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 29
the rains, he stood uncovered ; in the cold season he wore
wet clothing. To participate in the high privileges which
the Mysteries were believed to confer, he was sanctified by
the sign of the cross, and subjected to the probation of the
pastos, the tomb of the sun, the coffin of Hiram, darkness
hell, all symbolical of the first three properties. His purifica-
tion being completed, he was led at night to the cavern of
initiation. This was brilliantly illuminated, and there sat
the three Hierophants, in the East, West, and South,
representing the GODS Brahama, who was painted red
to represent substance ; Vishnu, painted blue to symbolize
space ; Siva, painted white, in contrast to the black night
of eternity, surrounded by attendant mystagogues dressed
in appropriate vestments. The initiation was begun by an
apostrophe to the sun, addressed by the name of Pooroosh,
here meaning the vital soul, or the universal spirit of Brahm ;
and the candidate, after some further preliminary ceremonies,
was made to circumambulate x the cavern three times, and
afterwards conducted through seven dark caverns, during
which period the waitings of Mahadeva for the loss of Siva
were represented by dismal howlings. The usual paraphernalia
of light, of dismal sounds, and horrid phantoms, were produced
to terrify and confuse the aspirant. Having arrived at the
last cavern, the sacred conch was blown, the folding doors
thrown open, and the candidate was admitted into an apart-
ment filled with dazzling lights, ornamented with statues
and emblematic figures richly decorated with gems, and
scented with the most fragrant perfumes, intended to represent
Paradise. With eyes riveted on the altar, the candidate was
taught to expect the descent of the Deity in the bright
pyamidal fire that blazed upon it ; and in a moment of
enthusiasm thus artificially produced, the candidate might
indeed persuade himself that he actually beheld Brahm seated
on the lotus, with his four heads and arms, representing the
four elements and the four quarters of the globe, and bearing
in his hands the emblems of eternity and power, the circle
and fire. The symbol of initiation was a cord of seven threads,
knotted thrice three.
In the Egyptian Mysteries, the candidate for initiation,
1 See Appendix.
80 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
conducted by a guide, was led to a deep, dark well or shaft
in the pyramid in which, erected over vast subterranean
caverns, their initiation ceremonies were carried out. Into
this well, provided with a torch, he descended by means of
a ladder fixed to the side. Arrived at the bottom, he saw
two doors, one of them barred, the other yielding to the touch
of his hand. Passing through it, he beheld a winding gallery,
whilst the door behind him shut with a clang that reverberated
through the vaults. Inscriptions like the following met
his eye : " Whoso shall pass along this road alone, and
without looking back, shall be purified by fire, water and air :
and overcoming the fear of death shall issue from the bowels
of the earth to the light of day, preparing his soul to receive
the Mysteries of Isis." Proceeding onward, the candidate
arrived at another iron gate, guarded by three armed men,
whose shining helmets were surmounted by emblematic
animals, the Cerberus of Orpheus. Here the candidate had
offered to him the last chance of going back, if so inclined.
Electing to go forward, he underwent the trial by fire, by
passing through a hall filled with inflammable substances in
a state of combustion, and forming a bower of fire. The
floor was covered with a grating of red hot iron bars, leaving,
however, narrow interstices where he might safely place his
feet. Having surmounted this obstacle, he had to encounter
the trial by water. A wide and dark canal, fed by the waters
of the Nile, arrested his progress. Placing the flickering lamp
upon his head, he plunged into the canal, and swimming to
the opposite bank, found the greatest trial, that by air,
awaiting him. He landed upon a platform leading to an
ivory door, bounded by two walls of brass, into each of which
was inserted an immense wheel of the same metal. He in
vain attempted to open the door, when, espying two large
iron rings affixed to it, he took hold of them. Suddenly,
the platform sank from under his feet, a chilling blast of
air extinguished his lamp, the two brazen wheels revolved
with formidable rapidity and stunning noise, whilst he
remained suspended by the two rings over the fathomless
abyss. But before he was quite exhausted the platform
returned, the ivory door opened, and he saw before him a
magnificent temple brilliantly illuminated, and filled with
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 81
the priests of Isis clothed in the mystic insignia of their
offices, the Hierophant at their head. But the ceremonies
of initiation did not cease here. The candidate was subjected
to a series of fastings, which gradually increased for nine
times nine days. During this period a rigorous silence
was imposed upon him, which, if he preserved inviolate, he
was at length fully initiated into the esoteric doctrines of
Isis, and publicly proclaimed as a person who had been
initiated into the first degree.
But little is known of the rites of the second degree,
called the Mysteries of Serapis. Apuleius, who has given
us so many details of the first degree, scarcely touches upon
the second, and lamblichus seems almost equally reticent.
It would appear, however, as might be perhaps anticipated,
to have been a rite of mystical death, followed by the
resurrection in the third degree, called the Mysteries of Osiris,
in which the candidate, as in the third Craft degree, typified
the murdered Osiris.
In most cases, the initiation ceremony concluded with this
third degree, but Egyptian monarchs, and the higher grades
of the priesthood, were initiated subsequently into a fourth
degree, of seven grades, involving the rite of circumcision,
if not already performed, much solitary meditation, and
prolonged fasting. The postulant once again went through
a mystical death, before being finally instructed in the
higher branches of science, especially astronomy, astrology,
and communication with unseen worlds.
The whole aim of all the ancient Mysteries would clearly
seem to be moral and instructive, and it is only as time went,
on that licentiousness and mystification replaced the religious
symbolism of the original institutions.
A relic of the ancient mysteries can be found in the following
account of an arduous trial of fortitude employed in certain
female lodges in Paris. A candidate for admission, we are
told, was usually very much excited. During a part of the
ceremony she was conducted to an eminence, and told to
look down at what awaited her if she faltered in her duty.
Beneath her appeared a frightful abyss in which a double
row of iron spikes were visible. No doubt her mind was in
a chaos of fanaticism, for instead of shrinking at the sight,
82 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
she exclaimed, " I can encounter all," and sprang forward.
At that moment a secret spring was touched, and the candidate
fell, not on the spikes, but on a green bed in imitation of a
verdant plain. She fainted, but was soon recovered by her
friends, when, the scene having changed, she was reanimated
and soothed by the sweet strains of choral music.
The priests were practically the masters of the old world,
says the learned but anonymous author of The Canon, in
which the ancient religions, with their ceremonies and
beliefs, are treated from a numerical standpoint. Everything
and everybody, he says was subservient to the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, and no work could be undertaken without its
authority. " That the priests were legitimately entitled to
regulate the building of the temples of the GODS, nobody will
deny. And that they did exercise this control is beyond
dispute. For we find that Freemasons, or somebody corre-
sponding to the mediaeval Freemasons, with exclusive
privileges and secrets required for building the temples,
under ecclesiastical authority, have always existed. And
the knowledge which we possess of the mediaeval Freemasons
is sufficient to show that their secrets were the secrets of
religion, that is, of mediaeval Christianity/'
" It must be borne in mind, that only the vaguest ideas
prevail as to the mystical secrets of the old priests. 1 Every-
body knows that the Egyptians, Greeks, and other Eastern
nations concealed the vital doctrines of their theology from
the ignorant and vulgar, and it was only by a gradual process
of initiation that the meaning of the sacred writings and
ceremonies was explained. And then, after this preparation,
the initiates were allowed to be full partakers in the religious
rites.
" The doctrine of these Mysteries is assumed to have been
a defined scientific tradition, communicated orally to the
initiates or mystics, who secretly passed it on from generation
to generation. This mysticism, however, must not be
confounded with the speculative mistiness which is cultivated
by certain dreamy philosophers of our own day. The
Mystic (Mustes) in the old sense has naturally become extinct,
together with the Gnosis which formerly instructed him."
1 The Canon, p. 4. London, 1897.
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 38
We do not know if the Hebraized or Christianized version
of the Masonic ritual, as we now know it, has anything more
than faint resemblance to its primitive form. We have some
slight intimation of the ritual of the Mysteries from allusions
in the works of the early writers, Christian and pagan, some
of whom had themselves been initiated. More details are
given, for those who can read between the lines of carefully
veiled symbolism, in the Kabala, the works of lamblichus,
and those attributed to Hermes Trisniegistus, which are
some of our most diiect sources of information on the subject.
The Kabala, perhaps contains the nearest approach to a
direct revelation of the ancient secrets of the old world, and
it has undoubtedly formed an important part of our Masonic
traditions. The Christian equivalent to the word Kabala
was Gnosis (knowledge), and from innumerable references
in the writings of the Fathers it is evident that the Gnostics,
whose doctrines will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter,
like the older Christians in the construction of the Gospel
and ritual of their Church, perpetuated the same mystical
tradition which they had received from the Hebrews. The
nature of their " knowledge " is thus stated by Clement of
Alexandria l : " And the Gnosis itself is that which has
descended by transmission to a few, having been imparted
unwritten by the Apostles." St. Basil * also alludes to it
thus : " They (the Fathers) were well instructed to preserve
the veneration of the Mysteries in silence. For how could
it be proper, publicly to proclaim in writing the doctrine
of those things which no unbaptized person may so much as
look upon ? "
Miscellanea, Book vi, chap. vii.
De Spintu Sancto, chap, xxvii.
3
CHAPTER III
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LEBANON
IN writing of the Druses and Nusairis, those lifelong
inhabitants of the Lebanon, we are dealing with people who
retain practices spoken of by the Patriarchs, and who still
exhibit in their life and customs many of the metaphors
made use of by the Prophets. Here, says Urquhart, " may be
seen the rudiment of the Pyramid, and the element of the
calculations carried by the Etruscans to the West. 1 The
' Exalted Horn ' is still the wonderful appendage of the
married Druse woman, and carries the conviction of being
a practice of the remotest antiquity, and therefore evidence
of the unbroken continuity of the people. The cubes super-
imposed on Syrian tombs present the very diagram of Lepsius
in explaining his theory of the Pyramids. The carat, or
division by twenty-four in Europe, preserved in the testing
of the precious metal, the weighing of gems, and the division
of ship property, is in common use in the Lebanon/ 1
" The name given by these people to themselves is Sur.
The race is the Surian, the Zuroi of the Greek, and Syrian
modern tongues. The mountain is Gebel Suria. Lebanon
is a foreign and descriptive term, from the Hebrew, implying
4 white/ As it is the name they both use and cling to
to-day, repudiating for their mountain the name of Lebanon,
and for themselves that of Arab, so was it the name it bore
in the time of Moses.* That the Hebrews should have called
it by a name of their own invention shows how strange it was
to them. The Jews, 700 years later, did not understand
1 Urquhart, History of the Lebanon, vol. i. p. 15.
" And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the
Amorites the land which is on this side of Jordan, from the river of Arnon
unto Mount Hermon ; (which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the
Amorites call it Shenir)/' Deut. m. 8, 9-
84
THE PEOPLE OF THE LEBANON 35
the Syrian tongue. The Jews wanted no interpreter with
the people of Canaan."
The circumstances which show that the Hebrews did
not conquer the Lebanon, show likewise that the Canaanites
had not conquered it before them. Had the same race
occupied the mountain and the plain, or had the Canaanites
conquered this mountain, the defeated and expelled nations
would have retreated thither, and made there their stand,
which they did not and they too gave to Gebel Suria a name
of their own Shinir. The people who, on the shores of
the Atlantic, have preserved the names of " Hivite " and
" Amonite," and recall the event of their dispersion by
" Joshua the robber, th -j son of Nun," would not have
forgotten and abandoned memory and name among
inaccessible retreats and mountains fastnesses overlooking
their native land. This is certain ; neither the Canaanites,
when pressed by the Hebrews, nor the Hebrews, when
pressed in their turn, ever took refuge in the Lebanon, as
they must have done, had it not been already occupied by a
powerful and warlike people. 1
Xenophon speaks of the Suroi to the east as well as the
west of the Euphrates, and Strabo makes these extend,
mingled with the Arabs, from Cilicia to Judea, Phoenicia, and
the coast ; just as to-day, were there a common name for
Nusairis, Metawilis, Druses and Maronites, it would include
the same districts. We may well consider then that these
people have dwelt continuously in this land from the earliest
peopling of the globe.
The Bible informs us that after the deluge had subsided,
the land was divided amongst the sons of Noah. The Biblical
account is confirmed and extended in the " Book of Jubilees/'
an Apocryphal book which bears traces of being written
in the second century B.C., and whose narrative embraces
material contained in the Book of Genesis and part of the
Book of Exodus. We are told that Shem allotted to his son
Arpachsad " all the land of the region of the Chaldees to the
east of the Euphrates, bordering on the Red Sea, and all the
> " I found in the Lebanon," says Urquhart, " no less than three villages
named Ai Tat the Hittites of Scripture, and a tribe still flourishing in
Morocco. The name of a people would no|t be given to its own villages,
but settlements of refugees would naturally be so called."
86 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
waters of the desert close to the tongue of the sea which
looketh toward Egypt, all the land of Lebanon and Amana
to the border of the Euphrates." But Canaan, a son of
Ham, " saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt that
it was very good, and he went not into the land of his own
inheritance to the west to the sea (that is north-west Africa)
but he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward
from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea."
He refused to hearken to the complaints of his father and
brethren, that he was entering a district not apportioned to
him, but " dwelt in the land of Lebanon, he and his sons,
unto this day/' And for this reason the land is called
Canaan.
Kesed, the brother of Arpachsad, had a son named Ur,
who, in the land apportioned to his father, built a city,
which he called after his own name, Ur of the Chaldees.
Here he " taught his sons the researches of the Chaldees,
to divine and augur, according to the signs of heaven."
Ur's great-grandson was Abram, who, about A.M. 1936,
went forth with Terah his father from Ur of the Chaldees,
to go into the land of Lebanon, and into the Land of Canaan,
and dwelt in the land of Haran.
The investigations of the last few years, writes Brace, 1
in the cuneiform inscriptions of Babylonia have brought
forth remarkable results, both as regards an ancient faith
and a forgotten people. " In Northern Babylonia existed,
probably three thousand years before Christ, a race who had
attained a considerable degree of cultivation, and who are
supposed to have invented the cuneiform mode of writing. 2
They have been called the 'Akkadians/ 3 or Mountaineers,
from the mountainous district on the north-east, whence
they probably issued. They were long thought to be of
stock foreign to the Semitic-Assyrian race who inhabited
this region, and were believed to be Turanian, or connected
in language with such races as the Finns, Turks, and
Mongolians. But closer investigation makes it probable
that they were mainly Semitic in blood, though perhaps
1 C. Loring Brace, The Unknown God, p. 51. 1890.
* Sec Appendix, p. 317, where it is attributed to Enoch.
* Akkad, or Agade, their city, is mentioned in Genesis.
THE PEOPLE OF THE LEBANON 87
with strong Turanian mixture. The language of their
inscriptions and tablets may have been* a kind of classical
or sacred dialect of the Semitic-Assyrians. This ancient
people had made a considerable progress in civilization two
thousand years before Christ, possibly nearly four 'thousand
years. They had founded great libraries ; their scholars
had written treatises on astrology, magic, 1 and certain
branches of mathematics ; they possessed various histories
of the wars and exploits of the Assyrian kings, and had
constructed temples and many public buildings, and (to
judge from their cuneiform tablets) seem to have carried
on elaborate commercial affairs. This race or people is
deeply interesting to the student of religions, because it
manifestly drew its religious traditions from the same
source as the Hebrews. And out from the region inhabited
or influenced by the Akkadians came forth one of the great
figures of history, Abraham the father of monotheism. It
seems to have been a people with a deep sense of the mysterious
and supernatural. The Chaldean magic became known
to all Oriental races. It was in that stage of development
in which it especially worshipped the elemental powers,
or the spirits of earth and storm, and sky and sun, and dreaded
the evil powers of the universe. 1 '
The Akkadians, like the generality of mankind in all ages,
believed in a divine Mediator, whom they called Silik-Khi,
and later Merodach or Marduk, worshipped at first as the
Sun-God, and later as Bel, or Baal, the Lord. It is interesting
that in the inscriptions of Cyrus (c. 549 B.C.) illustrating
his reign, he (Cyrus) is spoken of as " governing in justice
and righteousness," and Merodach is described as " beholding
with joy the deeds of his vicegerent who is righteous in hand
and heart." * " Merodach, who in his necessity raised the
dead to life," goes on the inscription, " who blesseth all men
praying in need, hath in goodness drawn nigh to him, hath
made strong his name." The prophet Isaiah uses like words
of the same Cyrus : " I (GoD) have raised him up in
righteousness. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel
1 The author no doubt alludes to Magian lore, as distinct from so-Galled
" black magic."
a Sayce, Ancient Monuments, p. 156.
88 SECRET SECTS (51* SYRIA
mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name ; I have
surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me." x The
inspired prophet of Israel evidently believed that the Unknown
GOD was guiding and strengthening the Persian conqueror,
though he knew him not.
At the time of the Exodus of the Children of Israel,
when they came in sight of the Promised Land, distinct
injunctions were laid upon them as to certain tribes who were
to be conquered by them, and into whose lands they w5re
to enter, and take possession. These injunctions were
relentlessly carried out, implying in many instances the
blotting out by merciless slaughter of the whole race, and in
some instances, the total destruction of all their possessions.
But certain tribes were exempted from the same fate, and
permitted to remain as neighbours, fulfilling from time to
time certain acts of servitude, but with whom any such
closer intermingling as would result in inter-marriage, and
mixture of races, was prohibited. And amongst these are
specified the Hivites.
The same GOD who directed the destinies of one branch
of the descendants of His servant Abraham, through Isaac
and Jacob, in their sojourning in Egypt, their return to
Canaan, and their preservation as a totally distinct race to
the present day, notwithstanding all efforts at extermination,
was not likely to forget that other son of Abraham, Ishmael,
any more than He did that other forefather of Arab tribes,
Esau, the wandering son of Isaac. Ishmael, no doubt, in
the mountainous region of the Lebanon, became the founder
of a mighty nation, called after him to this day, and therefore
certain to be preserved from annihilation when the
descendants of Isaac, through Jacob, returned to the country
of their great ancestor, Abraham.
Bryant, 3 quoting Eusebius and other early historians,
says that " the sons of Ham seized upon all the country
which reaches from Syria, and from the mountains of Albanus
and Libanus. They also got possession of the places which
lie upon the sea coast, even to the ocean, or great Atlantic."
These people were chiefly Cushites, children of Cush, or
* Isaiah, xlv. 13 ; xiv. 4, 5.
a Bryant, Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 6 vols. London, 1807.
THE PEOPM OF THE LEBANON 89
Ethiopians, who over-ran Egypt, and conquered the former
inhabitants of that country. Others, under the generic
name of " Ammonites/ 1 occupied the principal islands of
the jEgean Sea, also Sardinia, Crete, and Cyprus, apparently
extending their journeying into the Isles of Britain, where the
ancient Druids showed evident traces of Ammonite ancestry
in the doctrines they taught, as far as they can be ascertained,
and the religious rites which they pract'sed.
* Of the same family were also the Cadmians (descendants
of Cadmus, identified with the Egyptian Taut, or Thoth),
and the Phoenicians, and the Hivites or Ophites, who came
from Egypt, and settled near Libanus and Baal Hermon,
upon the confines of Canaan. 1 The Cadmians, according
to Bryant, "probably founded the temple of Baal Hermon,
in Mount Libanus (the ruins of Baal-Bee are mentioned in
the Appendix), and formed one of the Hivite nations in those
parts. Bochart has very justly observed, that a Hivite
is the same as an Ophite ; and many of this denomination
resided under Mount Libanus, and Anti-Libanus ; part of
which was called Baal Hermon, as we learn from the sacred
writings. 2 There were other Hivites, who are mentioned
by Moses among the children of Canaan.3 But the
Cadmonites, and many of the people about Mount Libanus
were of another family. The Hivites of Canaan Proper were
those who, by a stratagem, obtained a treaty with Joshua. 4
Their chief cities were Gibeon, Cephirah, Beeroth and Kirjath
Jearim. These lay within the tribe of Judah, and of
Benjamin, who possessed the northern parts of Canaan.
But the other Hivites, among whom were the Cadmonites,
lay far to the north, under Libanus, at the very extremities
of the country. The sacred writer distinguishes them
from the Canaanites, as well as from the other Hivites, by
saying ' the Hivites of Baal Hermon/ And he seems to
distinguish the Sidonians, and justly, from the genuine
Canaanites ; for if we may credit profane history, the
Cadmians had obtained the sovereignty in that city,5 and the
people were of a mixed race. They were particularly famed
for their knowledge in astronomy, architecture, and music,
1 Ibid. pp. 242, 460. Judges iii. i, 3.
3 Qenesjs x. 17. 4 Joshua ix. 3, 7. $ See Appendix.
*0 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
and were looked upon as adepts in every branch of science.
They were the first navigators of the seas, and, if we may
believe Herodotus, carried their arts westwards, to Rhodes,
and to many parts (of the West) besides."
It is not within the reach of human comprehension,
says Chasseaud, even did inclination tend in that way, to
pretend to ascribe to the present Druses of the Lebanon
any lineage which might prove their descent from the Hivites.
" The fact is that no man living could accomplish such a feat ;
but as far as human foresight, or rather comprehension, can
discern, the present inhabitants of the Lebanon are a people
equally as brave as those who at the exodus of the Israelites
were permitted to remain there, to act as a check upon their
audacity, and to remind them that with GOD everything was
possible, and without His assistance even the most trivial
wars were dubious, both in their character and as to their
results."
" Beyond a doubt, whatever grave theorists may say, there
is an inherent virtue in people as a class, a peculiar system
and belief which indirectly descends from generation to
generation. Though these very people may have, in the
lapse of time, changed their theories and doctrines ; and
although it might be a feasible theory to presume that the
people who have so long held sway upon these very mountains
are of the same race as that old people, the Hivites, we have
unfortunately no record to refer to ; no plausible ground
on which to pronounce that such is the case. Although the
beginning or the origin of the Druses, however, is and must
ever remain an unsolvable mystery to the curious, it is feasible
and plausible to suppose that this peculiar sect originated
with the Freemasons that followed upon the steps of Solomon.
Theirs was a mystery that has ever remained closed or a
sealed secret, and so it is with the Druses."
The Israelites, whom Joshua had led into the land of
Canaan, were a powerful and all-conquering people ; and
the Hivites of those ancient days must have been a remarkably
courageous and resolute nation to have been able to with-
stand the subjugating arms of so potent a foe. Now, the
present race of mountaineers, who inhabit those same heights
of the Lebanon, are characterized by similar qualities of
THE PEOPLE OF THE LEBANON 41
undaunted bravery and stubborn determination ; and as,
of old, the Hivites resisted the Israelites effectually, whereas
surrounding nations fell completely under their victorious
swords, so have the present race of Druses sustained an
indomitable resistance against the yoke which the Turkish
Government succeeded in fully imposing upon all other
classes inhabiting districts within the range of the Ottoman
sway. The Druses have always substantially held their own,
and the Turks cannot be said to haw ever entirely subdued
their rude independence.
It was not without a special object that the ancient
Hivites were permitted to dwell in the Lebanon unscathed
by the Israelites. If they were thus made a signal exception
to that general practice by which the Israelites, on entering
upon their new possessions, did not desist until they had
scattered and rooted out all the infidels whom they encountered
if the Hivites were allowed to remain undispersed in their
mountain homes in the land of Canaan it was, as we are
explicitly told in the words of the Bible, in order " to prove
Israel by them. 11 They became a peculiar instrument of
Providence in bringing about the chastisement and humiliation
of the children of Israel.
The Angel of the Lord had announced that the Hivites
of the Lebanon would be as thorns in the sides of the Israelites
and they were so. It is a strange coincidence that, in
like manner, have the Druses proved themselves as thorns
in the sides of the Ottoman Government. They have not
only resisted and overcome the various attempts made at
different times to trample down their national freedom ;
but, professing a creed entirely foreign to that of the
Ottoman Empire, they have also stood as a permanent
and effectual barrier against the spread of Islamism upon
their mountains.
Learned and inquisitive travellers who have ventured
to penetrate into this district, besides the imminent peril
they incurred from the inhospitality of a most inhospitable
people, found an invariable check to the furtherance of their
projects from a superstitious objection on the part of the
inhabitants to the exhumation of any trifling stone or
monument which might have contributed, through the
42 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
learning of those attempting their investigation, to universal
information.
It is a strange theory, yet one undoubtedly based upon
some ancient but substantial evidence, that every peculiar
stone or rock marked by inscription or device, or in any way
inviting the attention of the stranger, was there placed as
a record of buried treasure. There is no reason to doubt
that, in a country so often subjected to sudden commotions,
people were in the practice of interring treasures and other
property which did not admit of being transported or removed
in the moment of sudden exigency ; and consequently,
even down to the present hour, these people are particularly
jealous of any excavations which the natural researches of
science may give rise to, but which they falsely attribute
to motives of self-interest.
CHAPTER IV
THE SABEANS, WORSHIPPERS OF THE POLE
STAR
IN one of the five hymns of the Rigveda, the sacred book of
the Brahmins, we are told that Vishvakarman, the GOD of
Life, when creating the World, in order to make earth and
heaven visible by his might, blew into existence, from all
sides with his arms and wings, eyes, faces, arms and feet,
thus begetting the single GOD, the Pole Star, Agohya. The
Phoenicians looked upon the Pole Star as a goddess, whom
they knew as Astroncema, the Deity presiding over growing
corn, and in whose honour a New Year's Festival of the first
fruits was held. In the Stellar Cult which preceded Solar
worship the Pole Star was considered to be a one-eyed god,
the giant Cyclops.
Our present Pole Star, the last of the constellation known
by astronomers as Ursa Major, is worshipped in China
under the name of T'ien-hwang Ta-Ti, " The Heavens-
king who is the Great Ruler." Older Chinese records refer
to the period when the Pole Star was in Cygnus, about
16500 B.C., and in Draco, about 3000 B.C. Chow-tsze, a
distinguished Chinese scholar of the eleventh century,
referred to it as " The Great Extreme." Under this
name, or that of " The Great First," the Pole Star appears
to have been worshipped in China, according to the
Yi-king, or Book of Evolutions, which is considered to have
been compiled about 1143 B.C., if not considerably earlier,
that is, at least 600 years before Confucius, who refers to it.
Shang-Ti, the Supreme Ruler of the Taoists, the followers
of " The Way," was said to have as his celestial abode " a
space round the North Pole." We read in the Yi-king that
" day and night, the dark and the clear, succeed without end ;
49
44 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
such is the ordinary course of the Tao of celestial phenomena ;
a period of increase and a period of decrease, such is the
Tao of heaven."
In the legends and institutions of the Sumero- Akkadians
of the Euphrates delta, we are told I that the first civilizers
of the country were the people led by the GOD la-khan or
la, the fish, the son of the house (/) of the waters (a) the
birth-ocean. He came thither clothed in fish-skins in the
ship Ma, the constellation Argo, called by the Zends Sata-
vasa, or the star of the hundred (sata) creators, and landed
at Wri-du or Wri-duga, the holy (duga) city, whither they
came from Dilmun, the isle of GOD (dil), where la first
appeared to human eyes as En-zag, the first-born (zag) of
GOD (en), the fish-born son of the waters. This was the
island of Bahrein celebrated for its pearl fishery.
These people, with whom the eastern Munda, or Malay
sun-worshippers were intermingled, settled as the race
known as Sumerians on the coasts of the Euphratean delta
and the south-eastern shores of Arabia, forming the west
coasts of the Persian Gulf, and divided the country into
provinces, each of which had its central town surrounded
by its associated villages, and its own gods worshipped in
the village groves, together with its series of provincial and
village festivals. This system prevailed over the Euphratean
delta, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and the whole of south-
western Asia, and extended to Egypt, which was divided into
Nones, each with its central city, holy groves, and local gods.
These became, in the Euphratean countries, the provinces
ruled by the numerous cities into which the land was divided,
and in Syria the districts of the early Canaanite population
of the Rephaim described in the Book of Joshua as cities with
their associated villages. These districts must have been
very small, for in the territory of the tribe of Judah, covering
about 1,200 square miles, one hundred and six cities, each
ruling its provinces, are mentioned, giving only about eleven
square miles to each province.
These immigrants became, in their new home, the race
* I am indebted to Primitive Traditional History, by J. F. Hewitt, London
1907, 2 vols., for this condensed account of the origin of the Sabeans, and
the references throughout are those given by Mr. Hewitt.
THE SABEANS 45
known in Akkadian and Assyrian history as the " Sons of
la, the black-headed race," of Sumer. The first city founded
by these Sumerians was Erech, originally called Unuk,
meaning " the Place of the Settlement/' the Enoch of
Genesis iv. 17, and its seaport was Eriduga, the holy
city. 1
These Sumerian sons of the Mother-tree and the Holy
Grove became the black Himyarite Sabeans of the Euphratean
valley and the southern coasts of Arabia, the race known
in Assyrian history as the Kalda or Chaldeans, who were
skilled astronomers, and who, according to the Babylonian
traditions recorded by Berosus, were the first rulers of the
country after the Deluge, who studded it with towns forming,
with their surrounding districts, associated provinces, and
whose eighty-six kings reigned for 34,080 years. 2 They are
proved to have measured time by the Pleiades, by the calendar
of Telloh or Girsu, the city containing the oldest Akkadian
monuments and inscriptions yet found, as their New Year's
festival of the goddess Bau of the watery abyss was held in
the middle of October.3
The modern representatives of these fresh settlers in
the Euphrates valley are the Sabean Mandaites, who call
themselves the Sons of the Word (manda) of GOD, the traders
of Mesopotamia, who begin their solar-lunar zodaic with which
they measure their months and years with the Parwe, they
Pleiades.4 They are now artisans and traders in Mesopotamia,
but the Sabean race to which they belong were once rulers
of Southern Arabia, called Saba, They were the chief
merchants of the East, and their territory, described in
Genesis x. 26-30 as the thirteen provinces ruled by the sons
of Joktan, one of whose sons is Sheba or Saba, stretched
from Arabia to the Mountain of the East, the Akkadian
mother-mountain of Khar-sak-kurra, the mountain of the
ox (khar), of the rain (sah,) of the East (hurra). They are
called in Isaiah Ix. 6, Jeremiah vi. 20, Ezekiel xxxvii. 22,
the richest merchants in the East, who, as the sons of Dedan,
1 Sayce, Hibbert Lectures for 1887, Lecture III, p. 184.
* Ibid. Babylonia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, gth ed., vol. iii. p. 283.
3 Sayce, Gilford Lectures for 1902, " The Religions of Ancient Egypt
and Babylonia/' Part II, Lecture IX, p. 473.
4 Sachau, Alberuni's Chronology of Ancient Nations, chap. xi. p. 227.
46 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
one of the sons of Jokshan (Genesis xxv. 3), sold precious
cloths for riding, that is, Persian saddle-bags, carpets, horns
of ebony, and ivory brought from India (Ezekiel xxvii.
I5> 20).
These people worship the Pole Star as the visible sign of
the Father GOD. Their New Year's Day service is now held
at the Autumnal Equinox, 1 but originally, as Alberuni tells
us, they, and apparently all the people of the south-west of
Asia, began their year with the Feast of Booths made of
tree branches. This was held from the fourth to the eighteenth
of Hilal Tishrin II, October-November. 2 In Arabia this
festival is now a New Year's Fair.
" The Subbas, (or as they call themselves, Mandoyo,
that is, ' ancients ') of Mesopotamia/' says O'Neill,3 " still
pray towards the Pole Star ; and they put the sole door of
their temple in its south side, in order that those who enter
may face the Pole Star ; and the reason of this is that Hivel
Zivo, the Subban Creator, when he took up the government
of the worlds he had formed, placed himself at the limit of
the Seven Matarathos, at the extremity of the Universe,
where the Pole Star was then created to cover him. Hivel
Zivo seems to be another name for Avather, whom the Pole
Star also covers, and who is the Judge of Souls. The theory
that places the supreme, the upright, the unbiassed, the
unwavering, divine judge at the only spot of the cosmos that
seemed irremovable, unshakable that is the Pole of the
heavens will be found to support in a remarkable degree
the still older belief in the clear-seeing eye of the same Deity,
still a well-defined attribute of the G.A.O.U. in our Masonic
ritual. The supreme Babylonian GOD Ea (identified with
Kronos) is called on the tablets the ' Lord with the clear-
seeing Eye/ and also the ' motionless Lord/ which last
seems to be an epithet peculiar to the polar divinity/'
To these should be added the all-piercing eye of Atlas
in the Odyssey ; the eye of Ra, and the all-seeing eye in the
forehead of Krishna. A close parallel is to be found in the
Rig Veda (iii. 59) where " Mithra sustains the earth and the
1 Hewitt, Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times, vol ii. essay viii. pp. 156, 165.
* Sachu, Alberuni 1 's Chronology of Ancient Nations, chap, xviii, " The
Fasts and Feasts of the Magians and Sabeans," pp. 315-17,
3 Night of the Gods, vol, i. pp. 490, et seq.
THE SABEANS 47
sky, Mithra with unwinking eye beholds all creatures." The
Avestan Mithra has 10,000 eyes, high, strong, sleepless and
ever awake. The Persian god Ahura Mazda is sometimes said
to have only one eye, at others to see everything with his eyes,
the sun, moon and stars.
In all their actions, and in their position during sleep,
the Subbas must turn towards the Pole Star, which fixes the
spot where Avather dwells, and therefore the direction of
Olmidanhuro, their heaven. The corpse of a Subba is laid
out head to south and feet to north, so that the dead may have
the Pole Star before his eyes and he is buried in the same way.
In one of their legends (which they share with the Moslems)
Solomon obtains access to the heavenly city through a hidden
door in the centre of the wall facing the Pole Star. Here then
we have a community who, while worshipping that star,
are also Baptists who are held to continue the traditions
of St. John, and to worship him also as Yahio. Their religion
was one of those tolerated by Mohammed on paying tribute,
and Sale says " travellers commonly call them Christians
of St. John's." Of course, a large proportion of the
Mohammedan Arabs were Sabeans in their worship. Siouffi,
a French vice-consul at Mussul, said the name of Subbas is
given to them by their Christian and Moslem neighbours,
but they call themselves Mandoyo, " ancients/' In 1875,
there were about 4,000 of these Subbas or Mandoyo near
Basrah, where Turkey joins Persia ; those of Shushtar (the
ancient Susa) are looked up to by the rest as being better
educated in religious and other ways.
None of them till the ground, but they are chiefly highly
skilled goldsiiiiths and joiners : a few are blacksmiths, and
a few traders. Norberg's Codex said their name came from
11 Mando d'hhai," living word.
O'Neill also quotes a remarkable passage on this subject
in the Koran (vi. 77) : " And when the night overshadowed
Abraham, he saw a star, and he said ' This is my Lord/
but when it set he said ' I like not gods that set/ And when
he saw the moon rising he said ' This is my Lord ' ; but
when he saw it set he said ' Verily if my Lord direct me
not I shall become of the people that go astray/ And when
he saw the sun rising he said ' This is my Lord, this is the
48 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
greatest.' But when it set he said ' Verily I direct my face
unto Him who hath created the heavens and the earth/ "
Now the Pole Star and the Bears and other Polar constellations
do not set in Arabic latitudes. The commentators say there-
fore that Abraham's youthful religion was the Sabean,
which consisted chiefly in worshipping the heavenly bodies,
but especially the Pole Star.
The Sabeans held the belief, as do the modern Subbas,
that at the four cardinal points, guarded by four angels,
are buried the four Shambube, the principles of the winds,
and that if these were suffered to escape the world would be
overturned. From this O'Neill traces the archaic origin
of the square, that chief jewel of Freemasonry, and the oldest
symbol of Deity. He points out that these four corners
exactly accord with the Chinese absolute conception of a
square earth, and a square altar of earth, while that of the
heavens is round. Here again we get the source of the
Egyptian belief in the Four Lords of the Four Angles of the
heavens, and a reason for the antiquity of that sacred Hindu
symbol of Deity, the Swastika.
The Chinese north is the point " over which the Pole Star
stands," while the three other points are referred to the sun :
east where he rises, south where he rests, west where he sets.
The Emperor when officiating at the round altar of heaven
faced the north, and the Taoists turn towards the same point
when addressing the first person of their Trinity. The
Sabeans, the worshippers of the Saba t the Host of Heaven,
believed in one GOD, and alleged many reasons for His
Unity, says Jervis ; but they also paid adoration to the stars,
or the angels or intelligences which they supposed resided
in them and governed the world under the Supreme Deity.
" They go on a pilgrimage to a place near the city of Hauran
in Mesopotamia, where great numbers of them dwell." They
derived their religion from Seth, and, according to Hyde,
" those of Mount Lebanon have so high a veneration for
him that they lay more stress on an oath made in his name
than on one made on the name of GOD, Wa Sheyth, ' by
Seth ' being their most solemn oath." They paid special
adoration to the seven planets : hence we have Balaam, in
following the old Sabean, Chaldean and ancient Arab form of
THE SABEANS M
worship, erecting seven altars, and offering on them seven
oxen and seven rams. This same worship of " the Seven "
continues among the Sabeans of the desert, says Dunlap,
and is seen in the Desert-Christian religion of the Nazarenes
of the Jordan. 1
According to Wetzstein * the ancient Sabeans possessed
the " secret of providing those glowing regions with water, a
secret which has perished with them." He refers to Plutarch
who says (de Iside, Hi.) " In the sun's circuit, called the
search for Osiris, they go round the temple seven times,
the goddess desiring greatly the water of winter. And they
go round just so many times because the sun with the seventh
month completes the passage from the winter to the summer
solstice." Many of the houses now standing in the Hauran
are estimated by Jervis to have been the dwellings of the
old inhabitants of Basan, and many of the cities of the Hauran
have names which cities of Basan bore in the earliest times.
An Arab historian of the tenth century, Hamzah Issfahani,
remarks that what is left of the Chaldeans is now in the two
cities Harran and Roha, and that in the time of el-Maimun
they gave up the name Chaldeans, and took the name of
Sabeans, or Chaldean Harranites. Another Arab writer
classifies Baylonians, Chaldeans, Nabatheans, and Syrians
together as all descendants of the Sabeans.
According to Jervis,3 the Nabatheans inhabited the
southern foot of Mount Libanus, and, like the Jews, were hostile
to the Syrians, whose country " was repeatedly overrun by
Nabatheans and Sabeans," thus drawing a distinction between
the two peoples. " Like John the Baptist," he goes on,
" and the Nazarenes, their guests or neighbours, they drank
no wine, and denied themselves many things." The Codex
Nazaraeus (i. 5), says that the Nabatheans were the teachers
of the Ebionites, and afterwards took their name . Jost (i.
411-14) says that "Christianity created for the Essene
doctrines a stronger sympathy and produced an Ebionite
tendency, in which so-called Gnosis shaped itself entirely
as a spiritual science called for by the expounding of the law.
* S. F. Dunlap, Sod, tht Son of the Man, p. 8.
Wetzstein, Reiseberich uber Haw an, pp. 37 ff.
3 Jervis, Genesis, p. 382.
60 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
The altogether mystic colouring of Christianity harmonized
with the Essene rules of life and opinions, and it is not
improbable that Jesus and the Baptist John were initiated
into the Essene mysteries, to which Christianity may be
indebted for many a form of expiession ; as indeed the
community of Therapeutae, an offspring of the Essene
Order, soon belonged wholly to Christianity. Thus gradually
distinct communities formed themselves. History names
them, now Nazarenes, now, with a slight distinction no- longer
known to us, Ebionites. Irenseus (i. 26) says that " the
Ebionites, as Sabeans, agreed that GOD created the world,
while worshipping the stars. Their festivals were appointed
for the days when the exaltations of the planets occur, the
greatest taking place on the day when the sun enter Aries,
with them the first day of the year, when they put on their
Sun-day clothes. They celebrate the festival of every planet
in a chapel dedicated to him, and derive their religion from
Noah himself."
The Sabeans say of Adam that when he quitted the country
adjacent to India for the confines of Babel, he carried with
him many wonderful things, amongst which were one tree,
whose branches, leaves and flowers were all of gold ; another
all of emerald ; also two of the leaves of a third tree, so verdant
that the fire could not consume its leaves, and so large as to
cover up ten thousand men of equal stature with Adam.
This legend, according to Dr. Kenealy, in his Book of GOD,
may be taken to refer to some ancient book, of which the
authorship was referred to Adam. This sacred book of the
Sabeans is mentioned by Maimonides, who calls it the " Book
of Thammuz," or The Hidden One. They had other books,
according to the same writer, called Tam-Tam, or the " Book
of the Sun " ; the book Hassearab ; and the " Book of the
Messenger Hermes." The Sabeans also worshipped twelve
Messiahs, who would appear to be identical with the twelve
Imaums, or Sacred Sheiks of ancient Arabia, commemorated
also, according to the Nazarenes, by the sending forth of
the Twelve Apostles,
Writing on this subject of twelve Messengers, or Messiahs,
Kenealy, in his Book of GOD, and carrying out his own
idea of six hundred year cycles, considers the first Messenger
THE SABEANS 51
was Adam, whose date he gives as A.M. 3000 ; the second,
Enoch, 3500 ; the third, Fo-hi, 4200 ; the fourth, Brigoo,
of the Druids, Brahm of the Hindus, and Buddha, 4800 ;
the fifth, Zaratusht or Zoroaster, 5400 ; the sixth, Thoth,
6000 ; the seventh, Amosis, or Moses, 6600 ; the eighth,
Lao-Tseu, the great Chinese Teacher, 7200 ; the ninth,
Jesus of Nazareth, 7800 ; the tenth, Mohammed, 8400 ;
the eleventh, Genghis Khan, 9000 and Kenealy apparently
estimated that as the twelfth cycle was concurrent with his
own writings, he himself might, modestly, assume that he
was the Twelfth Messenger. The Nabatheans were followers
of St. John the Baptist in Lebanon, and the books of this
sect are yet existing in Syria. Marcion, who left Rome about
A.D. 140, would seem to have followed the Gospel of St. Luke.
Eusebius, St. Jerome and Epiphanius have stated that these
sects were blanches of the Essenes, and Jones, in his
Ecclesiastical History, says there is no doubt that several of
the sects, which were eventually classed as Gnostic by the
church of Rome, really proceeded from the Essenes.
Irenaeus gives an account of the initiation ceremony of
the Marcians, which, however, the sect repudiated, in which
there would appear to be considerable resemblance to the
rites of the modern Dervish sects. He says there is first a
baptismal service, with an invocation to light, spirit and life,
followed by one to " angelic redemption/' by which the
Neophyte became united to his Angel, concluding with a
formula of " restitution/' or unity to the super-celestial
power, to which the Neophyte responded in declaring his
redemption by the name lao.
CHAPTER V
THE GNOSTICS AND THE MANICHEANS, AND
THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE ORDER OF
KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
THE general name " Gnostics " is used to designate several
widely different sects, which sprang up in the Eastern
provinces of the Roman Empire, almost simultaneously
with the first planting of Christianity. Their doctrines are
dealt with in a very complete manner by King, whose exhaus-
tive work is a text-book on the subject. 1 From this is taken
the following summary.
The term " Gnosticism " is derived from the Greek
Gnosis, knowledge, a word specially employed from the first
dawn of religious inquiry to designate the science of things
divine. Thus Pythagoras, according to Diogenes Laertius,
called the transcendental portion of his philosophy, Gnosis
ion onion, the knowledge of things that are. And in later
times Gnosis was the name given to what Porphry calls
the Antique or Oriental Philosophy to distinguish it from
the Grecian systems. But the term was first used (as
Matter on good grounds conjectures) in its ultimate sense
of supernal and celestial knowledge, by the Jewish philosophers
of the celebrated Alexandrian school. A very characteristic
production of this Jewish Gnosis has come down to our
times in the Book of Enoch,* of which the main object is to
make known the description of the heavenly bodies, and
their correct names, as revealed to the Patriarch by the
angel Uriel. This profession betrays, of itself, the Magian
source from which the inspiration was derived.
Gnosticism therefore cannot receive a better definition
1 The Gnostics and their Remains. London, 1864.
a See quotations from this book in the Appendix.
62
THE GNOSTICS AND THE MANICHEANS 58
than in that dictum of the sect first and specially calling
itself " Gnostics," the Naaseni (translated by the Greeks
into " Ophites/') viz., " The beginning of perfection is the'
knowledge of man, but absolute perfection is the knowledge
of GOD/' The entire system may be thus described.
Gnosticism professes to teach the knowledge of GOD and
of man, of the Being and Providence of the former, and of
the creation and destiny of the latter. While the ignorant
and superstitious were degrading the glory of the incorrup-
tible GOD into an image made with hands, and were changing
" the truth of GOD into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator," the ancient Gnostics held
purer and truer ideas. And when these corrupted and
idolatrous forms of religion and worship became established,
and were popularly regarded as true and real in themselves,
the " Gnostics " held, and secretly taught, an esoteric theology
of which the popular creed of multitudes of deities, with its
whole ritual of sacrifice and worship, was but the exoteric
form. Hence all the mysteries which almost all, if not all,
the heathen religions possessed. Those initiated into these
mysteries, whilst they carefully maintained and encouraged
the gorgeous worship, sacrifices, and processions of the
national religion, and even openly taught polytheism, and
the efficacy of the public rites, yet secretly held something
very different at the first, probably, a purer creed, but in
course of time, like the exoteric form, degenerating. The
progress of declination differed according to race, or habit
of thought : in the East it tended to superstition, in the
West (as we learn from the writings of Cicero) to pure atheism,
a denial of Providence. This system was adopted likewise
by the Jews, but with this great difference, that it was
super-induced upon and applied to a pre-existent religion :
whereas in the other Oriental religions, the external was
added to the esoteric, and developed out of it. In thie
Oriental systems, the external was the sensuous expression
of a hidden meaning ; in the Jewish, the hidden meaning
was drawn out of pre-existing external laws and ritual ;
in the former the esoteric alone was claimed as Divine,
in the latter it was the exoteric which was a matter of
revelation. To remedy this seeming defect, the Kabalists,
54 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
or teachers of the " Hidden Doctrine," invented the existence
of a secret tradition, orally handed down from the time of
Moses. We may, of course, reject this assertion, and affirm
that the Jews learnt the idea of a Hidden Wisdom, underlying
the Mosaic Law, from their intercourse with the Eastern
nations during the Babylonian captivity ; and we may
further be assured that the origin of this Secret Widom is
India. Perhaps we shall be more exact if we say that the
Jews learnt from their intercourse with Eastern nations to
investigate the external Divine Law, for the purpose of
discovering its hidden meaning. The heathen Gnostics,
in fact, collected a Gnosis from every quarter, accepted all
religious systems as partly true, and extracted from each
what harmonized with their ideas. They strove for the
knowledge of GOD, says the great authority on the Gnostics,
G. R. S. Mead : * " The science of realities, the gnosis of the
things-that-are ; wisdom was their goal ; the holy things
of life their study. They were called by many names by
those who subsequently haled them from their hidden
retreats to ridicule their efforts and anathematize their
doctrines, and one of the names, which they used for them-
selves, custom has selected to be their present general title.
They are now generally referred to in Church history as the
Gnostics, those whose goal was the Gnosis if indeed that
be the right meaning ; for one of their earliest existing docu-
ments expressly declares that Gnosis is not the end it is
the beginning of the path, the end is GOD and hence the
Gnostics would be those who used the Gnosis as the means
to set their feet dpon the Way to GOD."
It will be seen from the above description of the Gnostics
how much they had in common with the ancient sects in
the Lebanon, while their " Inner Mystery," the continuous
search for the " Hidden Wisdom," gives us more than a clue
as to the Masonic searches for various " lost words."
The Gnostics attached great value to the numbers jfrye
^n^seven, and in the " Pistis- Sophia," one of their very
interesting books, of which the authorship is attributed
to St. Philip the Apostle, we find references to " Five Marks,"
" Five Trees," " Seven Vowels," and " Seven Amens."
1 Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 32. London, 1906.
THE GNOSTICS AND THE MANICHEANS 55
Manicheism is a development of the Indian source
of Gnosticism alluded to above, and is so called from Manes,
a Persian slave and scholar, who gave to certain Magian
notions a definite shape, and constructed, says King, a
system " with such skill that it spread not merely over the
East, but throughout Europe. In the latter region its im-
portance is evinced by the fact (mentioned incidentally
by Ammianus), that Constantine himself, before finally
changing his religion, following the Apostolic precept,
' Try all things, hold fast that which is good/ carefully
studied the Manichean system under the guidance of the
learned Musonianus, whom we must suppose to have been
a great doctor of the sect." Another follower of Gnosticism
before accepting the Christian faith was St. Augustine, who
has left on record what he found to be the weakness and
fallacies of the Manichean tenets.
In Justinian's time a fierce persecution of the Manicheans
took place in Syria, and in the fifth century they were also
attacked. They reappeared, however, in Asia Minor in
the seventh century as Paulicians ; and at Tephrice, near
Trebizond, they held the mountains till 880 A.D., then
Basil the Macedonian drove them out. In the middle of
the eighth century Constantine Copronymus transplanted
a colony of Armenian Paulicians to Thrace, where they were
increased by others from the valleys of the Caucasus in the
tenth century. They there converted the Bulgarians,
and spread to Sicily, Rome, Milan, and France. In the
twelfth century the Albigenses in France derived their
dogmas from these heretics, and no doubt also from the
Gnosticism of the Manichean Priscillian (in the fourth
century), Bishop of Avila, in Spain. Gnosticism had found
its way to Gaul in the time of Irenaeus, and Jerome speaks
of the heresy of the great Gnostic Basilides, in Spain. Thus,
side by side with the orthodoxy of Greek and Latin Churches,
the great Manichean system, combining Cfojistianity, Buddhism
and Mazdean ideas in one syncretic doctrine, flourished
in the Byzantine age from Persia to Spain, in spite of persecu-
tion by Arian and Orthodox emperors alike. 1
That Gnosticism, under its Manichean form, reachpn
1 Sec Gibbon* Decline and, Fall, chap. liv.
SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Britain is evidenced by numerous discoveries, especially
in Wales, of ancient medallions engraved, often very rudely,
with Gnostic devices. And the tenets of Manicheism long
prevailed amongst the Albigenses, who in the twelfth
century were so ruthlessly exterminated by the general
Almeida by order of Francois I.
These European Manicheans were in large part the
disciples, under the name of Paulicians, of Constantinus
Sylvanus, a native of Samosata, who in the middle of the
seventh century propounded a somewhat curious mixture
of the doctrines of St. Paul with those of Zoroaster, inter-
mingled with a larger proportion of the former than Manes
had thought fit to introduce in his own theosophy. The
new teacher easily united into one church the remnants of
the old Gnostics, especially the Manicheans of Armenia, and
the still unconverted Zoroastrians of Pontus and Cappadocia.
They spread into what is now Bulgaria, and from thence
diffused their doctrines into Italy, and so, as we have seen,
into the South of France.
The Manicheans were divided into classes or grades.
The first grade were known as Disciples, and were more or
less probationers. The second grade were known as Auditors,
who were permitted to hear the writings of Manes read,
and interpreted in a mystical form. The third grade were
the Perfect, or Elect, who were the priestly order of the
sect. From these last were chosen the Magistri, or Council,
who were twelve in number, as in the Culdee system, with
a thirteenth as President. In common with other sects
professing Gnostic tenets they had secret forms of recognition,
three in number, described by St. Augustine as the word,
the grip, and the breast.
Manichean doctrines were thus being diffused during
the period when the Templars were at the height of their
prosperity and power, and King 1 devotes several pages of
his work to a consideration of the close resemblance between
these Orders.
Gnosticism, he points out, in one shape or another, was
still surviving on the very headquarters of the Order, among
their closest allies or enemies, the mountaineers of Syria.
x Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 410 ff.
THE GNOSTICS AND THE MANICHEANS 57
The Templar Order " had been modelled after an original,
the last to be looked for according to modern views, for
Von Hammer has here been successful in demonstrating that
its constitution is a servile copy of that of the detested
' Assassins/ The statutes of the latter prove the fact
beyond all gainsaying ; they were found upon the captives
of their capital, Alamoot, by the Mogul, Halakoo, in the
year 1335, when, by a most singular coincidence, Caliph
and Pope were busied in exterminating the model and the
copy in the East and West, at one and the same time." From
these documents were verified the " Eight Degrees of
Initiation " as established by Hassan, the first Grand Master,
or " Prince of the Mountain/ 1 These degrees, probably
suggested by the ancient Mithraic tests, were :
I. The Trial of Knowledge.
II. The Trial of Persuasiveness ; i.e. the talent for
proselytism.
III. Denial of the Truth of the Koran, and of all other
sacred scriptures.
IV. The Trial of Silent and Perfect Obedience.
V. The Disclosure of the Names of the Great Brothers
of the Order, royal, sacerdotal, and patrician,
in all parts of the world.
VI. The Confirmation of all the preceding Steps of
Knowledge.
VII. The Allegorical Interpretation of the Koran, and
of all other Scriptures. In this Order the divinity
of all founders of religious systems was alike
denied. Religion was shown to be a mere
step to knowledge, its narratives to be merely
allegorical, and exhibiting the progress of civil
society : thus Man's Fall signified political
slavery ; Redemption his restoration to liberty
and^ecjuality.
VIII. That all actions were indifferent, provided only
they were done for the good of the Order, there
being no such thing, absolutely, as vice or
virtue.
It will be seen, says Von Hammer, that the principle
58 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
running through these " Degrees " is identical with that
pervading the main counts in the Articles of Accusation
brought against the Templars. The same author, in his
History of the Assassins, also shows that the organization
of the Templars was exactly modelled upon that of the
Assassins, and thus confronts the several degrees in each
of the two Orders.
DEGREES OF THE ASSASSINS
I. The Grand Master, or Prince of the Mountain.
II. The Dais-al-Kabir, or three great viceroys under
him.
III. The Dais, or provincial masters.
IV. The Refek, or chaplains.
V. The Lazik, or military body.
VI. The Fedavee, or death-devoted.
VII. The Batinee, or secret brethren, i.e. those affiliated
to the Order.
DEGREES OF THE TEMPLARS
I. The Grand Master.
II. The Three Grand Priors.
III. The Provincial Prior.
IV. The Chaplains.
V. The Knights.
VI. The Esquires.
VII. The Serving Brethren.
VIII. The Danato and Obligati.
IX. The Affiliati.
The " Donati " and " Obligati " were sworn, in return
for the protection afforded to them by the Order, to leave
to it all their property at their deaths, and consequently to
, or even to stand sponsors to
the children of others. If married at the time of joining
the Order, they were bound to put away their wives.
Infraction of the vow was punished by perpetual imprison-
ment. The " Affiliati " had, probably, nothing to do with
the secrets of the Order ; they merely, in return for a certain
THE GNOSTICS AND THE MANICHEANS 59
sum paid down, received their daily maintenance (their
commons), out of the corporate fund ; such an arrangement
being a simple anticipation of the principle of life annuities,
and admirably adapted to the requirements of those barbarous
times.
Waite, an enthusiastic exponent of the high place taken
in the religious aspect of Masonry by the ritual of the Knights
Templar Degree, without allowing himseli to be committed
to any statement which the ordinary reader might construe
into a definite opinion, has many references in his Secret
Tradition in Freemasonry to the influence from the East,
which is to be distinctly traced in the Templar rites. Appar-
ently, he attributes this in some measure to the Essenes,
or, at least, he does not controvert such a statement by
others.
The tradition preserved among the Druses, that the
present seat of their Grand Master is Europe, and that they
have members of their faith existing at the present day,
both in England and Scotland, tallies curiously enough with
Von Hammer's theory about the close relationship that
existed between the Templars and the Ismaeli, or Assassins,
the actual progenitors of the Prunes.
" The influence of the Crusades, and their results upon
the mind and life of mediaeval Europe cannot possibly be
exaggerated. The true masters of the Western barbarians
in philosophy, science, and many of the arts, were the Arabs,
firstly those of Syria, later those of Spain. Together with
their learning they communicated other ideas, far different
from those originally contemplated by their pupils. Never-
theless, the connection between their science and their secret
creed, was so intimate that, in reality, no other result was
to be looked for. So much of primitive Gnosticism, before
its admixture with Christianity, was based upon Magism,
that is, upon astrological ideas, as to make it often difficult
to determine whether a Gnostic monument involves a religious
notion, or is merely a sidereal talisman." x
The strange ceremonies observed on the admission of
neophytes into the various secret societies that flourished
under the Lower Empire and in the Middle Ages are all of
* King, The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 414.
60 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
them no more than faint traditions of the penances, or
" Twelve Tortures," that purchased admission into the Cave
of Mithras. How widely diffused were these Mithraici,
especially in the West, is attested by the innumerable tablets,
altars, and inscriptions still remaining in Germany, France,
and this country. The religion of Mithras was so readily
embraced, and flourished so extensively among all the
Celtic races, in consequence of its analogy to the previously
dominant Druidical religion, an affinity which had been
observed by Pliny I and a hundred years before him
by Caesar, 2 both of whom found that the subjects of study
amongst the Druids were literally those of the Magian
Gnosis. Druidism expressly taught the eternal existence
of the Two Principles, the final triumph of Good, and the
Renovation of all things. A most valuable fragment of
early Druidical teaching has been preserved for us by
Plutarch, in his strange essay " On the Face in the Moon,"
by the title of the Doctrine of the Sons of Saturn, which is
full of Gnostic ideas, those of Manes, for instance, and
even of Gnostic expressions.
* Nat. Hist, xxx, 4. Bell. Gall, vi. 13.
CHAPTER VI
OTHER GNOSTIC SECTS: THE OPHITES, BASIL-
IDEANS, AND FOLLOWERS OF SIMON MAGUS
THE Ophites, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, were
founded by one Eucrates at the beginning of the Christian
era, and were a well-organized fraternity early in the second
century. Their doctrine, though to some extent correspond-
ing with that of the Mandaites, or followers of Joha the
Baptist, was very Osirian, or Serapian, with Semitic names
for the Coptic ones. Hippolytus, the Greek historian,
styles them : " The Naaseni who specially call themselves
Gnostics. But inasmuch as this deception of theirs is
multiform and has many heads (a play upon their name of
serpent-followers), like the hydra of fable, if I smite all the
heads at once with the wand of Truth, I shall destroy the
whole serpent, for all the other sects differ but little from
this one in essentials," Their strange-sounding title,
" Naaseni/' " Followers of the Naas," the only way in which
the. Greek, from its want of aspirate letters could write the
Hebrew word Nachash, " Serpent/' was literally rendered by
" Ophites/ 1 the name which has ever since served to designate
them. They first assumed a definite existence about the
same time as the Basilideans, in the second century.
Like other Gnostics, they rejected the O|d T?.8jtiament
altogether as the work of a subordinate divinity, and con-
taining nothing of their revealed Sophia, or Divine Wisdom,
and they held that the New. Testament, although originally
of higher authority, had been so corrupted by the interpola-
tions of the Apostles as to have lost all value as a revelation
of Divine truth. They drew the chief supports of their
tends out of the various " Testaments " and similar books
61
62 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
then current, and ascribed to the Patriarchs and the most
ancient Prophets, as, for example, the Book of Seth.
The primary article of their doctrine was the Emanation
of all things from the One Supreme, long utterly unknown
to mankind, and at last only revealed to a very small number
capable of receiving such enlightenment. Hence He is
named Bythos, " Profundity," to express His unfathomable,
inscrutable nature. Following the Zoroastrian and Kabalistic
nomenclature they also designated Him as the " Fountain
of Light/' and " The Primal Man," giving for the reason of
the latter title that " Man was created after the Image of
GOD," which therefore proved the nature of the prototype.
The primitive Ophites, such as the Naaseni, regarded their
serpent "The Naas" as identical with Christ, according to
Epiphanius employing a living tame serpent to encircle and
consecrate the loaves that were to be eaten at the Eucharistic
supper. To establish the identity of their Ophis with the
Saviour of Mankind, reference was made to the words of
St. John : " For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder-
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. 1 ' This
proves that the section of the Ophites which later on regarded
the serpent as evil by its nature must have been led away
from the primitive doctrine of their sect by the prevailing
Zoroastrian and Jewish notions upon that subject.
In common with the Basilideans, they called their Supreme
Deity " Abraxas/' and attributed miraculous powers to
the arrangement in the form of a triangle of the form of
that name, Abracadabra.
The Ophites preserved the celebration of both the Lesser
and the Greater Mysteries, and are believed to have had
three grades, with separate initiatory rites for each.
The Basilideans took their name from Basilides of
Alexandria, a disciple of Menander, a pupil of Simon Magus,
This system had three grades, the material, intellectual, and
spiritual. Two allegorical statues, a male and a female,
had a prominent part in their religious ceremonies. As in
the Mysteries, a quinquennial silence was exacted from their
disciples. Their doctrine, whilst in many points strongly
resembling that of the Ophites, also ran on the lines of Kabalism
with a succession of ^Eons, Emanations and Sephiroth, over
OTHER GNOSTIC SECTS 68
which an Archon, or Angelic-prince, presided. They also
tught that Simon of Cyrene took the place of Jesus at
the Crucifixion. Basilides was succeeded as head of the
sect by his son Isidorus, and a tradition says that Matthias
the Apostle communicated to these two some secret dis-
courses which, being specially instructed, he had heard from
the Saviour.
Irenaeus, who was a contemporary of Basilides, thus
describes his doctrines :
" Basilides, in order to invent something more refined
and plausible in the Gnostic speculative philosophy, pushed
his investigations even into the Infinite. He asserted that
GOD, the uncreated eternal Father, first brought forth
Nous, or Mind : l and Mind, the Logos, Word ; this in turn,
Phronesis, Intelligence ; whence came forth Sophia, Wisdom,
and Dynamis, Strength/ 1 Irenaeus understands Basilides
as making a Quinternion of Beings, or Personal Intelligences
external to the Godhead ; but Bellermann, with more reason,
takes them as signifying personified attributes of the
Supreme forms of his working internally and externally.
According to this explanation, 3 says King, Basilides would
only have borrowed his system from the Kabala ; it is,
however, equally likely that he drew the whole from a much
more distant source, and that his " Uncreated " and
" Quinternion " stand in truth for the First Buddha and the
successive five.
" When the Uncreated Eternal Father beheld the corrup-
tion of mankind/ 1 continues Irenaeus, " He sent His first-
born, Nous, into the world in the form of Christ, for the
redeeming of all that believe in Him out of the power of those
who fabricated the world namely the Demiurgius and his
six sons, the Planetary Genii. Nous appeared amongst
men as the Man Jesus, and wrought miracles. This Christ
did not die in person, but Simon the Cyrenian, to whom He
lent His bodily form, suffered in His stead, inasmuch as the
Divine Power, the Nous of the Eternal Father, is not corporeal,
and therefore cannot die. Whoso therefore maintains
that Christ has died is still the bondman of Ignorance, but
1 Compare the Religious Creed o! the Druses, in chap, xxiii.
* Gnostics and tkeit Remains, p. 261.
64 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
whoso denies the same, he is a freeman, and hath understood
the purpose of the Father."
From this tenet the Basilideans got the opprobrious title
of the " Illusionists." There is in all this a remarkable
similarity to the desire of the Buddhist, Brahmin, and
Mohammedan to preserve the dignity of the Father by refusing
to believe in the human sufferings of the Son.
Madam Blavatsky is at issue with Irenaeus as to the
doctrines of the Ophites, and considers he had perhaps good
reasons for disfiguring them. Describing the systems accord-
ing to an old diagram preserved among some Copts and the
Druses of Mount Lebanon she says : l
" The Gnostic Ophites taught the doctrine of Emanations,
so hateful to the defenders of the unity in the Trinity, and
vice versa. The Unknown Deity with them had no name ;
but his first female emanation was called Bythos or Depth.
It answered to the Shekinah of the Kabalists, the ' Veil '
whicbr conceals the ' Wisdom ' in the cranium of the highest
of the three heads. As the Pythagorean Monad, this nameless
Wisdom was the Source of Light, and Ennoia or Mind,
is Light itself. The latter was also called the ' Primitive
Man,' like the Adam Kadmon, or ancient Adam of the
Kabala. Indeed, if man was created after his likeness and
in the image of GOD, then this GOD was like his creature in
shape and figure hen,cehe is the ' Primitive, Man.' The
first Manu, the one evolved from Swayarnbhuva, ' he who
exists unrevealed in his own glory/ is also, in one sense,
the primitive man, with the Hindus."
Thus the " nameless and the unrevealed," Bythos, his
female reflection, and Ennoia, the revealed mind proceeding
from both, or their Son, are the counterparts of the Chaldean
first triad as well as those of the Brahamic Trimurti.
Though he is termed the " Primitive Man/ 1 Ennoia,
who is like the Egyptian Pymander, the " Power of the
Thought Divine," the first intelligible manifestation of the
Divine Spirit in material form, is like the " Only-Begotten "
Son of the " Unknown Father," of all other nations. He
is the emblem of the first appearance of the Divine Presence
1 Isis Vnveikd, pp. 169 ff.
OTHER GNOSTIC SECTS 05
in His own works of creation, tangible and visible, and there-
fore comprehensible. As neither the male nor female principle,
blended into the idea of a double-sexed Deity in ancient
conceptions, could be comprehended by an ordinary human
intellect, the theology of every people had to create for
its religion a Logos, or manifested word, in some shape or
other. With the Ophites and other Gnostics who took their
models direct from more ancient originals, the unrevealed
Bythos and her male counterpart produce Ennoia, and the
three in their turn produce Sophia, thus completing the
Tetraktya, from which will emanate Christos, the very
essence of the Father Spirit.
The only difference between the Ophite cosmogony and
that of the St. John Nazarenes is a change of names. We
find equally an identical system in the Kabala, the Book
of Mystery (Liber Mysterii). All the three systems, especially
that of the Kabalists and the Nazarenes, which were the
models for the Ophite Cosmogony, belong to the pure Oriental
Gnosticism. The Codex Nazaraeus opens with : " The
Supreme King of Light, Mano, the great first one/' etc.,
the latter being the emanation of Ferho the unknown,
formless LIFE. He is the chief of the ^Eons, from whom
proceed (or shoot forth) five refulgent rays of Divine light.
Mano is Rex Lucis, the Bythos-Ennoia of the Ophites.
The followers of Simon Magus, though considered last,
are estimated by Hippolytus to have had great influence
upon the tenets of the two sects described above. He says :
" It is here ray intention to exhibit the system of Simon
Magus, a native of Gitteh, in Samaria, and I will prove that
from him all those that come after have derived the elements
of their doctrine, and impudently attempted the same things
under different appellations. This Simon was skilled in
magic, and had imposed upon great numbers, partly by
practising the art of Thrasymedes after the manner which
I have already exposed (in the Book upon Magicians), and
partly by miracle working through the agency of demons.
He attempted to set up for a god, being a thorough impostor
and altogether unscrupulous and daring ; for he was that
one whom the Apostles confuted, as is recorded in the Acts.
" Simon speaks, when interpreting the Law of Moses,
66 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
in an impudent and fraudulent fashion, for whenever Moses
says ' Our GOD is a burning and consuming fire/ Simon,
taking what Moses has said in a false sense, maintains that
Fire is the Principle of all things. He designates the Principle
of all things * Boundless Power ' in the following words :
4 This is the Book of the Declaration of the Voice, and of
the Name, from the inspiration of the Great, the Boundless
Power. Wherefore the same is sealed, hidden, wrapped up,
stored in the dwelling wherein the Root of all things is
established/ This dwelling, he says, signifies Man here
below, who is born of blood, and also signifies that there
dwells within him a ' Boundless Power ' which he asserts
is the Root of all things. But this Boundless Power (or
Fire according to Simon) is not a simple substance in the
same way as most people who call the Elements ' simple '
account Fire likewise as simple : on the contrary, he maintains
that the nature of Fire is, as it were, double ; and of this double
number he terms one part the Insensible, the other the
Visible ; asserting that the insensible are contained within
the visible parts of the Fire, and that the visible parts are
generated by the invisible. (This is the same thing that
Aristotle expresses by his ' Force ' and 'Energy/ and Plato
by his ' Intelligible ' and ' Sensible/)
" The commencement of the creation of the world was
in this wise, according to Simon : six ' Radicals ' (lit. Roots),
the First Principles of the beginning of Creation, were taken
by the Begotten-one out of the Principle of that Fire ; for
he asserts that these Six Radicals emanated by pairs out of
the Fire. These Six Radicals he names ' Mind and Intelli-
gence, Voice and Name, Reason and Thought/ And there
exists in these Radicals taken together the whole of the
' Boundless Power/ but existing in potentiality , not in activity.
Now of these Six Powers, and of the Seventh which goes
along with them, the First Thought Simon terms ' Mind and
Intellect/ ' Heaven and Earth/ teaching that the one, of
the male sex, looks down upon and takes care of his consort ;
while the Earth below receives from Heaven the ' Intellect '
and fruits of the same nature with the Earth, which are
poured down from above. For this cause, says Simon, the
Word, often looking down upon the things that spring out
of Mind and Intellect, says * Hear, O Heavens, and receive
OTHER GNOSTIC SECTS 67
with thine ears, O Earth ! for the Lord hath spoken : I
have begotten and brought up sons, but they have despised
me. He that saith this is the Seventh Power, ' He who
standeth, hath stood, and shall stand ' ; for He is the author
of those good things which Moses commended, saying that
they were very good.
" Voice and Name are the Sun and Moon ; Reason and
Thought are Air and Water. But with all of these is mingled
and combined that Boundless Power, ' He who standeth/
as already mentioned/ 1
This teaching of a pronounced Male and Female principle,
helped by the worship paid to the two pillars representing
those principles, and also largely provoked into gross im-
morality by Simon's own licentious conduct with a harlot
of Tyre named Helena, to whom he attributed a divine
origin, is undoubtedly the source of the allegations of immoral
rites and drunken orgies ascribed to other secret sects in
Syria, and for this reason I have mentioned it here. I
conclude with a few more words quoted from the same
author, Hippolytus :
" The disciples, therefore, of this Simon practise magic
arts and incantation, and make philtres and seductive spells ;
they likewise send the so-called ' dream-bringing demons ' to
trouble whomsoever they choose. They likewise practise the
rites of the gods named Paredroi, the ' Assessors ' ; they have
also an image of Simon, in the guise of Jupiter, and like-
wise one of Helena, in the figure of Minerva ; and these they
worship, calling one ' The Master ' the other ' The Mistress/ "
No reference seems made by any historian of this sect
to any special rites of initiation practised by them.
A few words of Gibbon will suitably close this chapter :
" The sects of Egypt and Syria enjoyed a free toleration
under the shadow of the Arabian Caliphs, and therefore may
reasonably be supposed to have maintained their peculiar
notions and observances down to the time of the Crusades.
Of such protracted existence we have the most convincing
proof at the present day in the numerous sect, the Mandaites,
or Nazarenes, of the Shat-el-Arab, and Bassora ; veritable
Gnostics, holding a creed, the true image of that of Manes,
in their Book of Adam ; and detested by their Christian
and Moslem neighbours alike/'
CHAPTER VII
THE SCHIITE SECTS: SUFEISM AND THE
DERVISH ORDERS
SCARCELY had Islamism thrown out some roots in the places
formerly subject to the empire of the Sassanides, and the
religion of the Magians, than a schism, political and religious,
lit up there the torch of fanaticism. 1 When the faith of
Islam was forced upon the Persian nation by the sanguinary
Omar, it was declared by the conqueror, that all who did not
receive it with implicit obedience should be put to the sword.
Such a summary process of conversion left the real tenets
of the great majority of the nation unaltered ; from old
associations, they began to regard the Imaums, or chiefs
of the faith, as Bodhisatwas ; and, as we shall have occasion
to notice hereafter, this principle pervades all the Schiite
sects ; the chief difference between them being as to the
number of incarnations. The Schiite notion of an Imaum
is precisely the same as that which the Thibetians form of
their Grand Llama, and the Burmese of their Bodhisatwas. 2
The dogma of the union of the divinity to Ali and the
Imaums of his race 3 " owed its origin, if I am not mistaken, to
the ancient system of the Parsees. It is also to the ancient
theology of the people of Eastern Asia that we must refer
the origin of the belief in the transmigration of souls, and
perhaps the study of the books of the Grecian philosophers
contributed to strengthen and extend this opinion among
the Mussulmans."
The Sufees are a secret society of Persian mystic philo-
sophers and ascetics, whose original religion may have
* De Sacy, Religion of the Druses, Introd. p. 27.
* Taylor, History of Mowmmedanism, p. 152. A separate chapter later
is devoted to this resemblance.
3 De Sacy, Introd. p. 31.
68
THE SCHIITE SECTS 69
been that of the Chaldeans, or Sabeans, who believed in the
unity of GOD, but adored the host of heaven (Tsaba), especi-
ally the seven planets, as representing Him. Zoroaster,
the introducer of the Magian religion, or a section of it,
taught the existence of two principles, Ormuzd and Ahriman,
and, as light was with him a symbol of the former, the good
spirit, he directed his followers to turn to the fire lighted on
the altar, if worshipping in a temple, or to the sun if worship-
ping in the open air.
The modern Persians are Schiites, that is, Mussulmans
who reject the Sunnah, or the code received by Mussulmans
of Turkey and the West, as founded in the traditions of
Mohammed, collected and commented upon by the four
Orthodox directors. They also look upon the first three
Caliphs as usurpers, and consider Ali as at least equal to
Mohammed. But many look upon him as far superior. It
is quite a common saying in Persia, " Though I do not believe
Ali tp be GOD, I believe that he is not far from being so."
In all portraits of Him he is represented with His face covered,
because, as they allege, the glory of His countenace is too
bright for mortal eye to behold.
The Sufees, says Sir John Malcolm, 1 represent themselves
as devoted to the search after truth, and incessantly occupied
in adoring the Almighty, a union with whom they desire
with all fervour of divine love. The Creator, according
to their belief, is diffused over all creation. He exists
everywhere, and in everything. They compare the emanations
of his essence or spirit to the rays of the sun, which they
conceive are continually darted forth and reabsorbed. It
is for this reabsorption into the divine essence, to which
their immortal part belongs, that they continually sigh.
They believe that the soul of man, and the principle of life
which exists through Nature, are not from GOD, but of GOD.
The Sufee doctrines are as old as Mohammed, and became
general in Persia under a Sufee sheikh about A.D. 1499.
The Sufee tenets allow a man to retain outward ceremonies
in the first stage. They have four gradations, and secrets
and mysteries for every gradation, which are never revealed
to the profane.
1 Malcolm, Persia, vol. ii, p. 269.
70 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
" Look in your own heart/' says the Sufee, " for the
Kingdom of GOD is within you." He who truly knows
himself knows GOD, for the heart is a mirror in which every
divine quality is reflected. But just as a steel mirror when
coated with rust loses its power of reflection, so the inward
spiritual sense, which Sufees call the eye of the heart, is
blind to the celestial glory until the dark obstruction of the
phenomenal self, with all its sensual contaminations, has
been wholly cleared away. The clearance, if it is to be
done effectively, must be the work of GOD, though it demands
a certain inward co-operation on the part of man. " Who-
soever shall strive for our sake, We will guide him in Our
ways/' says the Koran (xxix, 69). Action is false and vain,
it is thought to proceed from one's self, but the enlightened
mystic regards GOD as the real agent in every act, and
therefore takes no credit for his good works, nor desires to
be recompensed for them.
Both Moslem and Sufee declare that GOD is One, but
the statement bears a different meaning in each instance.
The Moslem means that GOD is unique in His essence,
qualities, and acts ; that He is absolutely unlike all other
beings. The Sufi means that GOD is the One Real Being
which underlies all phenomena.
Thus the Sufees conceive the universe to be a projected
and reflected image of GOD. The divine light, streaming
forth in a series of emanations, falls at last upon the darkness
of not-being, every atom of which reflects some attribute of
Deity. Man reflects all the attributes, the terrible as well
as the beautiful, love and mercy as well as wrath and
vengeance ; he is the epitome of heaven and hell.
Ammian, in his history of Julian's Persian expedition,
says that one day Hystaspes, as he was boldly penetrating
into the unknown regions of Upper India, came upon a certain
wooded solitude, the tranquil recesses of which were
" occupied by those exalted sages, the Brachmanes or Shamans.
Instructed by their teaching in the science of the motions
of the world and of the heavenly bodies, and in pure religious
rites, he transfused them into the creed of the Magi. The
latter, coupling these doctrines with their own peculiar
science of foretelling the future, have handed down the whole
THE SCHIITE SECTS 71
through their descendants to succeeding ages." *' It is
from these descendants/' writes Madam Blavatsky, 1 " that
the Sufees, chiefly composed of Persians and Syrians, acquired
their proficient knowledge in astrology, medicine, and the
esoteric doctrine of the ages. We hold to the idea which
becomes self-evident when the Zoroastrian inbroglio is
considered that there were, even in the days of Darius,
two distinct sacerdotal castes of Magi : the initiated, and
those who were allowed to participate in the popular rites
only. We see the same in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Be-
longing to every temple there were attached the ' Hierophants'
of the inner sanctuary, and the secular clergy who were not
even instructed in the Mysteries. It is against the absurdities
and superstitions of the latter that Darius revolted, and
4 crushed them/ for the inscription on his tomb shows
that he was a ' Hierophant ' and a Magian himself. It
is also but the exoteric rites of this class of Magi which
descended to posterity, for the great secrecy in which were
preserved the ' Mysteries ' of the true Chaldean Magi was
never violated, however much guess-work may have been
expended on them. The mysterious Druses of Mount
Lebanon are the descendants of these ancient philosophers.
Solitary Copts, earnest students scattered hither and
thither throughout the sandy solitudes of Egypt, Arabia,
Petraea, Palestine, and the impenetrable forests of Abyssinia,
though rarely met with, may sometimes be seen. Many
and various are the nationalities to which belong the disciples
of that mysterious school, and many the side shoots of
that one primitive stock. The secrecy preserved by these
sub-lodges, as well as by the one and supreme great lodge,
has ever been proportionate to the activity of religious
persecutions : and now, in the face of the growing materialism,
their very existence is becoming a mystery/'
" The Sufee doctrine," says King, 3 " involved the grand
idea of one universal creed which could be secretly held under
any profession of an outward faith ; and, in fact, took virtu-
ally the same view of religious systems as that in which the
ancient philosophers had regarded such matters."
1 Isw Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 306.
1 The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 185.
72 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Although the ordinary Sufee principles are professed
generally by the higher grades among the Dervishes, some
of the Orders hold doctrines more purely mystical, and others
more purely pantheistic, than the rest. Of the more purely
mystical, the Nakshibendi and Khalveti Orders are the
chief representatives. The former was founded by Abu
Bakr, the first Caliph, the latter by Ali, the third Caliph.
The successful establishment of other communities having
caused the extinction of the two original fraternities, they
had remained unrepresented, the former until the thirteenth,
and the latter until the fourteenth century, when Mohammed
of Nakshibend and Omar Khalvet respectively founded Orders
which assumed their names. 1 The rule observed by the
Nakshibendi Dervishes is held to be in strict accordance
with that instituted by Abu Bakr, and the members of this
Order live in their own homes, and pursue their ordinary
avocations, meeting only at stated times for the performance
of religious exercises. This Order seems to have remained
one of the most numerous and popular in the Turkish Empire.
The Order of the Khalvetis, although professing to be
a revival of the primitive congregation of the Caliph Ali,
practise a much more rigid austerity than was compatible
with the rule originally observed of remaining in the world
and fulfilling the ordinary duties of citizens. The members
undertake to live much in retirement, and to devote a great
part of their time to solitary contemplation.
The Order of Jhe BeJ^tashis was instituted in the fifteenth
century by the" Hadji Bektash, " Bektash the Pilgrim/'
who, according to "YarTcer,* received his " Mantle " from
Ahmed Yesevee, who claimed descent from the father-in-
law of Mohammed. He established a " Path," consisting
of seven nominal, but four essential degrees, and a descrip-
tion of the initiation ceremonies is given in the next chapter.
These degrees are magical in their nature, as they aim at
establishing an affinity between the Aspirant and the Sheikh,
from whom he is led, through the Founder, and the Prophet,
to Allah.
This Order, in addition to its numerous adherents among
* Garnett, Mysticism and Magic in Turkey, p. 17.
Arcane Schools, p. 188.
THE SCHIITE SECTS 78
the Osmanlis, is said to include in its ranks some
Albanian Moslems. Bektash was one of the many learned
men whom the munificence of the early Ottoman Princes
attracted to Asia Minor from Khorassan, and Orchan is
said to have attributed many of his victories to the presence
in his army of this holy man. He built for him, at Sivas,
a monastery and college, and sought his approval and blessing
on every undertaking. And when he had enrolled that first
fair young band of Christian boys which was destined to
develop into " the strongest and fiercest instrument of
imperial ambition ever devised upon earth/' 1 he led them to
the abode of the saintly Sheikh, and begged of him to bestow
upon them his blessing. With his arm, draped in the wide
sleeve of his mantle, stretched over the head of a youth in
the front rank, Hadgi Bektash thus addressed the Emir :
" The troop which thou hast formed shall be called
Yeni Sheri, (New Troop). Their faces shall be white and
shining, their right arms strong, their sabres keen, and
their arrows sharp. They shall be fortunate in battle, and
never leave the field save as victors." 2
The Yeni Sheri, or Janisseries, in consequence of this
benediction, remained, until the massacre of their corps in
1,826, closely incorporated with the Order founded by this
famous Sheikh. 3 Other Orders of Dervishes, to whom we
can only allude in passing, are the Rufai, or " Howling
Dervishes," founded in the twelfth century ; the Mevlevi, or
" Dancing Dervishes," founded in the thirteenth century ;
and the Kalenderi, or " Kalender Dervishes," founded by a
disciple of Sheikh Hadji Bektash, Kalender Yussuf-Andalusi.
Expelled from his original Brotherhood on account of his
overbearing temper and arrogant behaviour, Yussuf made
unsuccessful attempts to gain admittance to the Mevlevi
Order, and ended by establishing on his own authority a
Brotherhood, the rules of which included the obligation of
perpetual wandering, and of entertaining an eternal hatred
against the Orders from which he had been excluded. The
title of Kalender, which he assumed and bestowed on his
1 Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, pp. 14-15.
* Von Hammer, Histoire de I* Empire Ottomane, vol. ii. p. 71.
3 This was followed by a general persecution of the Bektashis.
74 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
followers, signifies " pure," implying the purity of heart,
spirituality of soul, and exemption from worldly contamina-
tion, which Yussuf required in his disciples, qualities somewhat
at variance, one would suppose, with the above-mentioned
obligation. This same title of Kalender, it may be remarked, 1
is also given to Dervishes of all Orders who are distinguished
among their brethren for superior spirituality. It is this
class of " enlightened " beings which has produced so many
dangerous fanatics in every age of Mohammedanism. From
it have come the assassins of sultans, viziers, and grandees
of the Empire, and all the unconscious impostors who, under
the title of Mahdi, have misled thousands and desolated
whole countries by their supposed prophecies and divine
revelations.
1 Mysticism and Magic in Turkey, p. 20.
CHAPTER VIII
INITIATION RITES AMONG THE DERVISHES '
THE founder of one of the earliest Orders of Dervishes,
Sheikh Olwan, laid down certain rules to be observed in
the admission of new members into his Brotherhood ; and
these rules, though subsequently elaborated by certain of
the Orders, are still substantially the same in their leading
features, differing only in the severity of the discipline
imposed upon a candidate, in the length of his period of
probation, and in certain minor details.
As a general rule, a neophyte is required during his
novitiate to live in complete retirement from the world, to
perform the menial offices of the Tekkah, (Monastery) and
to repeat daily, 101, 151, or 301 times one of the attributes
of the Deity. These are ninety-seven" in number, and are
called the Isami Ilahi, or " Beautiful Names of Allah."
Seven only of these are used by a Murid, or Candidate ;
they are La Ilaha il Allah (" There is no GOD but Allah ") ;
Ya Allah (" O GOD ") ; Ya Hoo (" O Him ") ; Ya Haak
(" O Truth ") ; Ya Hay (" O Ever Living ") ; Ya Kayyoum
(" O Self-existent"); and Ya Kahhar (" O Almighty").
In the first stage of his probation the neophyte repeats only
the first attribute, and his advancement through the seven
successive stages depends upon the proofs he is able to give
of the reality of his vocation for a Dervish life. These proofs
are found in the frequency and vividness of the dreams and
visions vouchsafed to him, which he is bound to communicate
to his Superior.
Admission into the Mevlevi Order is only obtained by
the performance of an uninterrupted novitiate of a thousand
and one consecutive days. Should the Murid fail in a
single day's duties, or be absent from the Tekkah for one
1 From Mysticism and Magic in Turkey, by L. M. J. Garnett. London,
76 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
whole night, his probation must be recommenced ; and,
whatever his worldly rank, he must consider himself the
subordinate of every member of the Tekkah. He is instructed
in his duties by the Ashjibashi, or Chief of the Kitchen, spends
much of his time in prayers and fasting, and in committing
to memory the prayers and passages of the Koran more
especially used by his Order. He must also become proficient
in the mystic dance, and take part in the public services of
the Brotherhood. The novice, having passed through his
period of probation to the satisfaction of the Chief of the
Kitchen, that functionary who acts as his sponsor reports
him to the Sheikh as worthy of admission to the initiatory
grade of the Order, and a meeting of all the Brotherhood
is convened in the Ismi Jelik Hujreh, the private assembly
room of the Tekkah. When all are assembled, the Murid is led
by the Ashjibashi to the Prior, who occupies the seat of
honour in the angle of the divan ; he kisses the extended
hand of his Superior, and seats himself on the floor before
him. His sponsor then places his right hand on the neck,
and his left- on the forehead of the neophyte, the Sheikh
takes off the kulah which, with the rest of the Mevlevi costume
he has worn during his novitiate, and proceeds to chant a
Persian distich composed by the founder of the Order. He
then delivers an exhortation to the young disciple, at the
termination of which he replaces the kulah on his head. The
Murid and his sponsor now place themselves in the middle of
the room, where they assume a posture of profound humility,
standing with folded arms, crossed toes, and bowed heads.
The Ashjibashi is then addressed as follows by the Sheikh :
" May the services of the Murid, thy brother, be agree-
able to the Throne of the Eternal, and in the eyes of our
Pir, may His satisfaction, His felicity, and His glory grow
in the nest of the humble, in the cell of the poor. Let us
exclaim Hoo (Hm) in honour of oijr Mevlana" l The
Murid and his sponsor answer " Hoo " and the former then
kisses the hand of the Sheikh, who addresses to him some
paternal remarks on his new position, and concludes by
asking all the members of the congregation to embrace and
welcome their new brother.
1 The founder of tht Order, Mevlana Jelalu-'d-Din.
INITIATION RITES AMONG THE DERVISHES 77
A novice of the Bektashi Order is also required to perform
a novitiate of a thousand and one days, during which he
frequents the services in the Tekkah. But the formalities
observed by this Order in the reception of candidates differ
from those of the Mevlevi Brethren, and are even more
elaborate. A candidate is recommended to the Sheikh by
two members of the community who are called his " Inter-
preters." x He must also have already given, during his
novitiate, proofs of spiritual knowledge and acquirements,
and have faithfully kept certain pretended secrets of the
Order imparted to him as tests of his powers of reticence.
His reception into the Brotherhood is also determined by
the revelations concerning him received, in dreams or visions,
by the Sheikh, from the Pir or from Ali. What is thus revealed
is not communicated to the neophyte.
On the evening appointed for the ceremony of initiation
for the services of the Bektashi Order are always held by
night the neophyte takes with him to the convent a sheep
and a small sum of money. The sheep is sacrificed on the
threshold of the Tekkah, part of its w r ool is twisted into a rope,
the rest being preserved to be made, later on, into a girdle
for his use. If the candidate desires to take the vow of
celibacy, he is stripped naked ; but if he proposes, as in the
generality of cases to take only the ordinary, or secular vow
of this widespread and numerous Order, his breast only is
bared. With the rope round his neck he is led by his
" Interpreters/' one of whom carries the symbol termed
the tebber, a kind of battle-axe, into the hall of the Tekkah.
Here he stands with his arms folded across his breast, his
hands on his shoulders, his toes crossed, and his body inclined
towards the Sheikh-*-a posture signifying abject humility
and designated buyun kesmek. The Prior and the Twelve
Elders are seated around the hall on their sheepskins, a
lighted candle being placed in front of each. One of the
" Interpreters " announces to the Prior that he has brought
to him a slave, and requests his acceptance of the gift. He
acquiesces, and the neophyte, addressing him, repeats this
prayer :
1 Terjuman. This term also signifies the secret pass-word or phrase
of the Bektashi Order.
78 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
" I have erred ; pardon my fault, O Shah ! For the
sake of the Accepted One (Ali) of the Exalted Place ;
for the sake of the Martyr (Husein). I have done wrong to
myself, and to our Lord, and I implore pardon of Him/'
His " fault " is supposed to consist in having so long
delayed to join the Order. The Sheikh then recites a sort
of Litany, to which the Murid makes the responses.
" In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and the Clement :
" I beseech Allah's forgiveness (thrice repeated) ; I
have come to implore pardon ; I have come in search of
the Truth ; I ask it for the sake of the Just. Truth is the
path which leads to Allah, the All True, whom I know.
What you term Evil, I also know to be Evil, and I will
avoid taking with my hands what is another's. . . . Repent
of your sins unto Allah, a repentance that knows not return
unto sin."
Then follows an exhortation by the Superior :
" Eat nothing forbidden ; speak no falsehood : quarrel
with none ; be kind to your inferiors ; overlook the faults of
others, and conceal them. If you cannot do this with your
hand, do it with your skirts, your tongue, and your heart."
The novice then kisses the hand of the Sheikh, who
continues :
" If thou now accept me as thy father, I accept thee
as my son. Be hereafter the pledge of Allah breathed in
thy right ear."
He then repeats after his Superior the words : "Mohammed
is my leader, and Ali is my guide/' The Sheikh asks,
" Dost thou accept me as thy Guide (meaning as the repre-
sentative of Ali) ? " to which he responds, " I accept thee
as my Guide " ; and the Sheikh adds, " Then I accept thee
as my son/'
The postulant is now led by his " Interpreters fl to the
Sheikh, before whom he first bows low and then prostrates
himself, touching the floor with his forehead. Kneeling
opposite to him so closely that their knees touch, the
Superior takes the postulant's right hand in his, and the
thumbs are raised to represent the Arabic letter Alif. The
latter places his ear to the mouth of the Sheikh who imparts
to him in a whisper the Ikranameh, or secret vows of the
INITIATION RITES AMONG THE DERVISHES 79
Order. As the tenets of the Bektashis are believed by many
to be purely pantheistic, it is asserted that the words whispered
by the Sheikh to the Murid convey a doctrine to which
he must assent on pain of death, and admit the unity of God
and Nature. But this assertion is positively denied by
others ; and it would, indeed, be difficult to prove it, as the
secrets of the Order are never committed to writing, and
are known only to its members, who, it is believed, are
deterred by the most frightful penalties from divulging them.
When the disciple is presented with the girdle and the
stone worn in it, the Prior, as he binds it round his waist
says to him : " I now bind up thy waist in the path of Allah
O Holy Name, possessed of all knowledge ! Whoever knows
this Name will become the successor of his Sheikh (Naib)."
Certain principles of the Order are then imparted to the
novice, who is also instructed in various mystic tenets
concerning the universe and the Koran. The Sheikh then
sums up by saying, " There is but one Light, and the Truth
is (as) the Moon. He who has found the science of his own
body (called the Hum i Vurgood, his spiritual counterpart)
knows his Lord ; for the holy Prophet has said, " To know
thyself is to know thy Lord. In this is comprised a know-
ledge of thine own secret, and that of thy Creator."
When a Bektashi takes the vow of celibacy, he is asked
by the Sheikh whether, if he break it, he is willing to come
under the sword of Ali, to which he replies in the affirmative.
The inner signification of this phrase is said to contain one
of the secret vows of the Order. On putting on for the
first time the sash or A lif-lam, 1 he says, " I abandon all
matrimony, and bind myself to this sash so to do." The
Murid then recites chapter cxii of the Koran ; after which
the Sheikh declares to him that " Allah doth not engender
or bring forth, and so may men tell of thee, and no one is
equal to Him."
Twelve being the Bektashi mystical number, a member
having broken a vow, incurs twelve punishments. One
of their secret signs is said to consist of the words Tehran
and Toolan "far" and "near" signifying "near in
affection and far in conceit."
> The first and last letters of the Arabic alphabet.
80 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
The ceremonies of affiliation of the other Orders bear
a great resemblance to the foregoing, with the exception of
those of the Kadiri, the Rufa'i the Sa'di.
A novice of the Rufa'i receives from the Sheikh a small
cup of water from the Zemzem the Sacred Well of Mekka,
which, after reciting a prayer over, he drinks.
At the initiation of a Sa'di Dervish, a number of dates
are placed before the Superior. He selects one, extracts
the stone, breathes upon the fruit and puts it into the moutfy
of the neophyte who is seated on the floor before him. Two
members of the Order seat themselves to the right and left
of him, and proceed to sway him from side to side, reciting
at the same time : " There is no GOD but Allah/' the Sheikh
doing the same, until he has swallowed the date. All then
rise, and the Murid, after kissing the hand of the superior, is
acknowledged as a brother by the rest of the congregation.
A person wishing to join the Kadiri Order intimates his
desire to one of its members. The Dervish enjoins him
to frequent the Tekkah and its services, and also to wait
upon the brethren and their guests. These menial duties
are required from every neophyte, whatever his worldly
rank may be. The period of probation lasts for many months,
during which time the Murid becomes greatly attached to
his Superior. When he has been deemed worthy to enter
the ranks of the Dervishes, he is directed to procure a cap
of plain white felt, which is carried by his sponsor to the
Sheikh. A gul, or piece of cloth stamped into the shape of
a rose of eighteen petals, and having in the centre the
" Solomon's Seal " two interlaced triangles is then
attached to it. When the brethren assemble in the Tekkah for
the performance of the Zihr, or invocation of Allah, the
Sheikh takes his place on his sheepskin and the neophyte, led
by his sponsor, kneels before him and kisses his hand. The
Sheikh takes off the novice's ordinary cap, and replaces it by
that bearing the " Rose," which he has carried in his bosom,
and says, three times, " Allaha Ekber " (Goo is Great).
A disciple does not, however, even after this formal
reception into it, become at once a full member of the Order.
This grade is only reached after, it may be, years of further
probation, and its attainment depends upon the proofs he
INITIATION RITES AMONG THE DERVISHES 81
is able to give of his progress in spirituality. His final
admission to full brotherhood is usually determined by a
revelation from the Pir, or from Ali, received simultaneously
by himself and his Sheikh. While passing through these
intermediate stages, the aspirant is under the guidance of
the Superior, or of an initiate who has himself reached the
highest degree. During the first stage, which is termed
Sheriat, or " the Law/' the disciple observes all the usual
rites of Moslem worship, obeys all the commands and precepts
of the Koran like any other True Believer, and is treated
by the brethren of the community as an uninitiated outsider.
He is taught, at the same time, to concentrate his thoughts
so completely on his " Guide " as to become mentally absorbed
in him as a spiritual link with the supreme object of all
devotion. This Guide must be the neophyte's shield against
all worldly thoughts and desires ; his spirit must aid him in all
his efforts, accompany him wherever he may be, and be
ever present to his mental vision. Such a frame of mind
it termed " annihilation into the Murshid," and the Guide
discovers, by means of his own visions, the degree of spirituality
to which his disciple has attained, and to what extent his
soul has become absorbed into his own.
The Murid now enters upon what, in Dervish phraseology,
is called " the Path/' During this period, which forms in
reality the transition Irom outward to hidden things, the
disciple is familiarized with those philosophical writings
of the great Sufi masters which form the chief object of the
lectures and studies of the Order. He is taught to substitute
spiritual for ritual worship, and led by degrees to abandon
the dogmas and formulas of Islam as necessary only for the
unenlightened masses. This method is, however, pursued
with great tact and caution, for a disciple is not released from
the usual observances of religion until he has given proof
of sincere piety, virtue, exceptional spirituality, and extreme
asceticism ; and a Dervish at this stage of his novitiate
passes most of his time in solitary contemplation, endeavouring
to detach his mind from all visible objects in order to attain
the desired union with the Deity. His Guide, meanwhile,
imparts to him his own mystical philosophy as he finds him
capable of receiving it. If the disciple's religious feeling
6
82 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
appear to be shocked by any maxim to which he has given
utterance, the already mentioned Jesuitical expedient known
as the Ketman supplies the Master with a double sense which
enables him at once to convince his disciple of the groundless-
ness of his objections. If, on the contrary, the Murshid
finds his pupil's theological digestion robust, his advance on
the path will be correspondingly rapid. He is now supposed
to come under the spiritual influence of the Pir, or founder
of the Order, in whom he in turn becomes mentally absorbed
to such a degree as to be virtually one with him, acquiring
his attributes and power of performing supernatural acts.
The next stage of the mystic life is that termed by the
Dervishes " Spiritual Knowledge/' and the disciple who
believes himself, and is believed by his Sheikh, to have attained
to such knowledge or, in other words, to have become inspired,
is held to be on an equality with the Angels. He now enters
into spiritual communion with the Prophet himself, into
whose soul his own has become absorbed.
The fourth degree is usually attained during the forty
days of fasting and seclusion, observed by every Dervish
during his novitiate. In his ecstatic state he believes him-
self to have become a part of the Divinity, and sees Him in
all things. The Sheikh, after witnessing this remarkable
proof of the success of his teachings, gently awakens the
disciple from his ecstasy, and having restored him to his
normal condition, bestows upon him the rank of khalifeh
(" successor "). The mystic now resumes his outward obser-
vance of the rites of Islam, and prepares for his pilgrimage
to the Holy Cities.
Not every Dervish, however, attains even to the third
grade ; and the highest is attained only by the few. Those
less spiritually gifted, or less mystically minded, still continue
to recognize the personal and anthropomorphic Allah of
the Koran, and look forward at death only to a closer intimacy
with Him than that which will be enjoyed by those who
have not entered on " the Path."
CHAPTER IX
OTHER SCHIITE SECTS: THE METAWILEH
FROM the fact that the so-called Orthodox Mohammedans
have taken the name of Sunnites (Traditionists), " followers
of the Sunnah/' to distinguish themselves from the Schiites,
the impression prevails in some quarters that the latter entirely
reject tradition. But with all the veneration of the Schiites
for the Koran as the Word of GOD, and the repository of all
the dogmas, doctrines, laws, and ordinances of the faith of
Islam, they believe also in the value of oral traditions. They
reject, indeed, says Wortabet, 1 "many traditions which the
Moslems believe to have been handed down by the earliest
successors of Mohammed, because these mediums are detested
by the Schiites, and their report of traditions is considered
as untruthful. But while they deny the genuineness of many
of the traditions preserved by the Moslems, they have a set
of their own, which again are regarded as spurious by the
Sunnites.
" The Schiites of Syria term themselves Metawileh ; they
are found in Akkar, a district to the north of Tripoli ; in
Belad Besharah and Shukeif, the mountainous country east
of Tyre and Sidon, with a small number in these cities ;
and in Baalbec and Coele-Syria. Their number in these
places possibly amounts to about fifty thousand souls."
They believe, with the Orthodox Mohammedan, that the
divine mission of Mohammed is established beyond all doubt
by the numerous and satisfactory miracles of which he was
the subject, and by those which he performed. They believe
that the Koran is the undisputed word of GOD, and the
guide of men to truth, virtue, and paradise, and that there-
fore there is great merit in reading it.
1 Wortabet, Religions of Sym* PP 266 flL
8$
84 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
On the subject of ethics, the Metawileh do not differ much
from other Moslems. 1 All good works they divide into
duties, or works of ordinances, and works of supererogation.
The first division comprises prayer, fasting, alms, and
pilgrimage ; the prompt performance of duty to parents,
kinsmen, and slaves ; circumcision of males ; self-preserva-
tion ; a life that is neither extravagant nor niggardly ;
marriage in all cases where there is danger of sin ; veracity
in the communications and transactions of life ; good
faith both to believers and unbelievers, even to the murderers
of El Husein ; the performance of all engagements and
promises ; the right use of all the blessings of GOD ; con-
tentment ; exhortation to others ; feeding the poor, and
helping the distressed, etc. These duties, however, though
among the most primary, are not in every instance binding
on all ; e.g. alms is a duty only when the person is of full
age and in affluent circumstances, and pilgrimage is binding
on those only who are able to perform it. The works of
supererogation are many, the following being the principal.
The frequent mention of the name of GOD ; the assiduous
reading of the Koran ; frequenting the public places of
worship ; the habit of saluting believers, and of returning
their salutations ; making many friends, showing civility
to them, and requiting them for their favours, readiness to
help ; generosity to the members of the family, and to
others ; compassion on the poor and needy ; veneration of
old age among believers, and humility towards all the faithful ;
patience under injury ; mildness and dignity in deportment ;
and shunning the use of evil language. In addition to these,
the pious man must cultivate a sense of his shortcomings at
all times.
The Metawileh consider that for the same reasons that
men need a prophet they need also an Imaum, with whom
GOD deposits all the learning and knowledge of religion,
who shall give a right and indisputable interpretation of
the Koran, and who shall thus be a standing witness to the
truth of the Islam faith. As he is ex officio the king of the
Mohammedans, whose business it is to lead them in war in
the cause of GOD, and to administer justice to the poor and
1 Wortabet, Researches into the Religions of Syria, pp. 268 ff.
OTHER SCHIITE SECTS: THE METAWILEH 85
oppressed, he is also their high priest, their preacher, the
expounder of their faith, and their guide in all spiritual
concerns. He should be the best and most learned man of
his age, and is, in fact, as inspired and infallible as the prophet
Mohammed was. " We," says one of the twelve Imaums,
" possess all that the prophet possessed, except the office
of prophecy and the right to have more than four wives,"
Mohammed having enjoyed the privilege of taking eleven.
The Imaums are pure and holy beings, acquainted with the
secrets of the Most High, and are the way of access to Him
as mediators and intercessors. Their commands are the
commands of GOD himself, and disobedience to them is
disobedience to Him ; and, in short, as Noah was only
saved by entering into the ark, so a man can be safe from
the wrath of GOD in time and eternity only by a sincere
attachment to them.
The office of Imaum is a perpetual one, and since its
establishment it has never been vacant. Ali was succeeded
by eleven of his descendants, constituting with himself the
twelve Imaums who held so important a place in the creed
of the Schiites. The thirteenth Mohammed Ibn el-Hasan
el-Askang disappeared without having died, but he continues
to live till the present time, though in a state of disguise,
and without being known. He is believed to communicate
with men incognito, being often, if not always, present among
the multitudes who crowd the holy Kaaba every year. At
the appointed time he will manifest himself to men, and will
then be known by the name of the Guide (El Muhdi) and
with Jesus, the Son of Mary, will fill the whole world with
the knowledge of GOD, and with justice and piety, even as
it is now full of idolatry, error, and unrighteousness. This
set time is fast approaching. All this is a part of the settled
faith of the Metawileh. Some of their learned men believe
also that after the appearance of the Muhdi, he will in due
time die, and be succeeded by his own father, or predecessor
in the office, who will be raised from death for this purpose ;
and a retrqgracje, resurrection and succession will go on,
until the twelve Imaums shall have risen and completed the
regeneration of the world. After this will come the end, the
judgment and eternity.
86 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
The Metawileh of Syria believe that they have among
them the veritable descendants of El Hasan and El Husein,
the children of AH ; and the Schiites of Persia, and even the
Moslems of that country, do not dispute the veracity of these
claims. From the fact, however, that large numbers have
made the same claims, the intelligent classes have their
doubts on the subject, and are content to treat it with
indifference. These two branches of the descendants of
Ali, called El Hasaniyeh and El Huseiniyeh, reside in Belad
Beshara, wear the green turban as the badge of their honour-
able descent, and are called Suyyad. They are distinguished
by their strict adherence to their religion, and display all
that sanctimonious piety which forms an essential part of
it. They are treated with great respect by the Metawileh,
out of veneration for their illustrious origin.
The Metawileh, rejecting the opinions of the four Moham-
medan schools, hold that Jaafar Ibn Mohammed, the sixth
Imaum from Ali, was the person commissioned to give the
Mohammedan system its most definite and permanent form.
To his sayings, preserved it is said wholly by tradition,
they appeal in all cases where a question of religion or
jurisprudence is concerned, and he is to be considered, there-
fore, as the author of their peculiar views.
In prayer, the Metawileh perform their ablutions in a
different way from the Mohammedans, using very little
water for the occasion. When they bow to the ground, their
heads are made to touch a small cake of earth, which they
constantly carry with them for the purpose, made from the
very spot where El Husein was killed. If this cake happens
to be lost, or not obtainable, they use for the purpose a stone,
or some other material, to remind them of the holy earth
on which was shed the blood of their illustrious martyr.
Unlike the Moslems, each one prays singly, unless the leader
be a Muhtahid, a kind of doctor of divinity, who has completed
his studies in Irak, and has returned with satisfactory
testimonials of his having attained a high degree of learning
and piety. At the hour of prayer, all articles of clothing
in which gold is wrought, and gold or silver rings and watches,
are laid aside. Among the points of difference on the
subject of pilgrimage, the most remarkable is, that it may
OTHER SCHIITE SECTS: THE METAWILEH 87
be performed by proxy, even though the person for whom
the service is done be dead. Another of their peculiar customs
is, that when a person dies in affluent circumstances, he is
covered with a shroud on which a part or the whole of the
Koran is written the price of the article ranging from
five hundred to two thousand five hundred piastres and
readers are employed to read the Koran over the grave of
the newly deceased, with the idea that while this is going
on, the black angels will not be permitted to approach the
dead body. The Schiites always begin and end the fast
of Ramadan with the visible appearance of the new moon,
not depending on computation of time, except in cloudy
weather. The fast of the day begins at broad daylight,
and ends by the time that the eastern horizon is wholly
free from the last refracted rays of the set sun, both periods
being about half an hour later than the computation of the
Mohammedans. All travellers, according to the Koran,
are excused from fasting, but the Metawileh do not consider
less than seven hours' travelling as permitting food ; if it
comes up to this measure of time, they deem it wrong to
fast. Neither can the traveller fast at all unless he expects
to stay ten days at the place of his destination. Should he
fast on the way it will not be valid, and must be commuted
by an equal number of other days. The Sunnites and
Schiites differ considerably on some of the readings in the
Koran, and also on the interpretation of some important
passages.
In their bearing the Metawileh are sanctimonious and
Pharisaical, proud of their religion and of their strict adherence
to its ceremonial observances, and lay claim to superior
learning. But few, however, among the higher classes,
liave any intelligence or general information ; and even
their learning is superficial, and their acquaintance with the
state of the civilized world very limited. In their morals
they are not any better, if not indeed much worse, than the
Moslems. The lower classes among them are addicted to
petty theft, and all of them to shameless lying. Nor does
it appear that they consider either theft or lying to be great
crimes, especially when the victims of their fraud are persons
who do not belong to their sect. It is even said by the
88 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Christians who live among them, that they have heard them
declare that it is meritorious to rob and injure Gentiles ;
but of this repulsive doctrine we have found no positive
indications in their books.
In their feelings towards Christianity they do not differ
from the other Moslems. To a firm belief in the absolute
unity of the person of GOD, in the divine mission of Moham-
med and in the Koran as the undisputed word of GOD, they
add a regard for Ali and the Imaums scarcely inferior to their
veneration of the Arabian prophet. These points are so
interwoven with all their ideas of religion, and with all their
feelings as religious beings, that nothing short of the power
of GOD can change their sentiments on and abhorrence
to Christianity. The doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity
of our Saviour, and the Atonement, are equally repulsive to
Moslems and Metawileh. Jesus they believe to have been
a mere man, a prophet, like Mohammed, sent to teach
men the knowledge of GOD. That he is the Son of GOD,
equal with GOD, a person in the Godhead this sounds
strangely in their ears, and is a stumbling-block which they
cannot get over. The Koran, the magnificent eloquence and
classic purity of which lend such a fascination and power
to its diction, declares that GOD is one, to whom there is no
equal or companion, and who neither begets nor is begotten.
And this language rings perpetually in their ears from the
days of childhood to the last moments of life, and presents
an unwavering protest against the idolatry of the Christians
who believe in and worship more than one GOD. The
Schiites of Persia and the learned Sunnites maintain, indeed,
that the first thing that GOD created out of Himself was
Wisdom ; and one, at the first view, might suppose that this
doctrine would prepare their minds to believe in the divinity
of Jesus. But the Wisdom on which they theorise is created,
and is a thing, not a being equal to and co-eternal with GOD.
Between the merit of good works and the mercy of GOD,
they can find no place for the doctrine of the Atonement.
CHAPTER X
THE SECT OF THE ESSENES AND THEIR TENETS
AFTER the Persian captivity of the Jews, and their subse-
quent return to Palestine, three Jewish sects existed, the
Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Sadducees, the last being
purely Mosaic, the first exhibiting many Buddhist char-
acteristics, and the Essenes in particular showing strong
signs of their faith having been founded by Buddhist
missionaries, teaching the doctrines and practice of Sakya
Muni.
The Hebrews, says Inman, the well-known author who,
in his anxiety to condemn all religious faiths gives us some
exceedingly valuable side-lights from his researches with
regard to them, " always showed, during the Old Testament
times, a great aptitude to adopt the faith of outsiders and
as the Jewish people were in great abasement and misery
at the period when it is probable the Buddhist missionaries
came into Syria, they would be prepared for the doctrine that
they were suffering for bygone sins. The idea that men in
the present were sometimes punished for sins done in the
past was a Hebrew as well as a Hindu idea, else Saul's sons
would not have been hanged for their father's misdeeds,
or the Amalekites have been slaughtered by Samuel, because
their forefathers had, some centuries before, fought with
Israel, and been conquered by Moses and Joshua." 1
The remarkable sect of the Essenes have always been
considered to have had a very close connection with Free-
masonry. In many of our Masonic rituals and lectures
their name occurs. In certain American " Instructions "
in the Craft ritual, printed in language intended to b
Thomas Imran, M.D., Ancient Faiths and Modern, p. 143. Bouton,
New York, 1876.
$9
90 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
unintelligible to the " uninitiated or popular world who are
not Freemasons/ 1 the latter are alluded to throughout as
" Essenes."
The Essenes are described by Rev. Dr. Ginsburg, 1 a
good authority on the subject, and one who quotes largely
from Josephus, as a Jewish sect of singular piety. They
did not sacrifice animals, but endeavoured to make their
own minds holy fit for an acceptable offering to JEHOVAH.
They provided themselves with just enough for the necessities
of life, and held such goods as they possessed, e.g. clothes
and cloaks, in common. They only allowed themselves to
converse on such parts of philosophy as concern GOD and
man. They abhorred slavery, but each served his neigh-
bour. They respected the Sabbath. Their fundamental
laws were, to love GOD, to love virtue, and to love mankind.
They affected to despise money, fame, pleasures, professed
the most strict chastity, or rather continence, and they
practised endurance as a duty. They also cultivated simplicity,
cheerfulness, modesty, and order. They lived together in
the same houses and villages, and sustained the poor, the
sick, and the aged. When they earned wages, the money
was paid to a common stock. They did not marry, or have
children ; but if any of their body chose to wed, there was
nothing in the regulations to prevent their doing so, only
they then had to enter another class of the brotherhood.
When possible they worked all day. They were highly
respected by those who knew them, and were frequently
receiving additions to their number. They seem to have
resembled, in their habits and customs, a fraternity of monks
of a working, rather than a mendicant Order.
Pleasure they regarded as an evil, having a tendency
to enchain man to earthly enjoyments, a peculiarly Buddhist
tenet. Still further, they considered the use of ointment
as defiling, which was certainly not a Hebraic doctrine ;
but they dressed decently. They prayed devoutly before
sunrise ; but until the sun had risen they never spoke of
worldly matters. They gave thanks, and prayed before
and after eating ; and before they entered their refectory
they bathed in pure water. The food provided was of the
1 The Essenes. Longmans, London, 1864.
SECT OF THE ESSENES AND THEIR TENETS 91
simplest kind, and just in sufficient quantity to keep them
alive. When a person wished to join the community, he
was required to undergo a period of probation, and, if ap-
proved, he took a solemn oath " to fear GOD ; to be just
towards all men ; never to wrong anyone ; to detest the
wicked, and love the righteous ; to keep faith with all men ;
not to be proud ; not to try and outshine his neighbours
in any matter ; to love truth, and to try and reclaim all liars ;
never to steal or cajole ; never to conceal anything from
the brotherhood, and to be reticent with outsiders."
Freemasons will perceive in the various clauses of this
Essene Obligation a very strong resemblance to solemn
injunctions they themselves undertook to obey, in the three
Craft degrees, a still further confirmation, were any such
wanting, of the fact that the Essenes, in common with other
Syrian sects, possessed and adhered to the " true principles
of Freemasonry."
Josephus, in writing of the Essenes, compares them with
the Pythagoreans, a sect also holding doctrines evidently
brought from .Persia and Hindostan. Pliny, in writing of
the Essenes, remarks that their usages differ from those of
all other nations which we may take as a proof that they
did not copy their constitution from Greeks, Romans, or
Jews, however much they might be indebted for it to their
secluded neighbours in the Lebanon.
Respecting the origin of this sect, nothing certain appears
to be known, beyond the fact that they were in existence
in the time of the Maccabees. Ordinary critics decline to
see in them any direct relations to the Pythagoreans, and
some imagine that the order sprung naturally out of a spiritual
reading of the Mosaic law, modified, probably, by Persian
or Chaldean notions.
Whether or not we take as fact the details given of the
early life of Jesus Christ, as related in the " Aquarian
Gospels " and in " Hafed, Prince of Persia/' it seems highly
probable that Our Lord may have spent some years of His
life, before commencing His short three years' ministry in
Palestine, in a residence among, and discussion of their
doctrines with, other Eastern nations. It seems probable,
from His plain dislike of the doctrines of both Pharisees and
92 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Sadducees that He was in sympathy with those of their
keen opponents, the Essenes, which will account for the
claim by certain writers of the period, as well as subsequently,
tliat Jesus of Nazareth was an Essene. Certainly, so far
as "Sis human personality may have required some form
of religious observance, that of the Essenes would have been,
undoubtedly, most in consonance with His divine nature.
Modern Freemasonry, therefore, has acted wisely in incor-
porating with the monotheistic principles of the ancient
Craft degrees, with their foreshadowings of a coming Messiah,
the more excellent and perfect teaching of the later, and
higher degrees, and their references, in so many ways, to
the past and future influence on human nature of the Saviour
of mankind, in deed and in truth the greatest Teacher of the
real, the inner principles of all Freemasonry.
Yarker, writing of the Essenes, says : " This important
mystic sect amongst the Jews has puzzled historians. It
may have struck out a new path from the Kabalistic road,
but the extreme veneration of its members for the sun is
more characteristic of Chaldea and of the existing Yezids.
Jewish critics believe that they are the Assideans, Chasdim,
or old believers allied with the Maccabees. They afterwards
divided into two sects, or the contemplative and practical
members. Other writers consider that they were Egyptian
priests, driven into Syria by the conquests of Cambyses
of Persia and Alexander the Great, and it is very probably
that this may be partly correct, and that they may have
included Jesus ben Panther, a nephew of Queen Salome,
who, after studying Egyptian Theurgy, and preaching to
the people, was proclaimed for forty days, and then stoned
to death and hung on a tree at Lyda, about the year 100 B.C." 1
The Essenes are said to have recognized eight (some say
ten) spiritual stages of ascent to beatitude ; and they had,
like the Pythagoreans, a system of degrees with a probation-
ary period between each. Their doctrines were delivered
orally and they took a solemn oath of secrecy, chastity and
justice in all their dealings, as mentioned above. When
addressing their chiefs they stood with their right hand
extended below their chin and the left dropped to their side.
1 The Arcane Schools, p. 156.
SECT OF THE ESSENES AND THEIR TENETS 08
A select class of the Essenes were termed Therapeuta or
healers, who dwelt in small houses containing an inner shrine
which they used for contemplative purposes. They kept
the Sabbath, and, every seventh time seven, they had a
special service with mystic dances, evidently resembling those
in the ancient Mysteries. Philo says : " They have impulses
of heavenly love by which they kindle, in all, the enthusiasm
of the Corybantes, and the Baccanalians, and are raised to
that state of contemplation after which they aspire."
Eusebius, the Christian historian, has some curious remarks
on the sect. He says : " Their doctrines are to be found
among none but in the religion of Christians, according to
the Gospel. Their meetings, and the separate places of
the men and women at their meetings, and the exercises
performed by them, are still in use among us at the present
day, equally at the feast of our Saviour's Passion."
Josephus, who had evidently personal knowledge of the
Essenes, makes mention of books which were kept very
secret amongst them referring, he says, to " the names of
the Angels."
Apparently there were branches of the Essenes and es-
pecially of the Therapeutae, who became actual Christians,
such as the Nazarenes, Ebionites, and Nabatheans, and the
first term is yet in use in the East to designate Christians who
first took that name at Antioch. Theodoret says : " The
Nazarenes are Jews, honouring the Anointed as a just man,"
and using the " Evangel according to St. Peter," portions
of which were discovered some years ago in Egypt, with
fragments of the Logia of the Lord. The Ebionites were a
portion of the sect, having amongst them relatives of Jesus,
and they used the Gospel of St. Matthew, derived, some
say, from the Logia : they dwelt in a region near the seat
of the Adonisian mysteries ; l they looked upon Jesus as
assuming his apostleship at the descent of the Holy Spirit,
and that His Messiahship would begin with His Second
Coming.
In a very interesting book in my own library, which
I am prohibited from alluding to more distinctly, as it is
connected with the ritual of a sect, dating back to the very
1 The Weejdngjor Adonis was practised in Syria down to A.D. 400.
04 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
earliest ages, the following particulars are given with respect
to the Essenes, with whom they have a certain amount
of resemblance :
"Two hundred years after the College of Prophecy raised
up Amos, Hosea and Jonah, Manasses, son of Hezekiah,
established idol worship, and by law abolished the worsjiip
of Jehovah. He caused the prophet Isaiah to be sawn in
twain, because he worshipped Jehovah. For three hundred
years following, the children of the prophets were a small
body, and scattered in many lands. The rest, who were
called Jews, lived under written laws and ceremonies, which
were compiled and established by Ezra in Jerusalem, which
combination of books was called The Scriptures. From
that time forward the Jews became worshippers of the Lord
and the GOD, but the scattered tribes still held to the worship
of the Great Spirit, Jehovah, keeping their service secret.
These were without sin, doing no war, nor resistance of
evil against evil, and loving one another as oneself. From
these sprang the Essenians, cultivating prophecy and purity
of spirit, and the angels of Jehovah dwelt with these Essenians,
who were the true Israelites in fact, and were about seven
hundred in number. They were a separate people, pledged
to Jehovah to have no king or ruler save their own rabbis.
They dwelt in communities of tens and twenties, and hundreds,
holding all things in common. In marriage they were mono-
gamous, neither would they have more than one suit of
clothes each ; and they lived on fruit and herbs only ; nor
ate they flesh, nor fish, nor the flesh of anything that ever
breathed the breath of life ; and they bathed every morning
at sunrise, doing in all things after the manner of their
forefathers. By virtue of the angel hosts who were with
them did they see things. And they held communion with
the angels of heaven every night before going to sleep. Yet,
though they lived in great purity of body and soul, they were
evilly slandered by the people round about them on every
side. But Jehovah prospered the seed of the Essenians,
in holiness and love, for many generations. Then came
the chief of the angels, according to the commandment of
GOD, to raise up an heir to the Voice of Jehovah. And, in
four generations more, an heir was born, and named Joshua,
SECT OF THE ESSENES AND THEIR TENETS 95
and he was the child of Joseph and Mara, devout worshippers
of Jehovah, who stood aloof from all other people save
the Essenians. And this Joshua, in Nazareth, re-established
Jehovah, and restored many of the lost rites and ceremonies.
In the thirty-sixth year of his age he was stoned to death
in Jerusalem, by the Jews that worshipped the heathen gods."
" The beliefs of the Essenes and their monastic life are
similar to the beliefs and practices of the early Gnostic sects
of Syria. 1 They performed no sacrifices, and paid no
attention to Pharisaic rites or books, having instead a
literature of their own, and using apparently ' lustrations '
or baptisms instead of sacrifice. Their contempt of the
world, their peaceful contented life and chastity, seem to
have secured them a general reverence. The hermit Banu
or Bunai, of whom Josephus was for a time a follower,
appears to have belonged to this sect/ 1 Their connection
with the Therapeutae of Egypt is usually recognized, and
Pliny speaks of their colony near the Dead Sea. Josephus
estimates their number at about four thousand. Their
belief in charms, their prayers to the rising sun, and their
reverence for light, show, however, that they were not far
removed above the level of their fellows. We can hardly
doubt that in the beliefs of this sect we trace more or less
remotely the influence of Buddhism, which was at this
time so strongly pressing on the West, and which we find
to have been familiar as an Indian religion to the fathers
of the Church, from Irenseus and Clement of Alexandria
to Jerome. It is difficult to believe that such monasticism
was of purely Egyptian or Syrian origin. It certainly con-
travenes the most important principles of Judaism ; and in
Egypt the wives of priests were priestesses in the great
ages of the empire.
" At Antioch, Christianity was less severely Jewish,"
says Conder, 3 " The Christoi, here first so named, were
known to the vulgar as Chrestoi, or ' good ' people. Satur-
ninus, the Gnostic, founded his school at Antioch, and taught
that Christ was a phantom not really born of flesh and blood.
He was a rigid ascetic, and abstained from all animal food.
* Col. C. R. Conder, R.E., Syrian Stone Lore, p. 202. London, 1886.
* Syrian Stone Lore, p. 250.
96 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Much of his philosophy was founded, apparently, on the
Zoroastrian system. Tatian, known for his fierce attack
on the pagan religion, founded a sect in Syria about 166 A.D.
called Encratites, or Abstainers, the teetotalers of the age
who even used pure water instead of wine for the Eucharist,
They forbade marriage and the eating of animal food, and
they held the same view with Saturninus as to the phantom
Christ, never either born or suffering death."
Syria, indeed, at this time was full of Gnostic sects, such
as the Ophites, who worshipped serpents in connection with
the Eucharist ; the Markosians, who claimed to change the
water of the holy cup to blood, and who believed in Kab-
alistic figures and Syriac magic sentences ; the Cainites,
who commended Judas Iscariot as a martyr ; the Adamites,
who worshipped naked in their churches ; the Setheans,
named from their views as to Seth ; and the Elchesaites
(in the third century), who were connected with the older
Essenes. The prophet of the latter lived in the days of
Trajan, it is said, and received an inspired book from heaven.
The Sabians or Mendaiites, at the mouth of the Euphrates,
were connected with this Essene Gnostic sect, which seems
to have had its headquarters in the deserts of the Dead Sea ;
and the Ebionites of Bashan accepted Elchesai as a prophet.
Elchesai laid great stress on baptism frequently repeated,
as among the Sabians, and shows a Judaizing tendency in
his belief in the necessity of sacrifice. He honoured the
patriachs, and identified Christ with Adam, but rejected the
later prophets. He commanded abstinence from flesh,
but allowed marriage, which accounts for the late survival
of the Sabians as " Christians of St. John/' The Elchesait
Eucharist appears to have "Consisted of bread, salt, and
probably water.
Heckethorn 1 says they took every possible precaution
in the admission of members into their secret Order, which
was divided into four degrees, and the process of initiation
was so arranged that a candidate, even after having entered
the third, did not know the grand secret, and if not found
trustworthy to be admitted into the innermost sanctuary,
remained totally unconscious of its real nature, and only
1 Secret Societies, vol. i. p. 99*
SECT OF THE ESSENES AND THEIR TENETS 97
saw in it the governing ranks, highest in rank, but not other-
wise distinguished in point of doctrine. As he justly adds, a
parallel of this system is found in Freemasonry ; the members
of the first three degrees are not initiated into the grand
secret of Masonry ; only in the Royal Arch are they informed
of it. The four degrees above referred to were respectively
called the " Faithful/' the " Illuminate," the " Initiated/'
and the " Perfect." The Faithful received at his initiation
a new or baptismal name, and this was engraved with a
secret mark upon a white stone, (possibly alluded to in
Rev. ii. 17), which he retained as a voucher of his membership.
The usual sign was the Cross, though other signs were also
employed
CHAPTER XI
PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYSTEM
THERE can be little doubt in the mind of any student of
such ancient beliefs as we are considering that the teaching
of Pythagoras had a very great influence over a very wide
area, so that the credit given to him for being responsible
for bringing the principles of Freemasonry to Britain may
not, after all, be quite traditionary, as some would have us
believe.
The early life and surroundings of this great philosopher
tended to educate him in mysticism. 1 The son of a wealthy
jeweller of Samos, his parents, previous to his birth, consulted
the Delphic Oracle, when they were promised " a son who
would be useful to all men and throughout all time," and
by the same oracular advice the parents went to Sidon, in
Phoenicia, so that the predestined son might be conceived,
formed, and born far from the disturbing influences of his
own land. Before his birth he was consecrated to the worship
of Apollo. When one year old, again acting on Delphic
advice, he was taken to the temple of Adonai, in the Lebanon
valley, for a blessing from the high priest there.
Up to the age of twenty he was accustomed to confer
with the sages of his native town, Syros and Miletus. Then,
in a wondrous vision, he saw pass before him the whole of
his earlier years, and saw, as in his infancy, a white-bearded
priest, uttering over him the words, often repeated to
him by his mother, " O woman of Ionia, thy child shall be
great in wisdom : but remember that, though the Greeks
still possess the science of the gods, the knowledge of GOD
can no longer be found elsewhere than in Egypt." He
* See Edouard Schure", The Great Initiates, to whose section on Pythagoras
I am indebted for much of the following.
98
PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYSTEM 99
determined to go at once to Egypt, and undergo initiation
there, as advised. His initiation lasted in all twenty-two
years, and he reached the summit of the Egyptian priest-
hood, realizing, not as a vain theory, but as something lived
through, the doctrine of the Logos- Light, or of the Universal
Word, and that of human evolution through seven planetary
cycles. Then Cambyses, the Persian despot, invaded
Egypt ; the temples of Memphis and Thebes were plundered,
that of Ammon destroyed, and Pythagoras, with other
Egyptian priests, was taken as a prisoner to Babylon. Here
he was able to thoroughly study the knowledge in the posses-
sion of the magi, the heirs of Zoroaster, thereby enlarging
his already vast horizon of doctrines and mysteries. After
twelve years in Babylon, he returned to his native Samos,
well-skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians and the
Chaldeans, to commence the fulfilment of the Delphic
prediction concerning him.
Pythagoras visited all the temples of Greece, being every-
where received as a master ; at the Eleusinian Mysteries,
we are told, the hierophant himself gave up his office to him.
Then he reached Delphi, that great centre of clairvoyant
divination, practised there, as in the Egyptian temples, as
an art and a science, but only to be used by the loftiest minds,
and by them with a degree of religious sincerity and scientific
thoroughness which raised it to the height of a real minis-
tration. In conjunction with one of the high priestesses
named Theoclea, Pythagoras instilled at Delphi a strengthen-
ing infusion of his own Egyptian and Chaldean knowledge,
and once again Delphi became a centre of life and action.
After a year at Delphi, Pythagoras proceeded to what was
then known as Greater Greece, founding his own celebrated
Order at Croton, a town at the extremity of the Gulf of
Tarentum, in Southern Italy. Here, with his teaching of
esoteric doctrine to a chosen band of disciples, and also
applying his principles to the education of youth and the
life of the State, he produced a veritable revolution, according
to Porphyry and lamblichus, 1 who depict the commencement
of his life there as being rather that of a magician than., of a
philosopher. With the ready aid of the wealthiest citizens
1 See Appendix.
100 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
he founded his Temple of the Muses, a home of initiation
into the highest principles of education as well as of religion,
with separate sections for the two sexes, though women were
not admitted to the inner mysteries revealed to men, as
unnecessary, according to Pythagoras, for their better
accomplishment of their household duties !
The Pythagorean system embraced three degrees, with
a fourth as a supreme entrance into the highest knowledge.
Here we are at once confronted with a probable source of
our own Masonic ritual, wherein only those whose minds are
thoroughly prepared become acquainted with the fact that
the apparent finality of the third degree is only the com-
mencement of new light in a fourth, the Royal Arch, with
its magnificent interweaving of Egyptian and Chaldean
symbolism.
The novitiate under Pythagoras commenced with a
" Preparation " of two years, which might be prolonged to
five, during which the novice, known as " The Listener,"
while developing the great gift of intuition, and exercising
the strictest moral and hygienic discipline, was taught implicit
obecjience to, and firm belief in a Supreme Deity, and the
necessity of subduing his passions and enlarging his mind
if he truly desired to be of the benefit to himself and his
fellow men for which he was created.
In the second degree, " Purification," he became
acquainted " with the more hidden mysteries of Nature and
science." His education became esoteric from within
instead of as heretofore exoteric from without : his real
initiation now commenced. He had revealed to him a com-
plete, rational exposition of occult doctrine, from its
principles as contained in the mysterious science of numbers
to the final consequences of universal evolution, the destiny
and end of the human ^soul. The meaning of figures and
letters, and geometric forms, were divulged to initiated
adepts under the most solemn vows of secrecy. The trans-
cendent meaning of the first problem of the Pythagorean
system of theogony was then entered upon, the reason
which brings it to pass that the great Monad contains all
the small ones, and that all the numbers spring from the
great Unity in movement.
PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYSTEM 101
Pythagoras taught that GOD, the indivisible substance,
has accordingly for Number, the Unity which contains
the Infinite ; for Name, that of Father, Creator, or Eternal
Masculine : for Sign, the living Fire, symbol of the Spirit,
essence of the Whole. This great Monad acts as a creative
Dyad. Immediately GOD manifests Himself He is double ;
indivisible essence and divisible substance : active, animating,
masculine principle, and passive, feminine principle, or ani-
mated plastic matter. Accordingly the Dyad represented the
union of the Eternal-Masculine and the Eternal-Feminine in
GOD, the two essential and corresponding divine faculties.
Thus the Monad represents the essence of GOD, the Dyad
His generative and reproductive faculty. The latter brings
the world into being, the visible unfolding of GOD in time
and space. Now the real world is triple. For just as man
is composed of three elements, which are distinct, though
blended in one another body, soul, and spirit ; so the
universe is divided into three concentric spheres : the natural,
the human, and the divine world. The Triad, or ternary
law, is accordingly the constitutive life of things, and the
real key to life, the corner stone of esoteric science, which
Pythagoras made the foundation of his system.
In the third degree, " Perfection/' the initiates passed
on to clairvoyant sleep and experiences, the mystery of the
human soul, its transmigrations, its supreme importance,
as man gradually acquires, by his own actions in a new
spiritual existence, and a more free exercise of his intellect
and will-power, a fuller consciousness of the divine, and his
own connection therewith. Pythagoras called the spirit
the subtile chariot of the soul, because it is destined to remove
it from earth after death, to its celestial life beyond.
The fourth, the inner degree of all, reserved for the very
select of his disciples, prepared by the teaching of Pythagoras
in the former degrees for the ordinary trials of life, involved,
as with the Indian and Persian sages, the complete subjuga-
tion of human will. To attain this meant the unification
of three kinds of perfection, the realization of truth in
intelligence, of virtue in soul, and of purity in body. Thus
man becomes an adept, and, if he possesses sufficient energy,
enters into possession of new faculties and powers. He
102 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
attains, in more or less degree, the power of healing, of seeing
events taking place afar of, even of conveying himself in
astral form to such places as his presence is needed in.
The teaching of Pythagoras may be thus summed up : an
attempt to solve the mystery of the origin of good and evil ;
the necessity of assisting the law of destiny by endeavouring
to perceive the difference between truth and error ; an
inquiry into the diversity of human souls, conditions,
and destinies ; true brotherhood of mankind, for we owe
help, sympathy and charity to all ; for we are all of the
same race, though we may have reached different stages ;
the sacredness of suffering, and the divinity of sympathy
with it ; the attainment of the rarest and loftiest of human
ideals, the domination of intelligence over soul and instinct,
that of the will over the whole being.
Such, then, were the doctrines of Pythagoras, confessedly
derived from Egypt, but engrafted on an intelligence in in-
fancy and boyhood surrounded by Delphic and Phoenician
influences, matured by the learning of the Chaldees, developed
amidst the revised wisdom of Eleusis and Delphi, for ultimate
diffusion through all Western Europe.
Plato says that the Pythagoreans had a symbolism
denoting Minerva by an equilateral triangle : Apollo by
unity : Strife by the numeral two : justice by three, and the
Supreme Being by four. Hippolytus says that " almost
every heresy is indebted to the .science of arithmetic for its
invention of the Hebdomads, and its emanations of the
^Eons ; although the different teachers divide them variously,
and change their names, doing in reality nothing more :
in all which way of proceeding Pythagoras is their true
master, he who first brought with him out of Egypt the
use of numbers in such matters. ..." The so-called
" Pythagorean Numerals " of unknown antiquity, whether
due or not to the sage of Croton, are said to be preserved to
us by Boethius, " the last of the Romans," in his treatise
on Arithmetic. That they would be the true parents of our
Arabic numerals is at once apparent by inverting the figures
standing for I, 2, 5, 7, 9, o. Their forms look like certain
Palmyrene letters, slightly modified. The Palmyrene is
a very ancient Syriac alphabet, totally different in origin
PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYSTEM 108
from either Punic or Pehlevi. The ancient importance of
this character is apparent from what Epiphanius says :
" Manes divided his work into twenty- two books, being the
number of letters in the Syriac alphabet. For most of the
Persians use the Syriac character as well as the Persian,
just as with us, many nations, although having a national
alphabet of their own, yet employ the Greek/'
I have alluded above to the probability of the teachings
and system of Pythagoras having penetrated through Europe,
which will account for the mention made of them as well as
of their author in modern Freemasonry, more especially
in the Lectures on the Three Degrees.
lamblichus tells us that Pythagoras required his disciples
to undergo a probationary period of three years, during
which they were under close and constant observation with
regard to their manners of life and general characteristics.
After this period they were ordered J " to observe a quinquen-
nial silence in order that he might experimentally know how
they were affected as to continuance of speech, the subjuga-
tion of the tongue being the most difficult of all victories ; as
those have unfolded to us who instituted the Mysteries."
lamblichus also tells us that a visitor to Pythagoras was
Abaris the Hyperborean, who came to Crotona from a distant
land in order that he might collect gold for his temple, and
that Pythagoras learned much from him. Now this Abaris
is considered by many distinguished writers on the Druids
to have been identical with Abhras, who, according to
ancient Irish legendary history, is stated to have travelled
from Ireland to distant countries, and after a long time to
have returned by way of Scotland, where he remained for
seven years, bringing a new system of religion. From this
Godfrey Higgins concludes 2 that the Druids were
Pythagoreans.
Pythagoras has left us the following beautiful conception
of the Deity : " GOD is neither the object of sense, nor
subject to passions ; but invisible, only intelligible, and
supremely intelligent. In His Body he is like the Light, and
in His Soul He resembles Truth. He is the Universal Spirit
* lamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, Taylor's translation, p. 50.
Godfrey Higgins, The Celtic Druids, p. 125.
104 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
that pervades and diffuses itself over all Nature. All things
receive their life from Him. There is but One, Only GOD,
Who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the
World beyond the Orb of the Universe ; but being Himself All
in All, He sees all the beings that fill His immensity : the
Only Principle, the Light of Heaven, the Father of all.
He produces everything, He orders and disposes everything.
He is the Reason, the Life and the Motion of all things."
" Alongside of the Eleusinia/' says Mead, 1 " there existed
certain private Mysteries not recognized by the State, the
number of which subsequently increased enormously, so
that almost every variety of Oriental Mystery-cultus found
its adherents in Greece, as may be seen from a study of the
religious associations among the Greeks known as Thiasi,
Erani, and Orgeones ; among private communities and
societies of this kind there were to be found naturally many
undesirable elements, but at the same time they satisfied
the needs of many who could derive no spiritual nourishment
from the State religion."
" Among these private foundations were communities of
rigid ascetics, men and women, who gave themselves entirely
to holy living ; such people were said to live the ' Orphic
life/ and were generally known as Orphics. These Orphic
communities appear to have been the refugees of those who
yearned after the religious life, and among them were the
Pythagorean schools. Pythagoras did not establish some-
thing entirely new in Greece when he founded the famous
school of Crotona ; he developed something already existing,
and when his original school was broken up and its members
had to flee they sought refuge among the Orphics. The
Pythagorean schools disappear into the Orphic communities/'
"It is in the Pythagorean tradition that we see the signs
of what may be called the Philosophic Mysteries ; it is
therefore in the best of the Orphic and Pythagorean traditions
that we have to find the indications of the nature of the real
Mysteries, and not in the political Eleusinia, or in the dis-
orderly elements of the Oriental cults. In fact, the Orphics
did much to improve the Eleusinia, and supported them as
a most necessary means for educating the ordinary man
1 Mead, Fragments oj a Faith Forgotten, pp. 49-51. London, 1906.
PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYSTEM 105
towards a comprehension of the/ higher life. It stands to
reason, however, that the Mysteries which satisfied the aspira-
tions of Orphics and Pythagoreans were somewhat higher
than the State Mysteries of the ordinary citizen. These
Pythagoreans were famous throughout antiquity for the
purity of their lives and the loftiness of their aims, and the
Mysteries they regarded with such profound reverence must
have been something beyond the Eleusinia, something to
which the Eleusinia were but one of the outer approaches."
Pythagoras is said to have been initiated into the Egyptian,
Chaldean, Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries ; at the same
time he was one of the chief founders of Greek philosophy.
His philosophy, however, was not a thing of itself, but the
application of his intellect especially of his mathematical
genius to the best in these Mystery traditions ; he saw that
it was necessary to attempt to lead the rapidly evolving
intellectuality of Greece along its own lines to the contempla-
tion of the inner nature of things ; otherwise, in the joy of
its freedom, it would get entirely out of hand and reject the
truths of the ancient wisdom.
This tradition of Pythagoras being responsible for the
introduction of Masonry from Phoenicia into Britain is
strengthened, even if not confirmed, by a MS. in the Bodleian
Library, prepared by the antiquary John Layland for King
Henry VIII, and purporting to be a faithful copy of a still
older MS. about 160 years more ancient, said to be in the
handwriting of King Henry VI. This MS., which has as its
title " Certayn Questyons, with Answers to the same, concern-
ing the Mystery of Ma?onrye," includes the following passages
bearing on our subject :
Quest. Where did it begynne ?
Ans. Ytt dydd begynne with the ffyrste menne yn the
este, whych were before the ffyrst manne of the weste, 1
1 Preston has the following Notes on the MS. quoted. " Fyrste menne
in the este, etc." It should seem by this that Masons believe there were
men in the east before Adam, who is called the " ffyrste manne of the weste,"
and that arts and sciences began in the east. Some authors of great note
for learning have been of the same opinion ; and it is certain that Europe
and Africa (which in respect to Asia), may be called western countries),
were wild and savage, long after arts and politeness of manners were in
great perfection in China and the Indies.
106 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
and comynge westlye, ytt hath broughte herwyth alle corn-
fortes to the wylde and comfortlesse.
Quest. Who dydd brynge ytt westlye ?
Ans. The Venetians, 2 whoo beynge grate merchaundes,
corned ffyrste ffromme the este ynn Venetia, for the
commodyte of marchaundysynge beithe este and weste bey
the redde and myddlonde sees.
Quest. How comede ytt in Engelonde ?
Ans. Peter Gower a Grecian,* journeyyde ffor kunnynge
yn Egypte and in Syria, and yn everyche londe whereas
the Venetians hadde plaunted maconrye, and wynnynge
entraunce yn al lodges of ma^onnes he lerned muche, and
retournedde, and woned in Grecia Magna, wacksynge and
becommynge a mighty wyseacre, a gratelye renowned, and
her he framedde a grate loge at Groton,4 and maked manye
ma^onnes, some whereoffe dyde journeye yn Frannce, and
maked manye ma^onnes ther, wherefromme, yn processe
of tyme, the arte passed in Engelonde.
1 " The Venetians, etc." In the times of monkish ignorance it is no
wonder that the Phoenicians should be mistaken for the Venetians. Or
perhaps, if the people were not taken one for the other, similitude of sound
might deceive the clerk who first took down the examination. The Phoeni-
cians were the greatest voyagers among the ancients, and were in Europe
thought to be the inventors of letters, which perhaps they brought from
the East with other arts. Illustrations of Masonry, p. 112.
* Peter Gower, says Preston in his Note on this passage, must be another
mistake of the writer. " I was puzzled at first to guess who Peter Gower
could be, the name being perfectly English ; or how a Greek should come
by such a name ; but as soon as I thought of Pythagoras, I could scarce
forbear smiling, to find that philosopher had undergone such a metempsychosis
he never dreamt of. We need only consider the French pronunciation of
his name, ' Pythagore,' that is ' Petagore,' to conceive how easily such
a mistake may be made by an unlearned clerk. That Pythagoras travelled
for knowledge into Egypt, etc., is known to all the learned ; and that he
was initiated into several different orders of priests, who in those days kept
all their learning secret from the vulgar, is as well known. Pythagoras also
made every geometrical theorem a secret, and admitted only such to the
knowledge of them as had undergone first a five years' silence. He is sup-
posed to be the inventor of the 4yth proposition of the first book of Euclid,
for which, in the joy of his heart, he is said to have sacrificed a hecatomb.
See his life by Dion Hal."
3 Grecia Magna, a part of Italy so called, in which the Greeks had settled
a large colony.
* Groton is the name of a place in England, but the place here meant
Crotona, a city of Grecia Magna, which in the time of Pythagoras was very
populous. Preston's Illustrations of Masonry, pp. 113, 114.
CHAPTER XII
THE ISMAELI AND THEIR VARIOUS BRANCHES.
ORIGIN OF THE ASSASSINS
" WE have seen," says Taylor, 1 " how greatly Mohammedan-
ism was corrupted by its admixture with the religion of the
ancient Persians ; but there were certain sects among the
Persians that professed doctrines more absurd and more
pernicious than those of the Magians ; which, in fact, taught
principles destructive of morality and social order. From
these sprung several impostors, who seduced crowds of
followers, by appealing to the depraved passions of human
nature, teaching the indifference of actions, community of
women, and the equal distribution of property. 1 '
Hakim Ibn-Hashem occupied the position of under-
secretary to Abu Moslem, Governor of the Province of
Khorassan. From the very first period of Islamism, Khorassan
had been the fruitful parent of heresies, including the Rav^udi
who taught the doctrines of the transmigration of soul,
and the successive incarnations of the Deity, and theJSendics
whose principle it was to believe nothing. Abu Moslem
believed in the Ravendic creed ; Hashem adopted the same,
and resolved to turn it to profit. Being very deformed,
he knew that his figure would prevent his being believed if
he proclaimed himself a Bodhisatwa, so he covered himself
with a long silver veil, declaring that no mortal could gaze
upon the effulgence of his face, and live. Hence he is usually
alluded to as Al Mokanna, "The Veiled Prophet." He
appeared in the reign of the Caliph Al Mohdi, the father of
the renowned Haroun-al-Raschid, in A.D. 778 By some,
1 History of Mohammedanism, p. 168
107
108 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
apparently, clever juggling performances he persuaded
his followers that he had the power of working miracles,
and so in a few months he collected a large army, and was
able to garrison several strong fortresses. In particular, he
is said to have caused the appearance of the moon to rise
out of a well for several nights in succession, whence he is
called by the Persians " Sazendeh Mah/ 1 the " Moon-maker/'
Being closely besieged, and finding escape hopeless, he first
poisoned the entire garrison and his own family, and then
plunged into a vessel containing a corrosive liquid, hoping
that from the disappearance of his body it might be thought
that he had been taken up into heaven. Notwithstanding
the assertions of one of his concubines, who had escaped by
hiding herself, and who had seen all that he had done, many
believed in the divinity of Al Mokanna, and clothed themselves
in white, to show their hostility to the Abasside Caliphs,
whose distinctive colour was black.
A still more formidable heretic and rebel appeared in
Irak during the caliphate of Al Mamoun (A.D. 10) ; this
was Baber, who maintained his ground for twenty years,
during which time he is said to have murdered two hundred
and fifty thousand Mohammedans in cold blood.
Another fierce enemy of the Mussulmans appeared in Irak
during the caliphate of Al Mohammed (A.D. 891). This
founder of a new sect was a poor labourer, named Karmat,
to whose followers, the Karmatians, the Nusari seem more
or less allied. The following account of Karmat is given
by De Sacy, who says he quotes from Bibars Mansoori,
and that it is also given by the great Arab chronicler, Ibn-
Atheer :
A man of the province of Khorassan came and established
himself in the territory of Cufa, called Nahrein. He there
led a most ascetic life, teaching that prayers should be
said fifty times a day. Being taken ill, he was carefully
attended by a man named Hamdan Karamita, whom he
taught his religion, at the same time selecting another
twelve of his followers as his apostles. The sect spread
rapidly. Haidsam, the governor of those parts, imprisoned
him, but he escaped through the friendly offices of a girl
belonging to the gaoler, and then declared that he had been
THE ISMAELI 109
released by an angel. Fearing for his life, however, he
fled into Syria, and assumed the name of the man who had
showed him hospitality.
About the same period, in the time of Mohammed son of
Ismael, a son of the Imaum Djaafar as-Sadik previously
mentioned, there arose Abdullah son of Maimoun Kaddah,
who, seeing the failure of Al Mokannah and Baber, determined
to proceed in a different way rather than by open war. He
knew that men rarely resign all preconceived opinions at
once ; he therefore resolved to form lodges, or assemblies,
in which the members should pass through seven grades,
each having its own peculiar system of doctrines. Mission-
aries, called Dais, propagated the secret doctrine taught by
Abdullah, and it is said that the founder of the Karmatians
was converted by one of them. This, however, must be
regarded as very doubtful, because the Karmatian system
was not identical with the Ismaelian, though very like it ;
and also because Karmat preached obedience to the ideal
Massum, and not to Imaum Ismael.
De Sacy supposes that before this time the sect of the
Ismaeli may have existed, but that it was not till the time
of Abdullah, which he gives as A.D. 863, that the doctrines
of the sect were reduced to a system. He thinks that till
then they were only an ordinary sect of Schiites, but that
Abdullah introduced materialism and general infidelity.
Nowairi I says that Abdullah son of Maimoun was obliged
to fly successively from Ahwaz, near the head of the Persian
Gulf, and Busrah and took refuge at Salameeh in Syria,
a town on the borders of the desert, but situated in a fertile
territory, a few miles south-east of Hamah. He died there,
and his son Ahmed became chief of the Ismaeli. He sent
Hosein Ahwazi, one of his dais, into Irak. Hosein arrived
in the cultivated territory of Cufa, called by the Arabs
Sawad, and there found Hamdan son of Ashath. He
initiated him into his religion, and when dying named him
1 De Sacy (see Expose of Religion of the Druses, vol. i. Introd. p. 73)
places great reliance on Nowairi, who takes his facts from Aboul-Hasan,
said to be separated by only live generations from Mohammed son of Ismael,
from whom he claimed descent. He says that Makrisi and NowairJ derived
from one source in all probability, for they employ nearly always the same
expressions, and it is possible to correct the text of the one from that of
the other.
110 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
as bis successor. According to Nowairi, Hamdan was named
Karmat, from the name of his ox. Others say that the
word means a man with short legs, who makes short steps.
Others that it comes from the Nabathean language, in which
it is Karamita, and hence Karmat. Thus it appears that
the Karmatians took their rise from the Ismaeli, as Hamdan
Karmat sent a dai to Salameeh, who found that the house
of Maimoun Kaddah were really set on aggrandising them-
selves, rather than honouring Mohammed son of Ismael,
which Karmat turned to his own advantage in the propagation
of his own doctrines.
Abdullah son of Maimoun divided his system into seven
degrees after the fashion of the Pythagorean and Indian
philosophers, into which his followers were initiated gradually.
The last degree, according to Von Hammer, 1 inculcated the
vanity of all religion the indifference of actions, which,
according to Abdullah's teaching, are neither visited with
recompense nor chastisement, either now or hereafter.
This alone was the path of truth and right, all else imposture
and error. He appointed emissaries, whom he dispatched
to enlist disciples, and to initiate them, according to their
capacity for libertinism or turbulence, in some or all of
the degrees, the pretensions of the descendants of Mohammed
son of Ismael served him as a political mask ; these his
missionaries asserted as partisans, while they were secretly
but the apostles of crime and impiety."
These degrees were afterwards increased to nine by the
Western Ismaeli, and are described by Macrisi, as they
were taught in the Lodge at Cairo. 2
The first degree was the longest and most difficult of all,
as it was necessary to inspire the pupil with the most implicit
confidence in the knowledge of his teacher, and to incline
him to take that most solemn oath, by which he bound him-
self to the secret doctrine with blind faith and unconditional
obedience. For this purpose every possible expedient was
1 Von Hammer, History of the Assassins, p. 29.
* This is given by Von Hammer, pp. 34 ff., who says " This account
which Makrisi has preserved, concerning the promulgation of these degrees
of initiation, forms a very precious and the most ancient document on the
history of the secret societies of the East, in whose steps those of the West
afterwards trod.' 1
THE ISMAELI 111
adopted to perplex the mind by the many contradictions of
positive religion and reason, to render the absurdities of
the Koran still more involved by the most insidious questions
and most subtle doubts, and to point from the apparent
literal signification to a deeper sense, which was properly
the kernel, as the former was but the husk. The more
ardent the curiosity of the novice, the more resolute was
the refusal of the master to afford the least solution to these
difficulties, until he had taken the most unrestricted oath ;
on this he was admitted to the second degree. This inculcated
the recognition of divinely appointed Imaums, who were
the source of all knowledge. As soon as the faith in them
was well established, the third degree taught their number,
which could not exceed the holy seven : for, as GOD had
created seven heavens, seven earths, seven seas, seven
planets, seven colours, seven musical sounds, and seven
metals, so had he appointed seven of the most excellent
of his creatures as Revealed Imaums : these were Ali,
Hassan, Hosein, Ali Zeyn-il-Abaideen, Mohammed-al-Behir,
Djaafar-as-Sadik, and Ismael his son as the last and seventh.
The fourth grade taught that, since the beginning of
the world there had been seven divine law-givers, or speaking
apostles of GOD, of whom each had always, by the command
of heaven, altered the doctrine of his predecessor ; that
each of these had seven co-adjutors, who succeeded each
other in the epoch from one speaking law-giver to another,
but who, as they did not appear manifestly, were called
the mutes (Samit). The first of these mutes was named
Sas or Asas, meaning foundation, the seat, as it were, of
the ministers of the speaking prophet, Natik. These seven
speaking prophets, with their seven Asas were Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Ismael the son
of Djaafar, who, as the last, was called Sahib-ez-Zeman,
the lord of the time, and Kaim-ez-Zeman, or chief of the
age. Their seven assistants were Seth, Shem, Ishmael
son of Abraham, Aaion and afterwards Joshua, Simeon
or Simon Peter, Ali, and Mohammed son of Ismael.
It is evident from this dexterous arrangement, which
gained for the Ismaeli the name of " Seveners/' that as
they named only the first of the mute divine envoys in
112 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
each prophetic period, and since Mohammed son of Ismael
had been dead only a hundred years, the teachers were at
full liberty to present to those whose progress stopped at
this degree whomsoever they pleased as one of the mute
prophets of the current age.
The fifth degree must necessarily render the credibility of
the doctrine more manifest to the minds of the hearers.
For this reason it taught that each of the seven mute prophets
had twelve apostles for the extension of the true faith ;
for the number twelve is the most excellent after seven :
hence the twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve months,
the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve bones of the fingers
of each hand, the thumb excepted, and so on.
After these five degrees, the precepts of Islam were
examined ; and in the sixth it was shown that all positive
legislation must be subordinate to the general and
philosophical. The dogmas of Plato, Aristotle, and Pytha-
goras were adduced as proofs and laid down as axioms.
This degree was very tedious, and only when the acolyte
was fully penetrated with the wisdom of the philosophers
was he granted admission to the seventh, where he passed
from philosophy to mysticism. This was the Oriental
mystic theology, and the doctrine of unity which the Sufees
have exhibited in their works. In the eighth degree the
positive precepts of religion were again brought forward
to fall to dust by all that preceded ; then was the pupil
fully enlightened as to the superfluity of all apostles and
prophets, the non-existence of heaven and hell, the indifference
of all actions, for which there is neither reward nor punish-
ment, neither in this world or the next ; and thus was he
matured for the ninth and last degree, to become the blind
instrument of all the passions of unbridled thirst of power.
To believe nothing, and to dare all, formed, in two words,
the sum of this system, which annihilated every principle
of religion and morality, and had no other object than to
execute ambitious designs with suitable ministers, who,
daring all, and honouring nothing, since they consider every-
thing a cheat and nothing forbidden, are the best tools of
an infernal policy.
It will bp very evident, from the above description, that
THE ISMAELI 118
neither Von Hammer, nor Makrisi, from whom he copied,
could imagine a secret society being anything but vile,
immoral and dangerous to society at large !
The doctrines of the Karmatians, taking them to be a
branch of the early Ismaeli, are thus given by D'Herbelot. 1
" Their founder taught his disciples to make fifty prayers
a day and allowed them to eat things forbidden by Mussul-
mans. He allegorized the precepts of the Koran, giving
out prayer to be the symbol of obedience to the Imaum ;
fasting to be merely the symbol of silence and secrecy with
respect to strangers who were not of their sect ; and that
fidelity to the Imaum was figured by the precept which
forbids fornication, so that those who reveal the precepts
of their religion, and who do not obey their Sheikh blindly
fall into the crime called ' zinah/ Instead of the tenth
part of their property which Mussulmans gave to the poor,
they were to set apart the fifth part for the Imaum."
Von Hammer speaks in a similar way of Karmat * :
" His doctrine, in addition to the circumstances of its
forbidding nothing, and declaring everything allowable and
indifferent, meriting neither reward nor punishment, under-
mined more particularly the basis of Mohammedanism,
by declaring that all its commands were allegorical, and
merely a disguise of political precepts and maxims. More-
over, all was to be referred to the blameless and irreproach-
able Imaum Maassum, (preserved from error) as the model
of a prince whom, though he had occupied no existing
throne, they pretended to seek, and declared war against
bad and good princes, without distinction, in order that,
under the pretext of contending for a better, they might
be able to unravel at once the thickly interwoven web of
religion and government. The injunction of prayer meant
nothing but obedience to the Imaum Maassum ; alms, the
tithes to be given to him ; fasting, the preservation of the
political secret regarding the Imaum of the family of Ismael.
Everything depended on the interpretation ' Terwil/
without which the whole word of the Koran, ' Tensil,'
had neither meaning nor value. Religion did not consist
* Article on Karmatians, Bib. Orient.
a History of th* Assassins, pp. 39, 30.
8
114 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
in external observances, ' Iz-Zahir,' but in the internal
feeling, ' Il-Batin/ "
Ibn-Atheer, who lived between about A.D.IISQ to 1231,
according to Nowairi, describes a book of the Karmatians,
from which the following is an extract :
" In the name of GOD, the compassionate, the merciful.
Says II- Faradj, son of Othman, of the village of Nusrana,
that there appeared to him in human form the Messiah,
who is the Word of GOD, who is the Guide, and he is Ahmed,
son of Mohammed, son of Hanafeyah, of the sons of Ali,
and he is also Gabriel the angel, and he said to him : ' Thou
art the true one ; thou art the camel that keepest wrath
against the infidels ; thou art the ox that bearest the sins
of the true believers ; thou art the spirit ; thou art John
son of Zachariah/ "
It is said also that Karmat taught his disciples to make
four inclinations : two before sunrise, and two before sunset,
or according to Bibars Mansoori, two after sunset. The
following words are also ascribed to him : first quoting a
passage from the Koran : " They will ask you of the new
moons: they are the epochs fixed for men." He thus allegorizes
it : " In the exterior sense it refers to years, chronology,
months, days ; but in the inner sense it refers to my
faithful friends, who have made known my ways to my
servants."
Among other things he commanded a fast two days in
the year, at the feasts of Mihrdjan and of Nurooz 1 ; he
forbade the wine of the palm-tree, and permitted the use
of that made from the grape ; he prescribed the abstaining
from the complete ablution according to the rite called Ghasl,
for a pollution, and directed the being contented with the
ablution called Wodu, as it is practised before prayer. He
allowed the killing of all that should take up arms against him ;
but fortade the eating of any animal with tusks or claws.
After about A.D. 989 not much is heard of the Karmatians
of Irak and Syria, but they were found in Bahrein till
A.D. 1037-8, and at Mooltan in India still later.
When about A.D. 910 the dynasty of the Fatimite*
1 See Appendix, p. 310.
So called on account of their descent from Fatima, wife of Ali.
THE ISMAELI 115
Caliphs was founded at Kairwan, the ancient Cyrene, by
Obeid-allah, who claimed descent from the Imaum Ismael,
the Ismaeli appear to tyave divided into two branches, the
Eastern and Western. The former seem to have been
identical with the Nusairi, or as they were called by Frank
writers, the Assassins ; the latter developed into a new sect,
called the Druses.
CHAPTER XIII
THE ASSASSINS
ABOUT the time when the Western or Egyptian Ismaeli
were beginning to decline, a new branch of the sect appeared
in Northern Persia, which was first called the Eastern
Ismaeli, but afterwards became more celebrated under the
title of The Assassins. The founder of this branch was
Hassan-Ibn-Mohammed-as-Sabah, who was a native of
Rey, or Rha, the ancient Ragae. His father Ali was a
distinguished Schiite of Khorassan. Although regarded
with suspicion by Orthodox Mussulmans, he asserted that
he was a native of Cufa, and a devoted adherent to the
Sunnite creed ; as a proof he sent his son Hassan to be
educated by the most celebrated Orthodox doctor of the
age. Hassan was originally a believer in the twelve Imaums,
but asserted that during an illness he had been converted
to the Ismaeli doctrines, of which the Caliphs of Egypt
were the head. He journeyed into Egypt, where he was
gladly welcomed by the reigning Caliph, Mostanzer. After
the death of this Caliph, Hassan returned to Persia, by way
of Syria, and gained possession, by force and stratagem,
of an impregnable mountain-fastness called from its position
Alamoot, that is " the eagle's nest." This was in A.D. 1090.
Pretending that he was the Huddjah, or demonstration of
the Invisible Imaum, he procured followers among the
pre-existing Ismaeli sect, and succeeded in persuading his
followers that to die for the Imaum or the Order was to
procure certain felicity. He gained castle after castle in
Persia, and soon obtained great power, inspiring terror in
the hearts of all by the sudden assassination of caliphs and
viziers. About A.D. uoo, the Assassins appeared in Syria,
no
THE ASSASSINS 117
existing almost independently in the mountains of Summak f
the southern part of the Nusairi range. According to
Dheheby l : " The Ismaeli of Alamoot sent into Syria, in
the year 1107 or after, one of their missionaries. Many
adventures happened to him, until he made himself master
of several fortresses in the mountain of Sanak, which
belonged to the Ansaireeh."
" The Assassins," says Taylor, " were neither a nation
nor a dynasty ; they were simply an Order, or confraternity,
similar to that of the Knights Templar, or the modern
Freemasons. Their Grand-Master took the simple title of
Sheikh, usually accorded to the heads of all the Arab tribes ;
the name of the Sheikh-ul-Jebal, or Chief of the Mountain,
soon became formidable throughout Asia. In Europe, the
word ' Sheikh ' was translated ' old man/ a signification
which the word will bear ; and the name of ' The Old Man
of the Mountain ' was pronounced with an instinctive
shudder even on the coast of the Atlantic /' a
Hitherto, says Ameer Ali, in his valuable Short History
of the Saracens, a standard work on the subject, the Ismaeli
had only Masters and Fellows ; namely, the Dais, or emissaries,
who, being initiated into all the grades of the secret doctrine,
enlisted proselytes ; and the Rafik, who, gradually entrusted
with its principles, formed the bulk of the secret society.
Hassan saw at once that for the purpose of carrying out his
project with security and energy, a third class was needed,
composed of agents who would be mere blind and fanatical
tools in the hands of their superiors who would yield implicit
obedience to the master's orders, without regard to conse-
quences ; these agents were called Fedais, that is the Devoted.
The Grand-Master of this murderous brotherhood was
called " our lord " Syedna or Sidna (the Sydney of the
Crusaders) and commonly Sheikh-ul-Jabal, the " Old Man
(or Lord) of the Mountain." The Fedais formed his body-
guard, and were the excutioners of his deadly orders.
Immediately under the Grand-Master* came the Dai-ul-
Kabir, the " Grand Prior/' and each of the three provinces
to which the power of the Order extended, namely, Jabal,
* In an Arabic MS. quoted in the Journal Aiiatique, May, 1854.
3 History of Mohammedanism, p. 179.
118 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Kuhistan, and Syria, was ruled by a " Grand Prior."
Beneath them were the Initiated Masters, the Dais who acted
as nuncios, and enlisted proselytes. The Fellows or Compan-
ions (Rafik) were those who were advancing to the Master-
ship, through the several grades of initiation into the secret
doctrine. The devoted murderers, the Fedais, came last,
and the Lasik, or Aspirants, seem to have been the Novices, or
lay brethren. From the uninitiated subjects of the Order
strict observance of the religious duties of Islam was expected ;
from the devoted satellites was demanded only blind sub-
jection. The initiated worked with their heads, and led
the arms of the Fedais in execution of the orders of the
Sheikh, who with the pen guided the daggers.
The Assassins by degrees made themselves masters of
many of the strongest fortresses in the mountainous tracts
of Northern Persia, Irak, and Syria, and pursued the best
men of Islam with their daggers.
It was at this period that the storm of savage fanaticism
which in the annals of Christendom is called " the Holy
Wars " burst in all its fury over Western Asia. " The
Crusades form," says a clever writer, " one of the maddest
episodes in history. Christianity hurled itself at Mohammed-
anism in expedition after expedition for nearly three
centuries, until failure brought lassitude, and superstition
itself was undermined by its own labours. Europe was
drained of men and money, and threatened with social
bankruptcy, if not with annihilation. Millions perished in
battle, hunger, or disease, and every atrocity the imagina-
tion can conceive disgraced the warriors of the Cross."
But a history of the Crusades does not enter into the
scope of this work, fascinating as is the subject. We have
traced the Assassins as the originators of the present Nusairis,
and now proceed to give a few more particulars of that
sect.
" If the reader will take any map of Syria which has
some pretensions to accuracy," says the Rev. Samuel Lyde, 1
" and will look at the seacoast, he will find in the parallel
of latitude 35 30' the town of Ladikeeh (Latakia), the
Laodicea of Seleucus Nicator, celebrated now for its exports
1 Asian Mystery, pp. i fi
THE ASSASSINS l|flfj
of the tobacco grown in the neighbouring mountain^
These mountains, which are the special abode of the Nusairis, 1
are separated on the south from the Lebanon range by the
entrance into Hamath, a valley through which run the
roads from Tripoli to Hamah, and from Tartoos to Hums,
also the ancienj: river Eleutherus, the Nahr-il-Chebeer of
to-day. To the north they are separated from the mountains,
of which Mount Cassius forms the conspicuous western
termination, by a pass and valley, over and through which
runs the road from Ladikeeh to Aleppo. But though these
mountains are so almost exclusively inhabited by the
Nusairis as to be called by their name, yet the Nusairi
population of Syria is by no means confined to them. They
also occupy the plain which stretches on the west of the
mountains, the wide plain which stretches east to Hums
and Hamah, in the district south of the Nahr-il-Chebeer,
along the valley of the Orontes, and in Antioch they form a
large element of the population. Leaving Syria, for a
moment, and crossing the ancient bay of Issus, they abound
in the district of Adana and Tarsoos, the ancient Tarsus,
and in southern Syria; near the ancient Caesarea Philippi,
are several Nusairi villages."
As regards an approximate idea of the Nusairi population
in Syria, it is impossible to estimate whether it has much
diminished under Turkish mis-rule during the past fifty
years, but we may doubtless consider that it has lessened
considerably. About 1856 Dr. Vandyck, of the American
Board of Missions at Beyrout, while giving the number
of the Druses as 100,000 gave that of the Ismaeeli and
Nusairis together as 200,000, of which the largest pro-
portion would be Nusairis. Writing in the Missionary
Herald for March 1841, Dr. Thomson, another American
missionary, said : " Mr. Barker assures me that about one-third
of the inhabitants of Tartoos are Ansaireeh, and that they
abound not only in Djebel Bailan, above Scanderoon, but
in the mountains of Anatolia. This corresponds with the
unvarying testimony of the people themselves, who also
* By Arab writers they are called the " An-Nusaireeyah." Lyde calls
them " Ansaireeh/' as the nearest English imitation of the pronunciation
of the people themselves. But I am calling them throughout Nusairis,
120 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
say that their sect extends to Djebel Sindjar, and even to
Persia. They are several times more numerous than the
Druses, but then they are more widely dispersed. Their
number cannot be less than 200,000, and most intelligent
natives place it much higher. The largest number of them
occupy the plain and mountains of Ladikeeh, which are in
consequence called Djebel-il-Ansaireeh. Their villages are
also very numerous in the region called Safeetah, above
Tartoos, and in Husn and Akkar. They also comprise one-
third of the inhabitants of Antioch, and abound in the
mountains above it."
Lieut. The Hon. F. Walpole, R.N., an English Free-
mason who travelled in the East, including a visit to Nineveh,
in 1850-1, has supplied us with many interesting details
regarding the Nusairis in the work he published on his
return to England. 1 Though somewhat mysterious in
his account of how many of their secrets he acquired, it
is evident he underwent a certain ceremony of initiation
whilst resident amongst them. He says :
" Though acquainted with many Ansayrii, high in their
degree, I must confess as yet to not having discovered one
trace of their belief, all my inquiries being met by, ' I am
one of your faith.' An Ansayri assured me to-day they never
taught their religion to their women. ' Would you have us
teach them/ he said, ' whom we use, our holy faith ? '
The Ansayrii are now, also, from what I could gather,
divided into several sects : for interpreting to him several
tenets of Zoroaster, he appeared to be struck with my
knowledge ; they always parry me by ' Your faith, my
lord Frankmason ? ' Finding these remarks written of
how, at first, I despaired of ever penetrating their secret,
I must own the progress I have made now appears incredible
even to myself, and their simplicity also in not detecting
my gradual increase of knowledge ; but from my first
arrival here my whole powers were turned to this, and,
leaving all plan until circumstances opened, I gradually
advanced ; and now with all truth I may say, that what
I do not know, I have but to ask them to teach me. I
early found that one deception, hardly justifiable, was
Walpole, The Ansayrii, vol. iii., pp. 64, 342 ff. London, 1851.
THE ASSASSINS 121
necessary : namely, not understanding any question asked
me which I could not answer. The Ibn Arabs, or sons of
the country, says ' the Franks are fools ' but they are no
match for the nonchalance and sang froid of the European ;
and gradually I whetted the curiosity of the Ansayrii by a
pretended reserve. ' Ya Sheik, you are happy ; you have
your knowledge, I have mine ; I would say, let us each
keep what he has got, and let us talk of the weather, the
crops, of trade/ This persevered in, they could not stand,
so they at last gave in, and would tell me. Then, again,
several sitting close around me, they would talk over a
question to be asked me ; as if I, all listless, and inattentive,
as I seemed, was not all ears, all tension, to fathom their
meaning. For this I wandered as a beggar, endured hard-
ships more than I should like to tell ; cold, hunger, and
fatigue more than I trust others will know ; I have been
beaten, hurt with stones, yet the result more than repays
me. That alone, without means, without powers to buy
or bribe, I have penetrated a secret, the enigma of ages have
dared alone to venture where none have been when the
Government, with five hundred soldiers, could not follow ;
and, better than all, have gained esteem among the race
condemned as savages, and feared as robbers and assassins. 1
"The lower classes are initiated into the principles of
their religion, but not its more mystical, or higher parts;
they are taught to obey their chiefs without question, without
hesitation, and to give to the Sheik abundantly at feasts
and religious ceremonies ; and above all to die a thousand
deaths sooner than reveal the same faith he inherits from
his race.
" In their houses they place two small windows over
the door. This is in order that if a birth and a death occur
at the same moment, the coming and the parting spirit
may not meet. In rooms dedicated to hospitality, several
square holes are left, so that each spirit may come or depart
without meeting another.
* It is much to be regretted that, so far as is known, Lieutenant Walpole
never disclosed, at any rate for publication, any other details as to his
experiences amongst the Ansayrii whilst being initiated into their secret
rites. Evidently, they were so near akin to his own Masonic experiences,
that his former Obligations would still be considered binding upon him.
122 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
" Like the Mahometans, they practise the rite of cir-
cumcision, performing the rite at various ages, according
to the precocity of the child.
" When a candidate is pronounced ready for initiation,
his tarboosh is removed, and a white cloth wrapped round
his head. He is then conducted into the presence of the
sheiks of religion. The chiefs deliver a lecture, cautioning
him against ever divulging their great and solemn secret.
' If you are under the sword, the rope, or the torture, die,
and smile, you are blessed.' He then kisses the earth three
times before the chief, who continues telling him the articles
of their faith. On rising, he teaches him a sign, and delivers
three words to him. This completes the first lesson.
" The Ansayrii have signs and questions. By the one
they salute each other, by the other they commence an
examination as to whether a man is one of them or not,
if they do not know him personally. But these signs are
little used, and known only to a few, as the dress, etc.,
clearly indicates them to each other, and almost each one
knows all the chiefs, at least, by sight.
" They believe in the transmigration of souls. Those
who in this life do well, are hospitable and follow their
faith, become stars ; the souls of others return to the
earth, and become Ansayrii again until purified, they
fly to rest ; the souls of bad men become Jews, Christians,
and Turks ; while the souls of those who believe not
become pigs, and other beasts. One evening, sitting
with a dear old man, a high sheik, his boys were round
him : I said, ' Speak : where are the sons of your youth ?
these are the children of your old age.' ' My son,' he said,
looking up, ' is there ; nightly he smiles upon me, and invites
me to come/ "
CHAPTER XIV
THE MOHAMMEDAN CREED ; FROM AN ORIGINAL
ARABIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
DURING the course of our consideration of the Creeds
of the Syrian secret sects, and their variations from the
ordinary Moslem Creed, references have to be so frequently
made to the latter that it is necessary to give its clauses.
The following condensation of the Mohammedan Creed is
taken from Taylor's History of Mohammedanism, a text-
book on the subject.
The Creed of which the following is a translation, was
originally compiled by a Mohammedan doctor of the law,
who belonged to the Sunnite sect, and contains a summary
of the doctrines generally received by Orthodox Mussulmen ;
it was published in 1705, by Adrian Reland ; with a Latin
translation, unfortunately too literal for general use, and
from the Latin it was translated into English and French.
Hottinger, who edited the Creed in Hebrew characters,
declared that there were in it, " precepts, Ethical, Political,
and Domestic, worthy of Christianity itself. 1 ' Some notes,
explaining more fully the different articles, will be found in
the Appendix.
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST MERCIFUL. Praise
be unto GOD, who has led us into the Faith, and has appointed
it as a signet by which is obtained the entrance of the
celestial paradise ; and as a veil between us and eternal
dwelling in flames. And may the favour and praise of GOD
be upon Mohammed, the best of men, the Guide, who leads
his followers into the right way favour, perpetual and ever-
increasing, from generation to generation.
123
124 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Here begins the description of Faith and its explanation.
Know that Faith is the foundation of Islamism, as the prophet
Mohammed has pronounced, to whom may GOD be kind,
and grant plenary salvation. Islamism rests on five founda-
tions : of which the first is the Confession of GOD, that there
is no other GOD beside Him, and that Mohammed is His
delegated prophet ; the second is, the offering up of prayer
at stated periods ; the third, the bestowing of alms ; the
fourth, fasting during the month Ramadhan ; and the fifth,
is the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every peison possessing
the power is bound to perform.
But this is the confession which we call Faith.
Be it known, that every person possessing capacity for
it, is bound to believe in GOD in His angels in His books
in His prophets in the last day, and in the absolute decree,
and predetermination of the Most Highest, respecting both
good and evil.
But Faith consists in this, that every man is persuaded
in his soul of the truth of these things, and Confession is
the proof \ of this belief by external indications.
OF FAITH IN GOD
FAITH in GOD is the real belief in the soul, and confession
by the tongue, that GOD is a supreme existence, true,
permanent, a very essence, eternal, without beginning and
without end, Who has no form, or figure, is limited by no
place, has no equal, compeer, or similarity, no motion or
change ; no separation, division, weariness, 01 casualty. He
is removed from conjunction with any other being, self-
existent, intelligent, potent, of independent volition, hearing
all our words, seeing all our deeds, the source of speech,
the maker, the creator, the sustainer, the producer, the
author of life and death ; giving a beginning to all things,
causing to all a resurrection ; judging, decreeing, correcting,
ruling, prohibiting, directing to rectitude and leading to
error ; a retributive judge, rewarding, punishing, merciful,
victorious.
And these attributes are eternally inherent in His
essence throughout all ages, without separation or changes,
THE MOHAMMEDAM CREED 125
and these attributes are not GOD, nor yet are they!
different from Him. And thus every attribute is conjoined
with Him, as life with knowledge, or knowledge with power.
But these are the attributes, life, knowledge, power,
will, hearing, sight, the power of communication, eternity
both as regards a beginning and an end, action, creation,
support, production, formation, the gift of life, the message
of death, the first origin of things, their restoration, wisdom,
predestination, direction to good, seduction to evil, retribu-
tion, reward, punishment, grace and victory.
And with these noble and precious attributes, GOD,
the Most Highest, is endowed ; and whoever denies any
of these attributes, or doubts concerning them, or any of
them, is doubtlessly an infidel.
Preserve us, O GOD, from the sin of infidelity !
OF ANGELS
For a right belief concerning angels, there is requited a
persuasion of the mind and confession of the tongue, that
there exist servants to the supreme GOD, who are called
Angels or messengers, free from sin, near to GOD, who perform
all His commands, and are never disobedient. But they have
pure and subtile bodies, created of fire ; neither is there
among them any difference of sexes, or carnal appetites,
and they have neither father nor mother. Also they are
endowed with different forms, and severally preside over
ministrations. Some stand, some incline downwards, some
sit, or adore, with a lowered forehead ; others sing hymns
and praises of GOD, or laud and extol their Creator, or ask
pardon for human offences. Some of them record the deeds
of men, and guard over the human race ; others support
the throne of GOD, or go about it, and perform other works
which are pleasing to the Deity.
But it is necessary to believe in them, although a person
may not know their names or specific attributes ; and to
embrace them in love, is one of the necessary conditions of
faith. And to hate them collectively or individually, is
an act of infidelity.
But if anyone confesses that angels exist, but asserts
128 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
that they have sexual differences, it is an act of infidelity.
Or if be confesses that there are angels, and that they have
no sexual differences, but declares that he does not repose
trust in them, or love them, he is to be esteemed an infidel.
Preserve us, O GOD, from the sin of infidelity !
OF THE DIVINE BOOKS
Faith in the books of GOD is this, that we are persuaded
in our mind, and confess with our tongue, that those illustrious
books are from God, which He sent down from heaven to
His Prophet which demission was made without creation
(the Koran is eternal *), without production. In them are
contained the commands and prohibitions of GOD His
edicts His promises, and His threatenings His declaration
of what is lawful, and what is unlawful and His information
of His retributive justice, both as regards rewards and
punishments. All these books are the very word of GOD,
the Most Highest, which is read by the tongue, guarded in
the volumes, and written in the hearts of men. But this
word of GOD is distinct from those letters and vocal sounds,
and yet these letters and vocal sounds are metaphorically
called the Word of GOD, because they indicate GOD'S real
word. In the same way that we call our expressions our
words, because they indicate what is truly our word. As
the poet says :
Our real language dwells within our breasts,
The tongue is but an index to the heart.
These things GOD well knows.
The books are one hundred and four in number ; of
which GOD, the Most Highest, sent down ten to Adam ;
fifty to Seth ; thirty to Idris ; ten to Abraham ; one to
Moses, which is the Thorah (law) or Pentateuch ; one to Issa
(Jesus), which is the Engil (Evangelium, or Gospel) ; one
to David, and this is the Book of Psalms ; and one to
Mohammed, which is the Foikan (Koran). He who denies
these volumes, or doubts concerning them, or a part of them,
or a chapter, or a versicle, or a word of them, is certainly
an infidel.
Preserve us, O GOD, from the sin of infidelity !
See Appendix, " Creation of the Koran,"
THE MOHAMMEDAN CREED 127
CONCERNING THE AMBASSADORS OF GOD
Faith in the ambassadors of GOD demands that we
recognise in the heart, and confess with the tongue, that
GOD, the Most Highest, has appointed prophets ambassadors
chosen from among men, and sent as messengers to men
preachers of eternal truth, to whom implicit faith and con-
fidence is due, who command and forbid certain things (as
they are inspired), and bear to men the revealed edicts of
the Deity, and make manifest to them his constitutions
and decrees the appointments He has made, and the
rules He requires to be observed ; and reveal to men things
hidden from the powers of their natural understandings ;
as the nature or essence of the Divinity the attributes the
works and operations of God the resurrection and revivifica-
tion of the dead the punishment of the sepulchre, and the
interrogation, and the examination, and the scale and
balance, and the bridge or road that must be trodden by
all on the last day, and the fish-pond, and paradise with its
delights, and hell with its punishments. But the prophets
are free from errors and great sins, and all believe in the
same creed, which is Islamism, and the Mohammedan faith,
although they were different institutions. They are also
elected from created beings honoured by personal com-
munication with GOD, and by descent of angels to them ;
supported by manifest miracles, which are contrary to
the ordinary course of nature, as that some brought back
the dead to life, spoke with beasts, and trees, and other
inanimate beings and other miracles of a similar nature,
to which degree of Divine eminence none but GOD'S prophets
can attain. GOD also has instituted a rank and order
amongst them, by which one is more eminent than another.
Thus, those amongst them who have fulfilled the office of
ambassadors from GOD, are superior to those who have
not been delegated ; and those who have instituted a new
mode of religious worship, to those who have not been
commissioned to discharge that trust. The first of all
was Adam, the last and most excellent was Mohammed
(the blessing of GOD be upon him). After the order of the
Prophets, the most excellent of created beings were Abu-Bekr f
128 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Omar, Otham, and All. After them in the order of dignity
follow the six most honoured companions of Mohammed,
Talcha, Al-Zobeir, Zeid, Saad, Abd-al-Rahman, and Abu-
Obedia, and after them the rest of his associates, and after
them the generation of men to which Mohammed (the peace
and blessing of GOD be on Him) was sent. May the favour
of GOD be upon them all ! Then follow those wise persons,
who perform good actions. The number of the prophets,
according to a certain tradition, amounts to two hundred
and twenty-four thousand ; but according to another tradition
to one hundred and twenty-four thousand. Amongst these
three hundred and thirteen have filled the office of ambassa-
dors, and there are six who brought new constitutions ;
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. May
GOD bless and be favourable to them all ! It is not required
as a condition of faith, that a person should know their
number, but it is necessary that he should feel an affection
towards them ; for whoever denies the veracity of one of
the prophets, or doubts it, or doubts concerning any thing
which a prophet has told, he, indeed, is an infidel.
Preserve us, O Lord, from the sin of infidelity !
OF THE LAST DAY OF FINAL RETRIBUTION
Faith in the last day consists in this, that we believe
in our hearts, and confess with our tongues, that there will
be really a last day, the day of the resurrection ; and that
the Almighty GOD will destroy this world, and whatever
creatures are in it, except, however, those things which
He will please to preserve ; that is to say, the throne of
His glory, and the base on which it rests, and the spirit,
and the tqjWe, and the pen, and paradise, 1 and hell with
those things which are contained in them. Then GOD will
revive, quicken, and assemble mankind, and demand from
them an account of their actions, and examine them, and
show them the books, in which their good and bad actions
are written. And some shall be upon His right hand, and
some upon His left. Then shall He judge them in equity,
and weigh their works, as well good as bad, and reward
See Appendix : " Eastern Ida of Paradise."
THE MOHAMMEDAN CREED 129
every soul according to the deeds done in the body. Some
shall enter paradise through his goodness and mercy ; but
some shall be cast into hell. But of the faithful, some
shall remain in flaming torments ; but they shall enter
paradise when they have suffered punishment according
to the proportion of their sins ; for the faithful shall ever
abide in paradise, but the infidels in the flaming tortures
of hell. Reverential fear is required to the perfection of
belief in the resurrection ; so that he is to be deemed an
infidel who is careless about it, as likewise he who denies
it, or doubts concerning it, or says " I do not fear the
resurrection, nor do I desire paradise, nor do I dread hell."
Preserve us, O Lord, from the sin of infidelity.
OF THE DIVINE DECREE AND PREDESTINATION
Faith in the decree of GOD is, that we believe in the heart
and confess with the tongue, that GOD, the Most Highest,
has decreed all things and the modes of their occurrence,
so that nothing can happen in this world with respect to
the conditions of operations of affairs whether for good or
evil obedience or disobedience 1 faith or infidelity health
or illness riches or poverty life or death ; which is not
contained in the decree of GOD, and in His judgment,
ordinance, and will. But GOD has thus decreed virtue,
obedience, and faith, that He may so ordain and will them
to be subservient to His direction, pleasure, and command.
On the contrary, He has decreed vice, disobedience, and
infidelity, and still ordains, wills, and decrees them ; but
without his salutary direction, good pleasure, or command,
nay rather, by his temptation, wrath, and prohibitions.
But whoever will say, that GOD is not delighted with virtue
and faith, and is not wrath with vice and infidelity, or that
GOD has decreed good and evil with equal complacency,
is an infidel. For GOD wills good that He may take pleasure
in it ; and evil, that it may become the object of His
rightful indignation.
Direct us, GOD, into the right path !
1 See Appendix, " Dispute between Adam and Moses.
9
130 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
End of the first part of the creed Iman (Faith) : next
follows the Second Part Din (Practice).
OF LUSTRATIONS, MORE ESPECIALLY THAT CALLED
"GHASL," OR THE GREATER PURIFICATION
It must be remembered, that there are seven species
of water fit for rightly performing religious ablutions ;
that is to say, rain, sea, river, fountain, well, snow, and ice-
water. But the principal requisites for the lustration Ghasl,
are three : (i) intention ; (2) a perfect cleansing ; (3) that
the water should touch the entire skin and every hair. And
there are five requisites of the traditional law, or Sonna :
(1) the appropriate phrase, Bismillah, must be pronounced ;
(2) the palms must be washed before the hands are put
into the basin ; (3) the lustration Wodu must be performed ;
(4) the skin must be rubbed with the hand ; and (5) it must
be prolonged. . . . (Omit the cases in which this lustration
is required.)
OF THE LUSTRATION "WoDu"
The principal parts, indeed the divine institutions, of
the lustration Wodu, are six : (i) intention ; (2) the washing
of the entire face ; (3) the washing of the hands and fore-
arms up to the elbows ; (4) the rubbing of some parts of
the head ; (5) the washing of the feet as far as the ancles ;
and (6) observance of the prescribed order. And the institu-
tions of the traditional law about this lustration are ten :
(i) the preparatory formula, Bismillah, must be used ; (2)
the palms must be washed before the hands are put into the
basin ; (3) the mouth must be cleansed ; (4) water must be
drawn through the nostrils ; (5) the entire head and ears
must be rubbed ; (6) if the beard be thick, the fingers must
be drawn through it ; (7) the toes must be separated ; (8) the
right hand and foot must be washed before the left ; (9) these
ceremonies must be thrice repeated; (10) the whole must
be performed in uninterrupted succession. . . . (Omit the
cases in which this lustration is required.)
OF PURIFICATION BY SAND
The divine institutions respecting purification by sand
are four : (i) intention ; (z) rubbing of the face ; (3) the rubbing
THE MOHAMMEDAN CREED 131
of the hands and fore-arms up to the elbows ; and (4) the
observance of this order. But the Sunnite ordinances
are three : (i) the formula Bismillah ; (2) that the right hand
and foot precede the left, and, (3) that the ceremony be
performed without interruption.
OF PRAYER
The divine institution, on which the rites of prayer rest,
are thirteen : (i) intention ; (2) magnification ; (3) its formula
(GoD is great) ; (4) an erect posture ; (5) reading the first
chapter of the Koran ; (6) a bending of the body ; (7) raising
it again ; (8) prostrate adoration ; (9) sitting down ; (10)
sitting down a second time ; (n) the second confession ;
(12) its formula (I testify that Mohammed is the Ambassador
of GOD), (13) the observance of this order. But the Sunnite
ordinances are : (i) the first proclamation of the time of
prayer called Azan ; (2) the second proclamation ; (3) the
first confession (I acknowledge that there is no GOD but
GOD) ; (4) a certain form of prayer. There are five things
required before prayer : (i) the body must be free from
every polluting stain ; (2) it must be covered with a clean
garment ; (3) the worshipper must stand in a pure place ;
(4) the stated time must be observed ; (5) the face must
be turned to the Kebla, or temple of Mecca. Prayers
should be offered five times in the day : (i) at noon, when
five genuflections are necessary ; (2) in the afternoon, which
requires five also ; (3) the evening, which demands three ;
(4) the night, which requires four; and (5) the morning,
when two genuflections are sufficient.
OF ALMS
Alms should be given from five kinds of property:
(i) cattle ; (2) money ; (3) corn ; (4) fruits ; and (5) merchandise.
But there are three kinds of cattle from which alms must
be given : (i) camels ; (2) oxen ; and (3) sheep. In order
that alms should be given duly, six things are necessary :
(i) the donor must believe in Islam ; (2) he must be free ;
(3) he must be perfectly master of his property; (4) the
value of the property must be of a certain amount ; (5) it
must have been a year in his possession ; and (6) the animals
182 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
from which alms are due, must be those which he pastures.
Alms must be paid from both gold and silver money, according
to the preceding regulations. Three things are required
in giving alms for corn : (i) the corn must have been planted
by man, and not be of spontaneous growth; (2) it must
be laid in a granary ; and (3) it must amount to a certain
quantity. Alms must be given from the fruit of the palm
and the vine ; and for the right performance of this, the
four first of the six preceding precepts must be observed
The requisites for giving pecuniary alms are also applicable
in the case of merchandise. But the divine institution
respecting the alms distributed with respect to the amount
of wealth, and with respect to the number oi persons,
at the end of Ramadhan is twofold : (i) the intention with
which the alms are bestowed ; and (2) their actual distribution.
OF ABSTINENCE
The requisites for a lawful fast are three : (i) the person
must profess Islam; (2) he must have attained the age of
puberty; and (3) he must be of sound mind. Five divine
institutions must be observed in fasting ; ten things make
it null and void. (The particulars need not be enumerated.)
OF THE PILGRIMAGE To MECCA
The divine institutions of this rite are five : (i) the
intention with which a person resolves to make the pilgrimage
to Mecca, and binds himself by a vow to God ; (2) a residence
on Mount Ararat ; (3) shaving the head in the valley of Mina ;
(4) going round the temple to Mecca ; and (5) the course
between Safa and Merwa.
End of the Mohammedan Creed.
CHAPTER XV
THE FIRST FOUR CALIPHS AND THE TWELVE
IMAUMS.
IN any consideration of the religious creeds of the peoples
of Syria we are constantly finding references to the various
Caliphs and Imaums who followed Mohammed. It is as
well, therefore, in this place to give a necessarily condensed
account of these.
On the death of Mohammed, on June 8th A.D. 632,
at the age of sixty-three years, during the last twenty-three
of which he had assumed the character of a prophet, as
he had not named a successor, there was an immediate
hot dispute as to whom the office of leadership should be
entrusted. Mohammed died in the house of his wife
Ayesha, and she is said by the Schiites, or followers of Ali,
to have suppressed his special designation in favour of Ali,
of the Caliphate, or civil rule, and the Imaumate, or spiritual
jurisdiction of Islam or Mohammedanism, on account of
her hatred and jealousy of Fatimah, the wife of Ali. They
say that Mohammed intended that Ali should be both
Emir-il-Moomeneen, or Prince of the True Believers, and
Imaum-il-Muslemeen, or High Priest of the Mussulmans ;
and they maintain bis indefeasible right to both offices.
However, the Caliphate was voted to Abu-Bekr (the
" Father of the Virgin ") a name he assumed on giving his
daughter in marriage to Mohammed, the Ayesha mentioned
above. Ali was the son of Abu Talib, an uncle of Mohammed,
who brought up the Prophet in his early days, and Ali
married the favourite daughter of Mohammed, Fatimah,
who was not, however, a daughter of the favourite wife,
Ayesha.
Abu-Bekr seems to have been a brave, mild and generous
133
184 SECRET SECTS OP SYRIA
ruler, and one whose pious character was very generally
respected. Unlike the ordinary absolute rulers, such as
himself, of the richest countries in the world, he is said to
have left behind him but a single camel and one Ethiopian
slave, and even these he bequeathed to his successor. This
was Omar-Ibn-al-Khattab, like Abu-Bekr a native of Mecca,
and originally ajCMnel^hq^- He developed into a most
bigoted Mussulman, eager to massacre all who would not
believe in Mohammed. The greater part of Syria and
Mesopotamia had been subdued during the life of Abu-
Bekr. Their conquest was completed under Omar ; the
ancient empire of the Persians was overthrown at the battle
of Kadesch ; Palestine, Phoenicia and Egypt submitted
to the Saracen yoke almost without a struggle ; and the
standard of the Prophet floated in triumph from the sands
of the Cyrenian desert to the banks of the Indus. " During
the reign of Omar," says Khondemir, " the Saracens conquered
thirty-six thousand cities, towns, and castles, destroyed
four thousand Christian, Magian and pagan temples, and
erected fourteen hundred mosques." Omar was assassinated
in the eleventh year of his reign, and buried in the same
tomb with Abu-Bekr and Mohammed.
Omar had directed, that at his death, a council of six should
be assembled, and three days allowed them for deliberation,
at the end of which time, if they had not agreed upon a
new Caliph, they should all be slain ! The six who met to
deliberate under these conditions were Ali, who as we have
seen was a cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed ; Othman,
also a son-in-law ; Zobeir a cousin of the Prophet, and
Abd-al-Rahman, Talha, and Saad, his favourite companions.
After some deliberation they elected Othman, and he was
installed third Caliph.
Othman, who had married successively two daughters
of Mohammed, had long acted as the Prophet's secretary,
and enjoyed his intimate confidence. At the time of his
election as Caliph he was more than eighty years of age,
but his health was unshaken, and his faculties unabated.
He pursued the warlike policy of his predecessors; by his
orders the Mussulman armies completed the conquest of
Persia, and extended the sway of the Saracens to the river
FIRST FOUR CALIPHS AND TWELVE IMAUMS 185
Oxus, and the borders of India. Northern Africa, as far as
the shores of the Atlantic, was subdued by another of
Othman's armies, and a fleet, equipped in the harbours of
Egypt and Syria, subdued the island of Cyprus, and menaced
the northern coasts of the Mediterranean. But factions
broke out on many sides, and a mutiny broke out in the
Egyptian army. Discontented troops marched suddenly
upon Medina, and Othman was slain in a mosque while
engaged in his daily perusal of the Koran.
On the death of Othman, Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib became
Caliph, and the Schiites, as a body, make it a religious duty
to solemnly curse, in their rituals, as will be seen later,
all those who had thus stood in his way Abu-Bekr, Omar
and Othman.
But the opposition to Ali did not end with his accession
to the Caliphate. Talha and Zobeir, instigated by Ayesha,
his determined enemy, took the field against him. They
were defeated, and Talha and Zobeir were put to death,
and Ayesha imprisoned. But Moawiyah, a son of Abu
Sofian, who, at the head of the Koreish, had long resisted
Mohammed, and who had been appointed by Omar to the
governorship of Syria, proved a more formidable antagonist.
He continued his rebellion until Ali was assassinated, A.D. 661,
when having forced Hassan, the eldest son of Ali, to resign,
he became Caliph, to the exclusion of the family of
Mohammed.
Moawiyah was founder of the dynasty of the Omeyades
(so called from Omeyah, one of his ancestors) which ruled the
Mohammedan world till the accession of the Abassides, Caliphs
of Baghdad, who were descended from Abbas, an uncle of
Mohammed, who obtained the Caliphate in A.D. 750. This
dynasty proved as zealous enemies of the descendants
of Ali as the former. After a fierce conflict between Ali
and Moawiyah, the former, after several attempts had been
made on his life, was assassinated, also in a mosque, his
death taking place towards the close of the thirty years
which Mohammed had predicted would be a fatal period
for the Caliphate.
From the contest between Ali and Moawiyah arose
the distinction of the Mohammedans into Sunnites and
186 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Schiites. The chief points at issue between them are the
following: (i) The Schiites, or as they call themselves, the
Adalyihans, or " lovers of justice," assert that the three
first Caliphs were usurpers ; the Sunnites declare that they
were legitimate monarchs, elected according to the " Sunna,"
or traditional law of the Prophet. (2) The Schiites regard
Ali as the equal of Mohammed : some even assert his
superiority, but the Sunnites deny that he possessed any
special dignity. (3) The Schiites assert that the Koran is made
void by the authority attributed to tradition ; the Sunnites
say that tradition is necessary to complete and explain the
doctrines of the Koran. The Turks, Egyptians and Arabs
belong to the Sunnite sect, while the tenets of the Schiites
are professed by the Persians, the Nusairis and Druses,
a great portion of the Tartars, and by certain of the
Mohammedan peoples of India.
Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib was buried at Cufa, but the exact
place of his sepulchre has not been determined.
Ali is reckoned to be the first Imaum, and his partisans
declare that, though human force prevented him from
enjoying temporal power, his spiritual dignity was the
gift of GOD, and could not, therefore, be affected by the
successive usurpations of Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman.
The Schiite notion of an Imaum is precisely the same as
that which the Thibetians form of their Grand Llama,
(a point gone into very fully by Madame Blavatsky, to
which a separate chapter is devoted later on in this work),
and the Burmese of their Bodhisatwas, that is, the union
in the same person of a divine and a human nature. Many
Schiites think that Ali is not dead, but that he will return
again to reign upon earth, when men, by their docility and
submission, will cause him to forget the calamities which
he had to suffer in his former career. A great number of
them declare that the first Imaum was superior to the
Prophet himself ; some say that Ali was chosen by GOD to
propagate Islamism, but that the angel Gabriel, by mistake,
delivered the letter to Mohammed. Others say that
Mohammed was ordered to deliver his revelations in Ali's
name but that, seduced by pride and ambition, he falsely
proclaimed himself the chosen Apostle of GOD.
FIRST FOUR CALIPHS AND TWELVE IMAUMS 187
Ali left three sons by his wife Fatimah : Hassan, Hossein,
and Mohsin, the latter dying young. After the death of
Fatimah he married eight wives, by whom he had fifteen
sons in all, one of whom, Mohammed Hanefeyed, attained
some note.
On the death of Ali, Hassan was proclaimed Caliph and
Imaum in Irak : the former title he was forced to resign
to Moawiyah ; the latter, or spiritual dignity, his followers
regarded as inalienable. After nine years had passed,
Hassan met the usual fate of Oriental rulers, being poisoned
by his wife Jaadah, at the instigation of Moawiyah. Hossein
succeeded to the title of Imaum, and enjoyed it until
A.D. 679, when he was ^lay? in battle with Yezid, son of
Moawiyah, who continued the conflict between the rival
factions. The anniversary of Hossein's death, or martyrdom
as it is considered by the Schiites, is celebrated with extra-
ordinary splendour in the month Mohurrum, especially
in Persia and India, the solemnities lasting ten days, during
which the Schiites abstain from everything that could
suggest notions of joys or pleasure. The Nusairis always
speak of Hossein as the martyr of Kerbela, the place where
he met his death. ^
Ali, the son of Hossein, who was twelve ydars old at
the death of his father, became the fourth Imaum. He
refused to take any part in public affairs, and died A.D. 712,
leaving such a reputation for piety that he is called Zeyu-
il-Aabideen, the " ornament of pious men."
He was succeeded by his eldest son, Mohammed, who
led as tranquil and retired a life of piety as his father. He
devoted himself to study, and was supposed to have paid
particular attention to the practice of magic. For these
reasons the Schiites call him the " possessor of the secret,"
or II Bakir, " the investigator." The Omeyade Caliph of
his day, alarmed at the progress of opinions which tended
to strengthen the house of Ali, caused him to be poisoned,
A.D. 734. Some of the Schiites believe that he wanders
secretly over the earth still, accompanied by Ali-Ibn-Abu-
Talib and the celebrated prophet Kedher.
Djaafar, the sixth Imaum, was called As-Sadik or " the
just," and in his reign an attempt was made, though
188 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
unsuccessful, to restore the temporal power of the house of
Ali, by Zeid, brother of the late Imaum. Djaafar died
in A.D. 765, just as the Caliphate passed, as already mentioned,
to the Abassides.
Djaafar designated his son Ismael as his successor, but
as he died young, in 762, he declared his second son, Mousa,
as his heir in the Imaumship. Now, as Ismael had left
children, those of the Schiites who regarded the Imaumate
as hereditary, denied that Diaafar had any right to make
a second nomination. They therefore formed the sect
called the Ismaelis, from which sprang the Fatimite caliphs
of Egypt, and the Ismaelis, or Assassins of Persia and
Syria, as already mentioned. The Druses are the followers
of one of these Fatimite caliphs, Hakem, as we shall show
later.
The Nusairis, who acknowledge the belief in the twelve
Imaums, recognize the claims of Mousa, whom they call
Ill-Kazim, or " the patient." In this they are distinguished
from the Druses and Ismaelis, who break the line at Ismael,
to the exclusion of Mousa and his descendants, and perhaps
from the Karmatians, who appear to have done the same.
Mousa's son, Ali, called by the Nusairis Ir-Reda, or
" the acceptation," was the eighth Imaum. Mousa was
assassinated by order of Haroun-ar-Rashid, the hero of
the Arabian Nights, and Ali was proclaimed by II
Mamoun, successor of Haroun, as his own successor in the
empire. But this raised such a sedition among the thirty
thousand descendants of Abbas that II Mamoun was
obliged to cause Ali to be privately poisoned in A.D. 816.
Mohammed, son of Ali, was the ninth Imaum ; he lived
in privacy at Baghdad, where he died at an early age, in
A.D. 835. On account of his generosity he is styled by the
Nusairis // D jaw wad, " the generous."
Ali, the tenth Imaum, was but a child when he succeeded
his father. He was kept closely confined all his life in the
city of Asker, by the Caliph Motawakkel, the mortal enemy
of the Schiites, by whom he was poisoned in A.D. 868. From
the place of his residence he is called " the Askerite." He
is also known by the Nusairis as Ali-il-Hadi, " the director."
Hassan, his son and successor, is also called II Askeri,
FIRST FOUR CALIPHS AND TWELVE IMAUMS 180
from the place where, like his father, he lived, and was
finally poisoned.
Mohammed, the twelfth and last Imaum, was but six
months old when his father died. He was kept closely confined
by the Caliph, but after he had attained the age of twelve
years he suddenly disappeared. The Sunnites say that he
was drowned in the Tigris, A.D. 879, and show what they
say is his tomb. The Nusairis deny the fact of his death,
and say that he wanders unknown over the earth until
the predestined moment arrives, when he shall claim and
receive universal empire.
All the Schiite sects say that the earth will not have a
legitimate sovereign until the re-appearance of the last
Imaum. The Persian kings of the Sufee dynasty styled
themselves " slaves of the lord of the country," that is,
of the invisible Imaum ; they always kept two horses
saddled and bridled in the royal stables at Ispahan, one
for the twelfth Imaum, whenever he should appear, the
other for Jesus Christ, by whom they believed he would
be accompanied.
CHAPTER XVI
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS
THE Nusairis believe in one GOD, self-existent and eternal,
who manifested himself seven times in the world in human
form, from Abel to Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, which last manifesta-
tion, they say, was the most perfect ; to this the others
pointed, and in this the mystery of the divine appearances
found their chief -end and completion. 1
At each of these manifestations the Deity made use of
two other Persons : the first created out of the light of
His essence, and by Himself ; the second created by the
first. These, with the Deity, form an inseparable Trinity,
called Maana-Ism-Bab.
The first, the Maana, " meaning," is the designa-
tion of the Deity as the meaning, sense, or reality of
all things.
The second, the Ism " name/' is also called the Hedjah,
or veil, because under it the Maana conceals its glory,
while by it, it reveals itself to men.
The third, the Bab, " door/' is so called because
through it is the entrance to the knowledge of the two
former.
In the time of Adam, when Abel was the Maana, Adam
was the Ism, and Gabriel the Bab. In the time of Mohammed,
when Ali was the Maana, Mohammed the Prophet Was
the Ism, and Salman-il-Farisee, or the Persian, a coni|MQKi0n
of Mohammed, was the Bab.
The following are the seven appearances of the Maana,
the Ism, and the Bab :
1 This account of the religion of the Nusairis is condensed from Lyde's
Asian Mystery, pp. no ff.
140
MAANA
ISM
(meaning)
(name)
I. Abel.
Adam.
2. Seth.
Noah.
3. Joseph.
Jacob.
4. Joshua.
Moses.
5. Asaph.
Solomon.
6. Simon-is-Saf.
Jesus.
(Cephas)
7. AH.
Mohammed.
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 141
BAB
(door)
Gabriel.
Yayeel-Ibn-Fatin.
Ham-Ibn-Koosh.
Dan-Ibn-Usbaoot.
Abdullah-Ibn-Simaan.
Rozabah-Ibn-il-Merzaban.
Salman-il-Farisee.
After All, the Deity manifested Himself in the Imaums,
His posterity, AH himself being the first Imaum, or Imaum
of Imaums as he is styled. To Him all divine attributes
are ascribed, and to Him all prayers are made.
The secret of the Trinity described above is represented
by a sign, token, or mark to the true believers, namely,
the three letters Ain t Mim, Sin, the three initial letters of
AH, Mohammed, and Salman.
Among the many worlds known to GOD are two, the
Great Luminous World, which is the Heaven, " the Light
of Light/' and the little earthly world, the residence of men.
A Nusairi has to believe in the existence in the Luminous,
Spiritual World of seven hierarchies, each with seven degrees,
which have their representatives in the earthly world. They
are: (i) Abwah, or doors, 400 in number; (2) Aytam,
orphans or disciples, 500 in number ; (3) Nukaba, princes
or chiefs, (the companions of Moses, and properly so called)
600 ; (4) Nudjaba, or excellent, 700 ; (5) Mokhtassen, or
peculiars, 800 ; (6) Mukhliseen, or pure in faith, 900 ;
(7) Mwntaheenen, or tried, who are 1,100 in number, the
total being thus 5,000.
In this world they have their representatives in twelve
Nukaba, and also twenty-eight Nudjaba, who, besides
theiir earthly names, have names in the world of light,
najn&lyt those of the twenty-eight mansions, or stations of
the moon. They have also their counterparts in apostles
and prophets, who are moreover representatives of the
Deity, as being inhabited by a partial emanation from Him.
This earthly world in like manner contains seven degrees
of believers ; (i) Mukarrabeen, near ones, 14,000 in number ;
142 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
(2) Qherubims, 15,000 ; (3) Rooheyeen, spiritual, 16,000 ;
(4) Mukaddaseen, sanctified, 17,000 ; (5) Saiyeen, ascetics,
18,000 ; (6) Mustameen listeners, 19,000 ; (7) Lahiheen,
followers, 20,000. In all, 119,000.
The mystery of the faith of the Unitarians, the mystery
of mysteries, and chief article of the faith of the true believers,
is the veiling of the Deity in light, that is, in the eye of
the Sun, and his manifestation in his servant Abd-in-Noor.
Light is described as the eternal Maana, or meaning, which
is concealed in light ; the Deity thus concealed in light
manifests himself in Abd-in-Noor, the " servant of light,"
which is wine ; this wine being consecrated and drunk
by the true believers, the initiated, in the Kuddas, or
Sacrament, the great mystery of the Nusairis.
The Nusairis believe that all souls were created from
the essence which inhabits all beings, and that, after a
certain number of transmigrations, those of true believers
become stars in the great world of light.
When a Nusairi attains the age of manhood he is initiated
into the mysteries of his religion, and becomes a participator
in its rites, and acquainted with its secret prayers, signs,
and watch-words, by all of which the initiated are bound
up into a Freemasonic body of Ukhwan, or brethren. The
ritual of this initiation ceremony is given in a later chapter.
A proof of the influence of Zoroaster and the Magians
on the religion of the Nusairis may be traced in the attribu-
tion of light as the symbol of the Deity.
Ali is usually alluded to and addressed as our Lord,
Ameer-ilrMoomeneen, Prince of the True Believers, but
another favourite term of address is Ameer-in-Nahal, Prince
of Bees, that is the angels, or true believers, who are styled
bees because they choose out the best flowers, that is,
follow the best instruction.
Next to the seven great manifestations of the Deity,
and twelve lesser manifestations in the Imaums, a con-
spicuous part of the Nusairi religious system is the Aytam,
or orphans, signifying the disciples who have lost their
master. These are the second of the seven spiritual hierarchies
of which the Doors are the first and they are generally
connected with the Door, though the series sometimes
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 148
commences with the names of All, thus : " His Name, His
Door, His Aytam, and the people of His Holy Hierarchies.
As a Nusairi is required to believe in the chain of divine
appearances from Abel to Ali, and in the chain of Imaums,
from the first Hassan to the last, so he is required to believe
that there have always existed five Aytam, five being the
consecrated number in this case. The five orphans in the
time of Adam, when Gabriel was the Door, were the five
angels, Michael, Israfeel, Azrael, Malik and Rudwan,
and these are the types of the successive appearances of
the Aytam. Thus it is said : " There are no angels but
the five angels, the orphans."
The Nusairis believe that there were five worlds, that is
ages, before that of man, and that during them the world
was successively inhabited by five kinds of beings, worshippers
of Ali, called the Djann, the Bann, the Tumm, the Ramm,
and the Djahn.
The Nusairis, as mentioned before, have, from the very
first, been believers in the transmigration of souls, in common
with others of the secret sects of the East. Hamza, the
apostle of the Druses, directs his anathemas against them,
because they carry the doctrine to such an extent as to say
" that the souls of the enemies of Ali will pass into dogs,
and other unclean brutes, till they enter fire, to be burnt,
and beaten under the hammer." After refuting this doctrine
of transmigration into animals, he concludes, " and whoever
believes in metempsychosis, like the Ansaireeh, the followers
of the Maana, in the person of Ali son of Abu-Talib, and who
stands up for it, suffers the loss both of this world and the
next." Metempsychosis, which is called by Mussulman
authorities Tanasukh, is called by the Nusairis Taknees,
or Tadjaiyul, that is the coming in successive " djeels,"
or generations. The Jesuit missionaries say on this point :
" The Ansaireeh further admit the metempsychosis, and
say that the same soul passes from one body into another,
as many as seventy times; but with this difference, that
the soul of a good man enters into a body more perfect
than his own, and the soul of a vicious man passes into the
body of an unclean animal."
A Nusairi believes that after he has become purified,
144 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
in passing through different incarnations, he becomes a
star in heaven, the first centre of humanity. For this
reason they pray that Ali will clothe the brethren in envelopes
of light.
The religious literature of the Nusairis includes a Manual
of Instructions, and a Catechism, both of which are largely
quoted by Lyde and Taylor, quoting, in their turn, from
Von Hammer and Catafago. Lyde had obtained possession
of a MS. copy of this Manual, which apparently corresponds
to the Manual referred to by Sulaiman, from which copious
extracts, with regard to the Initiation ceremonies, will be
found in the next chapter. The Nusairis also acknowledge
the Tawrah, the Old Testament or Law ; the Andjeel or
Gospel ; the Zuboor, or Psalms ; and the Koran. But they
speak in all of 114 books, among which they include those
attributed to Seth, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, in the
Syriac. 1 ' Various MSS. that have fallen into the hands of
Europeans show that there are books among the 'Nusairis,
and that these moreover agree in all main points.
The Catechism, which in many points is identical with
the Manual, was sent with a French version, by M. Catafago,
Dragoman of the Prussian Consul-General at Beyrout,
to the King of Prussia, and a translation of the Catechism,
by Dr. Wolff, was issued in the Journal of the German
Oriental Society for 1845-6, from which Lyde has translated
the more important portions.* The original MS. is in thirty-
eight leaves, large octavo, and is called " The Book of In-
struction in the Ansaireeh Religion."
The introduction contains an invocation of the Eternal
GOD, and a thanksgiving " for the communication of His
divine secret, and the truth of the holy religion," which
consists in the perception of His great Name, and of His
holy Door, through the person of the Abd-in-Noor, which
he has assumed for the sake of His saints, who know Him ;
also a thanksgiving for all the benefits received from GOD.
Then follow two portions of the Catechism : one theoretical,
Some extracts from The Booh of Enoch and The Apocalypse of
Abraham are given in the Appendix, from the very excellent edition
of these Apocryphal books prepared for the S.P.C.K, by Canons Box and
Charles.
* Asian Mystery, pp. 271 ff.
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 145
which speaks of instruction, and the other practical, which
speaks of customs and ceremonies. The theoretical part
declares, in the form of question and answer, a belief in the
divinity of Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, through his own testimony,
and from a discourse by Mohammed himself, which ends
thus : He (AH) is my Lord and yours." Ali is declared
to have concealed himself in Mohammed in the period of
his change of shapes, that is in the seventh manifestation
previously referred to, when he took Mohammed as his
" Veil." Then follow declarations as to the Maana, the
Ism, and the Bab, and the sixty-three names of the Ism,
which spiritually taken, denote the Maana, and personally
the Ism those of which the Godhead has made use to
manifest Himself in the persons of the prophets and apostles,
the first three being Adam, Enoch, and Kanaan. The
Bab is also said to be the perfect soul, the Holy Ghost,
the angel Gabriel, etc. It is also stated that while the
name of Ali is given to the Deity by the Arabs, He himself
has taken the name of Aristotle, and in the Christian Gospel
is called Elias, while the Indians know Him as Kankara.
Then are recited the names of the seven hierarchies, and
their degrees, as given above. Then come some questions
and answers referring to doctrines of the Eucharistic
celebrations and Masses, which I give in full, as they have
not been previously alluded to.
LXXV. Is it true that the Messiah was crucified, as
the Christians assert ? Ans. No ; the Jews were deceived
by a resemblance. (Koran iii. 163.)
LXXVI. What is the Mass? Ans. The consecration
of the wine, which is drunk to the health of the Nakeeb or
Nadjeeb.
LXXVIL What is the Offering (Korban ') ? Ans. The
consecration of the bread, which the true believers take
in their hand for the souls of their brethren, and on that
account the Mass is read.
LXXVIII. Who reads the Mass, and brings the offer-
ing ? Ans. Your great Imauras and preachers.
LXXIX. -What is the great secret (mystery) of God ?
* Cf. Mark vii. u.
10
146 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Ans. The flesh and the blood, of which Jesus has said :
" This is my flesh and my blood ; eat and drink thereof,
for it is eternal life. 11
LXXX. Where do the souls of your brethren, the
true believers, go when they leave their graves ? Ans. Into
the great world of light.
LXXXI. What will happen to the godless and polythe-
ists ? Ans. They will have all torments to suffer in all ages.
LXXXIL What is the mystery of the faith of the
Unitarians ? What is the mystery of mysteries and chief
article of faith of the true believers ? Ans. It is the veiling
of our Lord in light, that is, in the eye of the sun, and
his manifestation in his servant, Abd-in-Noor.
LXXXIIL What will happen to those who doubt this
mystery, after they have once acknowledged it ? Ans. They
will be reprobated.
LXXXIV. What are the stipulations which the believer
must enter on, if he will receive the secret of secrets ?
Ans. He must, before all things, assist his brethren with
all his means ; he must give them the fifth part of his
goods ; he must pray at the appointed hours ; fulfil his
obligations ; give to all their dues ; obey his Lord, invoke
Him, thank Him, often pronounce His name, in all points
submit himself to His will, and keep himself from everything
that may displease Him.
LXXXV. What must the believer keep himself from ?
Ans. From affronting or injuring his brethren.
LXXX VI. Is the believer allowed to make known to
anyone the secret of secrets ? Ans. Only to those of
his religion, else he will lose the favour of God.
LXXXVIL What is the first mass ? Ans. It is that
which is spoken of before the prayer of Nurooz.
LXXXVIIL What is the prayer of Nurooz 1Ans.
The words of consecration of the wine in the chalice. 1
LXXXIX. Say that prayer. Ans, Among other
things it is said : " Drink of this pure wine, for one day
its lights will be covered with thick clouds."
XC. What is the consecrated wine called which the
believers drink ? Ans. Abd-in-Noor.
See Appendix, " The Feast of Nurooz."
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 147
XCI. Wherefore so ? Ans. Because GOD has mani-
fested Himself in the same.
XCII. What is the concealed secret of GOD, which
stands between the K and N ? Ans. Light, according
to His word : " Let there be light, and there was light." x
XCIII. What is light ? Ans. The eternal Maana, which
is concealed in light.
XCIV. If our Lord is concealed in light where does he
manifest himself ? Ans. In the wine, as it is said in the
Nurooz.
XCV. Why does the believer direct his face, when he
prays, towards the sun ? Ans. Know that the sun is the
light of lights.
XCVI. Why do we say that our Lord makes turnings
(transmigrations) and revolutions ? Ans. He does so, and
manifests Himself periodically in all revolutions and periods,
from Adam to the son of Abu-Talib. (It will be realized
this is no answer at all.)
XCVII. What do the outer and inner word denote ?
Ans. The inner, the Godhead of our Lord ; the outer, his
manhood. Outwardly we say that He is spoken of as " Our
Lord Ali, son of Abu-Talib " : and this denotes inwardly
the Maana, the Ism, and the Bab ; one gracious and com-
passionate GOD.
The practical portion of the Catechism gives a general
formula for prayer, a formula for mass, and the ritual of
reception into the sect.
Some very interesting and important details with regard
to the religious rites, doctrines, and history of the Nusairis
are given in a work published at Beirut in 1863, the author
being a former member of the sect. The Book of Sulaiman's
First Ripe Fruit, in which are disclosed many of the mysteries
of the Nusairian religion, was written by Sulaiman Effendi,
of Adhanah, and edited for him by Dr. Van Dyck, a mission-
ary at Beirut. An exhaustive review, with copious extracts
from the original Arabic, was prepared for the American
J The letters K and N represent the word " be " in Arabic, and since
this word was used in the creation of light, light is called the secret of God,
which is concealed between the K and the N.
148 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Oriental Society by Mr. Edward E. Salisbury, who had
previously contributed some interesting papers on the Syrian
sects, and was published in the Society's Journal for 1864.
" This tract was written,'* says Dr. Van Dyck, " by a Nusairi,
who first doubted his own religion and became a Jew, then
a Moslem, then a Greek, then a Protestant. He was taken
as a conscript, and sent from Adhanah to Damascus, where
he was released. He came to Beirut, and wrote this tract.
He then went to Ladikia, and remained some months with
Rev. J. R. Dodds, Missionary of the Associated Reformed
Church : and then returned to have his tract printed at
his own expense." In this, and the following chapter,
are given the most interesting portions of Mr. Salisbury's
review.
The work is divided into sections, of which the first
describes the author's initiation as a Nusairi, and embraces
what purports to be a complete Nusairian prayer-book, with
important explanations, and historical notes : the second
section is chiefly an enumeration of some of the principal
festivals of the sect : the third gives a detailed report of
the ceremonies observed, and the liturgical forms used on
those occasions, and includes some statistics of the sect :
the fourth treats of the important Nusairian doctrines of
a fall from virtue and happiness in a pre-existent state :
the fifth consists entirely of specimens of Nusairian poetry :
the sixth is a statement, by the author, of certain fundamental
principles of the sect : the seventh is a narrative of the
circumstances under which the author discovered its deeper
mysteries, of his own conversion, first to Judaism and then
to Christianity, and of the treatment which he met with in
consequence from his co-religionists : and the eighth, and
last, is wholly controversial, being an argument against
the doctrines and rites of the Nusairis.
The author begins by informing us that he was born in
Antioch in A.H. 1250, or A.D. 1834-5, and lived there to the
age of seven years, when he was taken to Adhanah ; and
that his initiation took place when he was eighteen years
old, the appointed time being from the age of eighteen to
twenty.
The initiation ceremonies are thus described. On a
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 149
certain day there was a general gathering of high and low
of the Nusairis of Adhanah, belonging to that division of the
sect known as Northerners, 1 before whom he was summoned,
when he was presented with a glass of wine. One whom he
describes as the Pursuivant, or Director of Ceremonies,
took a place at his side, and said to him : " Say thou :
By the mystery of thy beneficence, O my Uncle and lord,
thou crown of my head, I am thy pupil, and let thy sandal
be upon my head/' When he had drunk the wine, the
Imaum turned towards him, and asked : " Wouldst thou
take up the sandals of those here present, to do honour to
thy Lord ? " to which he replied, " Nay, but only the
sandal of my lord ; " whereupon the company laughed at
his want of docility. Then the Minister (Deacon), being so
directed by the assembly, brought to them the sandal of
the Pursuivant : and when they had uncovered the Candidate's
head, they laid it thereon, and put over it a white rag :
after which the Pursuivant began to pray over him that
he might receive the mystery. When this prayer was
ended, the sandal was taken from his head, he was enjoined
secrecy, and all dispersed. This is what is called the Betoken-
ing Adoption.
After forty days, another assembly was convened, another
cup of wine was drunk by the Candidate, and he was directed
to say : "In the faith of the mystery of Ain-Mim-Sin,"
which Sulaiman thus explains : Ain stands for Ali, or the
Archetypal Deity : Mim for Mohammed, or the Expressed
Deity, or the Intermediary : Sin for Salman-al-Farsi, or
the Communicator. The Candidate was charged by the
Imaum to pronounce the cabalistic word composed of these
three letters, namely AMS, five hundred times a day. As
before, secrecy was enjoined, and the so-called King's
Adoption was now accomplished.
Another interval of probation, lasting seven months
(often extended to nine) having passed away, the Candidate
was called before another assembly, in whose presence he
stood at a respectful distance. Then a Deputy rose in
the assembly, having the Pursuivant on his right, and
another official on his left, each with a cup of wine in his
1 One of the four divisions of the Nusairis, see p. 154.
150 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
hand ; all, turning to the Imaum, chanted the third
Melody. After this, the whole assembly, facing the Second
Preceptor on the Deputy's left, known as the Dignitary,
chanted to him the following : "I inquire after the traits
of nobleness where dwell they ? To thee have certain
men pointed me. By the reality of Mohammed and his
race, compassionate one who comes to kiss thy hands.
Thou art my goal, let not my thought of thee prove vain :
account us to-day as depending upon thee/'
After this, they placed their hands on the Preceptor's
and sat down. Then the Preceptor stood up, took the
Deputy's cup from his hand, bowed his head in worship,
and read the Chapter of " Bowing of the Head " (see p. 159).
Having recited this litany, he raised his head, and read the
Chapter of the " Ain " (see p. 161). After this, he stood
with his face towards the Imaum, and said : " Hail, hail,
hail, O my lord Imaum ! " To this the Imaum replied,
" May it be well with thee, and those around thee ! Thou
hast done that which these here assembled have not done ;
for thou hast taken in thy hand the cup, hast drunk, hast
bowed the head, and saluted ; and to God is humble worship
due. But what is thy desire, and what wouldst them ? "
To this the Dignitary answered : " I would have an
evening of the countenance of my Master " : then retiring,
he looked towards the heavens, and came back to the
assembly, and said : " Hail, hail, hail, O my lord," to
which the Imaum replied as before : " What is thy desire,
and what wouldst thou ? The Dignitary said : "I have a
desire, and would it might be sanctioned." The Imaum
replied : " Go to, I sanction it." The Dignitary then
stepped aside from the assembly, and approached the
Candidate, to give him an opportunity to kiss his hands and
feet : which being done, he returned, and said : " Hail, hail,
hail, O my lord Imaum." Then the Imaum said to him
again : " What is thy wish, and what wouldst thou ? "
To this he answered : "A person has presented himself
to me in the way." Again the Imaum spoke ; " Hast
thou not heard what was said by our elect lord : ' As for
the nightmare duty, no man of might can take it patiently? ' "
The Dignitary replied : " I have a stout heart, no fear for
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 151
me " then after regarding the Candidate, he turned towards
the assembly, and said : " This person, named so-and-so,
has come to be initiated in your presence." The Imaum
then inquired: "Who directed him to us?" To this the
Dignitary replied " The Eternal Archetypal Deity, the august
Expressed Deity, and the honoured Communicator, signified
by the word AMS." The Imaum said : " Bring him, that
we may see him " ; whereupon the Preceptor took him by
the right hand, and led him towards the Imaum.
On his approach, the Imaum stretched out his feet,
which the Candidate kissed, and also his hands, and said
to him : " What is thy desire, and what wouldst thou, O
young man ? " Thereupon the Pursuivant arose, and station-
ing himself at the Candidate's side, instructed him to say :
" I ask for the mystery of your faith, O multitudes of
believers." Then, eyeing him with a stern look, the Imaum
said : " What impels thee to seek from us this mystery,
crowned with pearls large and small, which only a familiar
angel, or a commissioned prophet, can support ? Know,
O my child, that there are many angels, but that only the
Familiars can support this mystery ; and that the prophets
are numerous, but that only the Commissioned can support
this mystery : and that there are many believers, but that
only the Approved can support this mystery. Wilt thou
suffer the cutting off of thy head, hands and feet, and not
disclose this august mystery ? " To this the Candidate replied :
" Yes." Thereupon the Imaum said : " I wish thee to furnish
a hundred sponsors," at which those present interposed :
" The rule, O our lord Imaum " and he said, " In deference
to you, let there be twelve sponsors." Then the Second
Preceptor stood up, and kissed the hands of the twelve
sponsors, and the Candidate kissed their hands. Then
the sponsors rose, and said : " Hail, hail, hail, O my lord
Imaum," and the Imaum said, " What is your desire, ye
nobles ? " To this they replied : " We have come to be
sponsors for this Candidate." Then the Imaum inquired :
" In case he discloses this mystery, will ye bring him to
me, that we may cut him in pieces and drink his blood ? "
They answered : " Yes," and he added : " I am not satisfied
with your sponsorship alone nay, but I would have two
162 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
persons of consideration to be responsible for you." So
one of the sponsors ran, with the Candidate after him, and
kissed the hands of the two required sponsors, whose hands
the Candidate also kissed.
After this the two selected sponsors stood up, with their
hands on their breasts ; and the Imaum turned towards
them, and said : " God give you a good evening, O sponsors,
respected and pure, men of mark, and no sucklings ! But
what would ye ? " They replied : " We have come to be
sponsors for the twelve sponsors, and also for this person."
The Imaum replied : "In case, then, he runs off before
having fully learned our forms of prayer, or discloses this
mystery, will ye two bring him to me, that we may take his
life ? " They replied : " Yes," and the Imaum spoke again :
" Sponsors are perishable, and sponsors for sponsors abide
not I would have from him something that will last."
They then gave way, and the Imaum said to the Candidate :
" Come near to me, O young man ; " so he approached him,
and at the same time the Imaum adjured him, by all the
heavenly bodies, that he would not disclose this mystery :
and afterwards gave into his right hand the Book of the
Summary, while the Pursuivant, stationed at his side,
instructed him to say : " Be thou extolled ! Swear me, O
my lord Imaum, to this august mystery, and thou shalt
be clear of any failure in me."
Taking 1 the book from him, the Imaum said : " O, my
child, I swear thee, not in respect to money, or suretyship
nay, but in respect only to the mystery of GOD, as our
chiefs and lords have sworn us." This action and these
words he repeated three times ; after which the Candidate
placed his hand upon the Summary three times, making
oath thereby to the Imaum, that he would not disclose
this mystery so long as he should live.
After this the Imaum said : " Know, O my child, that
the earth will not suffer thee to be buried in it, shouldst
thou disclose this mystery ; and thy return will not be to
enter into human vestments nay, but, when thou diest,
thou wilt enter into vestments of degrading transformation,
from which there will be no deliverance for thee, for ever."
Then they seated the Candidate among them, and uncovering
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 158
his head, put a veil over it ; the sponsors placed their hands
upon his head, and began to pray : first, they read the
Chapters of Victory, Bowing the Head, and the Ain : then,
after drinking some wine, they read also the Chapter of
Salutation, and raised their hands from off his head. Next
the Introducing Dignitary took hold of him, and made
him salute the First Preceptor and then, taking a cup of
wine in his hand, gave him drink, and instructed him to
say : " In GOD'S name, by the help of GOD, and in the
faith of the mystery of Lord Abu Abdallah, possessor of
divine knowledge, in the faith of the mystery of his blessed
memorial, in the faith of his mystery-God give him happi-
ness." After this the assembly then dispersed.
CHAPTER XVII
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS :
CONTINUED
THE Dignitary then took the young votary to his own house,
where he taught him the " Formula of Disburdening "
(see p. 171), and also made him acquainted with the various
forms of prayer, to the number of sixteen, in which the
Nusairis pay divine honours to Ali. Each of these forms
of prayer is called a chapter, with a particular name, indicative
of its contents ; and in several cases the so-called prayer
has little or none of the tone of supplication, being for the
most part, or wholly, a recital, and that without any special
propriety, apparently, in reference to devotion. The whole
collection, to which the general title of Dustur, i.e. "The
Canon," is given, provides a good insight into the Nusairi
beliefs.
The first chapter, called " The Commencement/ 1 is
thus explained by Sulaiman. He observes that, according
to Nusairian doctrines, GOD is visible, and yet not wholly
definable, whence the expression, which occurs in this
chapter, " O manifest, O limit of all aims, Thou who art
hidden,* yet unclothed, whose lights arise out of Thee and
set in Thee, from Thee come forth, and to Thee return." He
also here alludes to a separation of the Nusairis into four
divisions : i, those who pay homage to the Heavens, whom
he calls Northerners ; 2, adorers of the Moon, whom he calls
elsewhere Kalazians : 1 3, worshippers of the twilight : and
4, worshippers of the air. By the first of these parties the
passage just quoted is understood to point to the heavens,
1 Probably so named after Sheikh Mohammed Bin Kalazu, who is quoted
later.
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 155
" out of which," said they, " the stars arise, and in which
they set ; and which are visible, yet undefmable, as to their
prime configuration, except by the Expressed Deity."
But the second party, in support of their adoration of the
moon, allege that other expression of this chapter : " Thy
brilliant appearance/ 1 saying " that the moon is manifest
to sight, while as for the dark part of it, that represents the
being of Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, which is veiled from our eyes,
which we now see as a dark object, though, when we are
purified from these bodily vestments, and exalted among
the stars, through our faith, we shall behold it in sapphire
splendour/' The worshippers of the twilight argue, in
their own favour, from the expression " whose lights arise
out of thee," etc., saying that all the lights of heaven make
their appearance from out of the East, and revolve and
set in the West ; and they may be seen to pray with their
faces turned towards the sun as it is rising or setting, in
the belief that the twilight-reddening of the sky creates
the sun, according to the words of Sheikh Ali the Magian,
in the so-called " Legacy " left to them by him : "By the full
moon, whose lights from her sun come forth ; and by her
sun, production of the morning beam/' The worshippers
of the air have also their own argument from this chapter,
appealing to the expression : " O Thou who art He," which
by a slight change of reading, they make to mean " O Thou
who art the air."
The second chapter, called " The Canonization of
Ibn-al-Wali," is a prayer for deliverance from seven kinds
of degrading transformation, together with their subdivisions,
embracing all kinds of cattle and wild beasts, and other
forms of living creatures ; and it is believed that these
seven degrees of transformation are the seven floors of Hell
mentioned in the Koran : * " And it has seven entrances,
with a part divided off to each." Thus the sinner, in this
petition, with humble heart, and spirit submissive to his
lord Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, intercedes for salvation therefrom.
The third chapter is called " The Canonization of Abu
Said," and is a prayer to the Prince of Bees, Ali the Bounteous,
imploring the aid of the Elect Five, the Revealing Six,
1 Koran xv. 44.
156 SECRET SECTS OF SYRJA
the Seven Twinkling Stars, the Eight Strong Bearers of
the Throne, the Nine gifted with Mohammed-quality, the
Ten Chanticleers of Holiness, the Eleven Ascension-points
of Communicator-quality, and the Twelve Strings of Imaum-
ship.
The " Elect Five " are the times of prayer prescribed to
the Nusairis. These are that of Mohammed, at mid-day ;
of Fatimah, in the afternoon ; of Hassan, son of Ali-Ibn-
Abu-Talib, at sunset ; of Hussain, brother of Hassan, in
the evening ; and of Muhsin, Mystery of Obscurity, at day-
break. Whoever is not conversant with the names of
these five persons, and with the times of prayer called after
them, prays in vain.
The " Revealing Six " are the six beings, namely, Salman
and the Five Incomparables, mentioned in the Chapter
of Victory (the 6th), or the six days of creation, or the
manifestations of GOD to Abraham, Moses, and other of
the prophets.
The " Seven Twinkling Stars " are Saturn, Mars, and
the rest.
The " Eight Strong Bearers of the Throne " are the
eight Kabalistic words, that is, the names of the Five
Incomparables and Talib, Akil, and Jafa at-Taiyar.
The " Nine Gifted with Mohammed-quality " are names
of certain of the Strings of Imaumship, from Mohammed
Ibn Abdallah to Mohammed aj-Jawad.
The " Ten Chanticleers of Holiness " are the Five Incom-
parables, together with Naufal, Abu-1-Harith, Mohammed
Ibn al-Hana-fiyah, Abu Barzah, and Abdallah Bin Madhlah,
whom the Nusairis believe to be the largest of the stars,
each having rule over a number of other stars. As al-Khusaibi
says in his " Diwan," all the stars are castles of the heavens,
mystically, except the ten just mentioned, the Chanticleers,
whose cock is Salman al-Farsi. In the secret books of the
Northerners, such as the " Book of the Greeks " and others,
the cock is said to be Mohammed Bin Abdallah.
The " Eleven Ascension-points of Communicator-
quality " are Ruzbah Ibn al-Marzaban, Abu-1-Ala Rashid
al-Hajari; Kankar Ibn Abu Khalid al-Kabuli, Yahya
Bin Mu'amraar, Jabir Bin Yazid aj-Jufi, Mohammed Ibn
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 157
Abu Zainab al-Kahili, al-Mufadhdhal Bin Umar, Umar
Bin al-Mufadhdhal, Mohammed Bin Nusair al-Bakri an-
Numarri, Dihyah Bin Khalfiah al-Kalbi, and Umm Salamah.
The " Twelve Strings of Imaumship " are Mohammed
al-Mustafi, al-Hassan al-Mujtabi, al-Hussain the martyr
of Karbala, Ali Zain al-Abidin, Mohammed al-Bakir, Ja' far
as-Sadik, Musa al Kazim, Ali ai-Ridha, Mohammed al-
Jawad, Ali al-Hadi, al-Hassan al-Askari, and Mohammed
Bin al-Hassan al-Hujjah.
The fourth chapter is called "The Pedigree." The
Nusairian religion originated with Mohammed Bin Nusair ;
he was followed by Mohammed Ibn Jindab, to whom
succeeded Abdallah al-Jannan al Junbulan, of Persia.
Then came al-Hussain Bin Hamdan al-Khusaibi, whom
the Nusairis esteem superior to all his successors, who
taught far and wide, and perfected their prayers.
He taught that the Messiah was Adam, and Enos, and
Kainan, and Mahalalil, and Yared, and Enoch, and Methuse-
lah, and Lamech, and Noah, and Shem, and Arphaxad, and
Ya'rab, and Hud, and Salih, and Lukman, and Lot, and
Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Prince
that is Pharaoh, who lived in the days of Joseph ; also
Moses, and Aaron, and Caleb, and Ezekiel, and Samuel,
and David, and Solomon, and Job, and al-Khadir, and
Alexander, and Saul, and Daniel, and Mohammed. His
general teaching seems to have been that each prophet
who has appeared in the world was an incarnation of the
Messiah ; and that the same is true of certain heathen sages,
such as Plato, Galen, Socrates, and Nero ; also of certain
wise men amongst the Persians, and the Arabs before
Mohammed, such as Ardeshir, Sapor, Luwai, Murrah, Kilab,
Hashim, Abd Manaf, and others. Moreover, he taught
that the mothers of the prophets of past times, and their
wives were incarnations of Salman al-Farsi, excepting the
wife of Noah and the wife of Lot ; and that Salman was
incarnate, also, in the eleven named in the third chapter,
and in the Queen of Sheba, and the wife of Potiphar ; ani
has appeared in some inanimate objects, as well as in certain
wild animals, such as the wolf supposed to have eaten
Joseph, and in winged creatures, such as the hoopoe, the
158 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
crow, the bee and others. Besides all this, he taught that
Ali-Ibu-Abn-Talib was Abel, Seth, Joseph, Joshua, Asaph,
Simon Peter, Aristotle, and Hermes ; and has been incarnated
in certain wild animals, such as the dog of the Companions
of al-Kahf, the camel of Salih, and the cow which Moses
commanded to be sacrificed. 1 His disciples numbered
fifty-one, of whom five were men of note, namely, Mohammed
Bin Ali aj-Jali, Ali Bin Isa, aj-Jasri, al-Iraki, and al-Katani ;
and whoever derives his instruction by a line of descent
from either of these is regarded by the Nusairis as al-
Khusaibi's brother.
To al-Husain Bin Hamdan al-Khusaibi succeeded Maimun
Bin Kasmin at-Tabarani, a disciple of Mohammed Bin Ali
aj-Jali, and author of many Nusairian books, among which is
the " Summary of Festivals," noted for its revilings of Abu-
Bekr, Omar, and Othman, whom it calls the three Adversaries,
they being considered by the Nusairis as incarnations of
Satan. The same author also composed the " Book of
Proofs of Divine Knowledge pertaining to the Questions/'
in which it is said that the wolf supposed to have eaten
Joseph was Abd ar-Rahman Bin Muljam al-Muradi, not
Salman al-Farisi as other Nusairis believe ; and the "Book
of the Compound on the Duties of Pupils " ; and another
book, against the religion of Ali Bin Karmat, and Ali Bin
Kushkah ; and many others.
The fifth chapter, called " The Victory/ 1 is understood
by the leaders among the Nusairis to signify that Mohammed
is connected with Ali by night, and separated from him by
day, taking the Sun to be Mohammed ; and they believe
that Mohammed created lord Salman. These three are
their Most Holy Trinity, Ali being the Father, Mohammed
the Son, and Salman al-Farisi the Holy Ghost. They also
declare that lord Salman created the Five Incomparables,
and that the Five Incomparables created this whole world
as it now exists, and that all the government of the heavens
and the earth is in the hands of these Five Incomparables
al-Mikdad presiding over thunder-bolts, lightning-flashes
and earthquakes ; Abu-dh-Dharr superintending the gyration
of the stars and constellations ; Abdallah Bin Rawahah,
x Koran xviii. 8 ff. ; vii. 71 ff. ; ii. 63 ff.
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 159
whom they believe to be the same as Azrael, being charged
with the winds, and with the arrest of human spirits ; Othman
having charge of human diseases, the heat of the body and
stomachs ; and Khanbar who is the introducer of spirits
into bodies.
The sixth chapter is called " The Bowing of the Head,"
and is relied on by the Northerners as containing doctrines
adverse to the worship which the Kalazians render to the
Moon, arguing from an expression in this chapter " Thou
producer of the morning sun and creator of the luminous
full moon " that the moon is a created thing. To this the
Kalazians reply that All created the moon in order to inhabit
it, as a man builds a house to dwell in, or makes a seat to sit
upon ; for they hold that the dark part of the moon repre-
sents the Adorable One, who, they also believe, has hands,
feet, a body, and a head, and on his head a crown, and in his
hand a sword, which is the notched blade of Mohammed.
The seventh chapter is called " The Salutation/' and causes
much dispute between the Northerners and the Kalazians ;
for while the former conclude the long string of salutations
enjoined by the phrase " I believe in the lordship of
Mohammed," the Kalazians say, " in the lordship of Ali,
the Gracious, and accuse their opponents of ascribing
lordship to Mohammed and Ali, indifferently. The
Northerners reply to this charge by saying that Mohammed
and Ali are allied, not alien, to one another ; that while
the First Cause is Ali, Mohammed is also a Creator : and
that the Kalazians cannot consistently charge them with
error in ascribing lordship to the latter, inasmuch as they
themselves maintain the doctrine of a Trinity which is held
by the Northerners. A long dispute is thus carried on, of
which the above is only an outline.
Fourteen " Orders " are mentioned in this seventh chapter.
The first seven include the Communicators, the Incompar-
ables, the Pursuivants, the Familiars, the Dignitaries, the
Purified, and the Approved, numbering five thousand
angels, who constitute what the Nusairis call the great
light-world. They believe them to be referred to in the
Koran as the " Seven Heavens "* and to have existed before
1 Koran xxiii. 88.
160 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
the creation of the world, and to be stars outside of the Milky
Way. The other seven include the Offerers, Cherubs,
Spirituals, Sanctified, Ramblers, Listeners, and Attendants,
numbering one hundred and nineteen thousand, who consti-
tute the so-called " little spirit- world, supposed to be intended
by the " Seven Earths" in the Koran. 1 These the Nusairis
believe to be the stars of the Milky Way, or spirits purified
from the flesh through their acknowledgment of AMS,
and of every manifestation of the Deity, from Abel to Ali-
Ibn-Abu-Talib, agreeably to these words in the Diwan of
their lord Sheik Ali as-Suwairi :
" Why dost thou not apprehend the parable of light ?
Lo, GOD proposes to us a plain parable : GOD is the Light
of the upper world, the heavens, and of the earthly world."
This parable is to be found in the Koran, where we read :
" GOD is the Light of the heavens and the earth ; His
light is as a lamp in a little window," etc. *
The eighth chapter is called " The Betokening." It is
a confession of unity, and points out how to combat those
who revile Abu Bekr, Omar, Othman, and the rest, and all
sects which maintain that Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, or the prophets,
either ate, drank, had sexual intercourse, or were born
of women ; for the Nusairis believe that these descended
from heaven without bodies, and that the bodies which
they inhabited were but semblances. Also how to hide
one's religion from those who are not Nusairis, it being
a principle with this sect not to disclose their opinions or
usages, even to save their lives.
By this chapter are to be distinguished the four parties
among the Nusairis : for those who adore the heavens and
the twilight, when they recite it, place the right hand upon
the breast, applying the inner part of the thumb to the
middle finger; the worshippers of the moon either spread
out the hand, with the thumb erect, so that it has the shape
of the new moon, or else place both hands upon the breast,
opening them wide, with the fingers of one upon the other,
and the two thumbs erect, so as in this way to represent
the shape of the new moon ; while the worshippers of the
air place one hand upon the breast, lifting up the forefingers,
> Koran Ixv 12, Koran xxiv, 35.
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 161
and applying the inner part of the end of the thumb to the
inside of the middle finger.
All Nusairis, on finishing the recitation of this chapter,
kiss the inner parts of the ends of their fingers three times,
and raise them to their heads.
The ninth chapter is called " The Ain of Ali," and treats
of the mystery of the Ain.
The tenth chapter is called " The Covenant." " I
testify that GOD is true ; that His word is true ; that the
plain truth is Ali Ibn Abu Talib with the bald temples,
the mysterious ; that Hell is the abode of unbelievers :
that the garden is a pleasure ground for believers, where
water meanders beneath the throne, and upon the throne
is seated the Lord of all worlds, and the bearers of the
throne are the Noble Eight, who present to him the oblation
of my exercises, in this my state of discipline, and of the
exercises of all believers. In the faith of the mystery of
covenant of Ain-Mim-Sin."
The eleventh chapter is called " The Testimony " : or,
by the common people, " The Mountain." " GOD certifies,
the angels, also, and all imbued with knowledge bear
witness, that there is no GOD besides Him, the doer of justice ;
that there is no GOD besides Him, the mighty, the wise*
Verily, religion in GOD'S sight is Islam. O our Lord save
us by Thy revelation, cause us to follow the Messenger,
and so record us among those who firmly testify to Ain-
Mim-Sin.
" I testify that I am a Nusairi in religion, a Jandabi in
counsel, a Junbulani in habitude, a Khusaibi in doctrine,
a Jali as to maxims, a Maimuni in legal science ; and I
stand fast in expectation of the splendid recurrence, the
brilliant return, the withdrawal of the veil, the lighting up
of the thick cloud, the manifestation of that which is unseen,
the showing forth of the hidden, and the appearance of
Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib from amid the sun, arresting every soul,
with the lion beneath him, the Dhu-1-Fakar in his hand, the
angels behind him, and lord Salman before him, while water
wells up from between his feet, and lord Mohammed cries
out, saying : ' Behold your Sovereign, Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib !
Acknowledge him, glorify him, magnify him, exalt him,
11
SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
Behold your creator and provider ! Disown him not ! Bear
me witness, O my lords, that this is my religion and my faith,
whereto I commit myself, whereby I live, wherein I shall
die. ^Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib lives, and will not die ; in his hand is
destiny, and absolute dominion ; in his gift are hearing,
seeing, and understanding. Peace be to us from the
remembrance of them/ "
The Kalazians claim that expression " and the appearance
of Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib from amid the sun," in this chapter,
as evidence of the correctness of their doctrine, remarking
that the moon comes forth to view out of the sunset-sky.
The worshippers of the twilight, on account of this expression,
fancy that the twilight comes forth from the midst of the
sun, while, at the same time, maintaining that the twilight-
reddening of the sun creates the sun. The Northerners say
that " the sun " is, here, a metonymy for Fatimah, the
daughter of Asad, whose child was Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib ;
for it is the belief of the Northerners, universally, that both
she and Fatimah the daughter of Mohammed were the
Expressed Deity, that is, Mohammed, who, as they hold,
is represented in the sun.
The twelfth chapter, called "The Imaum Chapter/'
implies that the Nusairis adore a seen, present, not an
incommunicative Deity ; and that this Deity is Ali-Ibn-
Abu-Talib, whom the Northerners believe to be presented
to view in the whole heavens, and the Kalazians suppose
to be the moon, each party, accordingly, interpreting the
chapter to suit its own views.
The thirteenth chapter is called " The Journeying
Chapter." " Let whatsoever is in the heavens, and what-
soever is on the earth, glorify GOD, the Mighty, the Wise !
With the return of morning doth GOD'S whole realm give
glory. In the name of GOD, by the help of GOD, and in
the faith of the mystery of lord Abu Abdallah, whose
religion whosoever conforms to, and whose worship whosoever
adopts, GOD brings him to the knowledge of Himself ; and
whose religion whosoever does not conform to, and whose
religion whosoever does not adopt, has GOD'S curse upon
him. By the mystery of the Chief, and his peculiar children,
may GOD give happiness to them all."
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE NUSAIRIS 163
When the Nusairis find mention made, in their secret
books, of any city, they interpret it figuratively as signifying
the heavens, and suppose its inhabitants to be stars, agreeably
to what is explicitly laid down in the Egyptian Missive,
and other books. f
The fourteenth chapter is called " The Reverenced House,"
and originated with the primitive Nusairis, who used
it as a method of introduction to the performance of
pilgrimage. That is to say, it refers to the house which
the Koran commands should be visited, and its under-
pinnings, roof, and enclosures, as signifying, metaphorically,
an acquaintance with persons represented thereby, agreeably
to what is said by Sheikh Ibrahim-at-Tusi, in his " Poem of
the Letter Ain " " O, the change of GOD'S house ! which is
His Intermediary ; of as-Safa, which is al-Mikdad, tamer
of the Adversary ; of Marwah, whereof Abu-dh-Dharr is
the memorable personation ; of the ceremonies of the
house, which are Salsal, submissive to the Deity ; its
enclosing steps, how changed do they present them-
selves ! The door-ring of the house is Ja'far, star in the
ascendant."
The house signifies the Lord Intermediary, the Mim ;
as-Safa, al-Mikdad ; the two steps, al-Hassan and al-Hussain ;
the door-ring, acquaintance with Ja'far as-Sadik ; al-Marwah,
acquaintance with Abu dh-Dharr ; and the sacred place of
ceremony, acquaintance with Salman al-Farisi. Such inter-
pretations are distinctly presented in very many books of
the Nusairis ; and an acquaintance with the several persons
named stands, with them, for the completion of pilgrimage.
Moreover, that acquaintance is understood by the Nusairis
to be obtainable by sight, in conformity with what is their
belief, universally, that the sun is Mohammed.
The zeal of the Moslems in visiting Mecca seems to
the Nusairis idle and blameworthy ; and one of their chiefs
has expressed himself to this effect in the following words :
" Cursed be all who forbid the drinking of wine, and all
the Syrians, and the pilgrims."
In the Book of Summary of Festivals we find the following
passage :* " They have assigned to thee a grave, and
1 Journale Asiatique, IVe, Serie xi, 153.
164 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
suppose thee to be buried in it ; but in truth they practise
deceit."
Again, it is said in the " Book of Confirmation," by Sheikh
Mohammed al-Kalazi, quoting from the " Book of Light
Handling," which the Nusairis believe to have been composed
by Jafar as-Sasik, the words of Jafar, when he was inquired
of by af-Mufadhdhal with reference to the edifice which
the Moslems are so zealous in visiting, imagining it to be
GOD'S house : " Such visitation is the sum and substance
of unbelief ; that edifice is a prop of idols, even as it is of
stone, like idols, and people are well nigh dolts in visiting
it, and short of understanding."
To this al-Kalazi adds : " So I give them for answer,
as to this matter, that the practice should be abandoned ;
and besides, there are places of pilgrimage, and trees,
innumerable, which they may visit, nearer than the Kaabah ;
so idle a proceeding verifies in them the words of the poet^
who says : ' Thou boast est, O my brother, of strange things :
of a jaundiced physician administering to his fellow men :
of a weaver who is always naked of clothing : and of an
oculist prescribing collyrium, who is himself blind ; f and
those of another poet : ' The physician sets himself to
administer to others, and forgets his own pain-stricken
heart/"
The fifteenth chapter is called " The Chapter of the
Intermediary." The sixteenth chapter is called " The
Chapter of Pursuivants." It recites the names of certain
Pursuivant-lords, whom Mohammed chose as disciples,
which it is unnecessary to give here.
CHAPTER XVIII
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE NUSAIRIS
IN the second and third sections of his book Sulaiman gives
us information as to the festivals of the Nusairis ; the
prayers used at them ; the various offices of the three Orders
of chiefs, namely Imaums, Pursuivants and Dignitaries,
and their respective duties and mutual relations with the
congregations of the believers. In his description of the
ceremonies observed on festival occasions he introduces
various liturgical forms not usually known.
Sulaiman remarks that these annual celebrations had
an ancient origin, and are carefully perpetuated ; the
necessary expenses are borne by the wealthier members
of the sect, every rich Nusairi binding himself to defray
the cost of one, two or three of the celebrations, according
to the measure of his zeal. In towns they are held in the
evening, for the sake of secrecy, but this precaution is not
always observed in the country villages. He also states
that the Nusairi villagers give themselves up to special
festivity on their New Year's Day, the ist of Second Kanum,
or January, and show less regard for certain seasons observed
with special ceremonies among the Moslems as well as
themselves, while the inhabitants of towns avoid such
discrimination, lest the Moslems should find them out.
The following list of Nusairian festivals, drawn up,
apparently, in the order of their estimation, is given by the
author, with the distinct understanding of it not including
all.
1. Festival of al-Ghadir, on the i8th of Dhu-1-Hajjah.
2. of al-Udhhiyah, on the loth of Dhu-1-Haj jah.
(This is a memorial of Ismail Ibn Hajir.)
166 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
3. Festival of al-Maharjan, on the i6th of First Tishrin.
4. of Al-Barbarah, on the I4th of Second
Tishrin.
5. ,, after an interval of a week from the last.
6. ,, after an interval of a week from the last.
7. ,, of the Birth-time of lord Messiah, on the
I5th of First Kanum.
8. ,, of the Baptism, on the 6th of Second Kanum.
9. of I7th Adhar.
10. of ist Nisan.
11. ,, of 4th Nisan.
ii. of I5th Nisan.
13. ,, of gth of First Rabi, called the 2nd Ghadir.
14. ,, on the night of the I5th of Sha'ban.
In connection with this list certain other festivals are
enumerated, without specification of the times when they
are celebrated, namely, the Festival of John the Baptist,
and of John Chrysostom, the Festival of Palms and of the
Element, and the Festival of Mary Magdalene. The following
seasons of special observance are also mentioned : the
first night of Ramadhan, and the seventeenth, nineteenth,
twenty-first and twenty-third nights of that month. The
whole enumeration by Sulaiman agrees, for the most part,
with Catafago's list, published in the Journal Asiatique for
1848, * though each author names some celebrations not
noticed by the other.
When a festival-day arrives, the men assemble at the
house of the master of the festival, that is, the person at
whose expense it is celebrated ; and the Imaum takes a
seat among them. Then there is placed before him a piece
of white cloth, on which are laid mahlab berries, camphor,
candles, and myrtle or olive leaves.
A vessel filled with wine of pressed grapes, or figs, is
brought forward, and two Pursuivants seat themselves on
eitjier side of the Imaum. Then the Master of the Festival
designates another Pursuivant to act as the minister of
the occasion, and coming forward kisses the Imaum's hand,
and the hand of each of the Pursuivants seated by his side,
1 Journal Asiatique, IVe, Serie xi, 149-55.
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE NUSAIRIS 167
as well as that of the Pursuivant selected to perform the
service. The latter then rises, and places his two hands
upon his breast, saying : " May God grant you a good
evening, my lords, and a pleasant and happy morning !
Is it your pleasure that I minister for you at this blessed
festival (or, blessed time), over the cup of so-and-so, the
Master of the Ceremonies ? God bless him." To this
those present reply : " Yes " whereupon the Pursuivant,
making his obeisance to the assembly, by kissing the ground,
takes in his hand some myrtle leaves, and distributes them,
reciting, meanwhile, the following, called the " Myrtle
String " : " God hath said : ' If he is one of those promoted
to honour, he shall have rest, and gentle puffs of air, and a
garden of delight ' I ; O God, let thy benediction rest upon
the names of the myrtle personations, namely, Sa'sa'h
Bin Sahan, Zaid Bin Suhan al-Abdi, the most excellent and
meritorious Ammar Bin Yasir, Mohammed Ibn-Abu-Bekr,
and Mohammed Ibn - Abu - Hudhaifah may divine bene-
dictions rest upon them all/'
These words are likewise recited by all present, who
rub in their hands, meanwhile, the myrtle leaves, and smell
them. Afterwards, the Pursuivant takes a basin of water,
puts into it some mahlab berries and camphor, and reads
a mass, as follows :
" THE PERFUME MASS "
" O, ye believers, have regard to this, your Demigod,
in whose presence ye are assembled, and put away hatred
from your hearts, and doubt and malice from your breasts,
that your worship may be perfected by acquaintance with
your Indicator, that your invocation may be accepted, and
that our Lord, and yours, may honour your hospitality.
Know ye that Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib abides with you, is present
among you, hearing and seeing, and that he knows whatso-
ever is above the seven heavens, as well as whatsoever is
beneath the ground, and is acquainted with secret thoughts,
the mighty one, the forgiving. Beware, beware, brothers,
of being merry and laughing aloud, in prayer-time, as do
the fools ; for such behaviour invalidates ceremonies, brings
' Koran Ivi, 87, 88.
168 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
on catastrophes, and impairs what is virtuous in conduct.
But hearken to and hear the commands of the lord Imaum ;
for he stands among you, as it were, in the majesty of the
infinite, the supreme, the omniscient One. We, being thus
minded, have mingled for you this perfume, as the heavens
are blended with the seven signs of Imaumship, on the
peerless necklace of souls existing in substance, disencumbered
of fleshly, human, bald-templed form. With those seven
regale ye your chaste souls, pure from all wicked deeds.
Therewith doth the Mim endow the Sin in every age, and
at all times I affirm it on oath so that he is Ali, a God,
to whom sincere worship is due, beside whom all beings
invoked by men are a lie (seeing that to worship the creature
is an idle fancy), for he let him be exalted, and let his
state be magnified ! is, in the height of his dignity, the
all-informed, the omniscient, the august Supreme."
He then pours upon the Imaum's hand a spoonful of
the perfumed water, and gives the basin to the Dignitary,
that he may do the same upon the hand of each person
present. While the Dignitary is thus going the round,
he reads the following, called
THE PERFUME STRING
" God hath said : ' The unbelievers see that the heavens
and the earth were each a solid mass, and that we have
ruptured them, and, by means of water, produced every
living thing will they not then believe P' 1 Glory be to
him who vivifies the lifeless, in a land of freezing cold. By
the power of our Lord, the almighty Supreme omnipotent
is God ! omnipotent is God ! "
All present likewise recite this formula, laving their
faces the while. Then the Pursuivant takes a censer,
and stands up, and reads the second mass :
THE INCENSE MASS
" The mass of incense, and of exhaled odours, circling
about in the reverenced house, in the dwelling of our God,
a dwelling of joy and gladness. Someone says that our
chief and lord, Mohammed Bin Sinan az-Zahiri peace be
Koran, xxi, 31.
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE NUSAIRIS 169
to us from him was accustomed to stand up for the Friday
prayer, every day and night, once or twice, taking in his
hand a ruby, or, as is also said, a sapphire, or, according
to another report, a chrysolite, which was consecrated to
the brilliant Fatimah, and incensing cups, with perfection
of cheer, incensing the servant of light, therewith, amid
festive decoration and glitter. Know ye, O believers, that
the light is Mohammed, and the night Salman. Incense
your cups, and light your lamps, and say all of you : Praise
be to God, praise be to God, for favour unsurpassed, and
whose mystery defying penetration has been bestowed
upon us bountiful, noble, exalted, august is he ! Believe
and be assured, O believers, that the person of the servant
of light is free to you, among yourselves, and forbidden
to you in the company of others."
In a note to this formula, the author says that what is
meant here by " the servant of light " is wine ; that is,
wine is here presented as an image of Ali.
After this the Pursuivant incenses the Imaum, as well
as the two seated by his side, and gives the censer to the
Dignitary, so that he may incense the rest of the Assembly. 1
While going his round, this official recites what is called
THE INCENSE STRING
" O GOD, give benediction and peace to our Lord
Mohammed, the elect, and his sons. May the divine bene-
diction rest upon them all."
The receivers of the incense also recite this formula.
Afterwards the Pursuivant takes a cup in his hand, and,
standing up, reads the third mass ; the " Call to Prayer."
This, though a very beautiful recital of adoration, is a
repetition of most of the " Perfume Mass/' and need not be
given here. He then presents the cup to the Imaum, and,
filling another, gives it to the person seated on the Imaum's
right, and hands a third to the one seated on his left ; each
of whom recites the following : "I testify that my Lord,
and thine, is the Prince of Bees, Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, who
1 An account of these ceremonies, in most points corroborating Sulaiman's,
is given in Lyde's Asian Mystery, as given to the author by a young Nusairi
Initiate.
170 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
is unconditioned, imperishable, unchangeable ; and I testify
that his Intermediary is lord Mohammed, and his Communi-
cator lord Salman ; and the Communicator proceeds not
from between the Archetypal Deity and the Expressed
Deity." After this the presenter of the cup says to each :
" Take, O my brother, this cup in thy right hand, and ask
help of thy Lord, Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib, thy ruler and helper."
To this each communicant replies : " Give, O my brother,
that which is in thy right hand, and ask help of thy Lord
and Creator, thy ruler and helper in matters of thy religion
may GOD make it to flourish with His affluence, by the
suretyship of Mohammed and his race." Afterwards, the
Pursuivant rises, and placing his hands upon his breast
says : " May GOD grant you a good evening, O brothers,
and a pleasant morning, O people of the faith ! Forgive
us any errors or negligences ; for man is so called only
because he lapses into error, and absolute perfection pertains
only to our Lord, the glorious Ali, who is omniscient."
He then kisses the ground, and sits down.
Then the Imaum, facing the assembly, says : " May GOD
grant you a good evening, O brothers, and a pleasant morning,
O people of the faith. Is it your pleasure that I should
minister for you, on this blessed day, over the cup of the
Master of Ceremonies ! GOD bless him ? " He kisses the
ground, which the assembly also do, striking two octaves
with the words : " We accept thee as our chief and lord."
The Imaum then says : " It is a tradition on the authority
of our lord Ja'far as-Sadik, the reticent and declarer, the
render and binder, 1 that he said : ' At prayer- time it is
forbidden either to take, to give, to sell, to buy, to report
the news, to whisper, to be noisy, to be restless, or to tell
stories, over the myrtle : but let there be silence, listening
attention, and saying of Amen/ Know ye, O brothers,
that if anyone wears upon his head a black turban, or carries
on his finger a kishtban, or at his waist a two-edged knife,
his prayer is hindered : and the greatest of sins is to fail
in duty over the myrtle ; for what is binding upon a messenger
if not manifest vigilance ? " Then he kisses the ground,
saying : " This homage to GOD, and to you, O brothers ! "
1 Another reference to the fructification of the earth.
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE NUSAIRIS 171
after which all who are present prostrate themselves, kiss
the ground, raise their hands to their heads, and say : "To
GOD let him be exalted -be thy homage paid, O our
chief and lord ! "
Afterwards the Imaum reads the " Formula of Dis-
burdening."
After a long string of terrible curses against individuals,
which it is unnecessary to give here, the Formula goes on :
" Do thou curse the Hanifite, Shafiite, Malikite, and
Hanbalite sects, and those who play with apes, and catch
hold of black serpents, together with all Christians and
Jews, and everyone who believes that Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib
ate, or drank, or was born, or had sexual intercourse may
GOD curse them. Moreover, lay thou the curse upon John
Marun the Patriarch, 1 the execrable, and upon all those
who feed on thy bounties, while they worship not thee ;
and do thou rid us of them utterly, as flesh is cleared from
a bone, by the suretyship of Ali, Mohammed and Salman,
and by the favour of Ain-Mim-Sin."
Then he wipes his hand upon his breast, saying to those
present : " We disburden ourselves of these vile Satans,
the heretics, in dependence on the favour of Ain-Mirn-Sin,"
which those assembled repeat, kissing one another's hands
to the right and left : after which the Imaum reads the
Chapter of the Opening, and the Chapter of the Two
Deficiencies, together with all that follows, up to the
Chapter of the Sun and the Chapter of Broad Sunshine, 2
and also the throne- verSe, 3 and other verses of the Koran,
at his pleasure. When he has done reading, after reciting
a prayer, the Imaum goes on with certain other forms,
glorifying and adoring Ali, and recites many masses. All
then raise their hands to their breasts, and recite the Chapter
of Betokening (see p. 160), each party performing the action
of raising hands in his own way, as explained in the notes
on that chapter. When this recitation is over, the Imaum
takes in his hands a cup of wine, and reads a tradition
authorized by al-Hussain Bin Hamdan al-Khusaibi, in which
* The first patriarch of the Maronites, who held office about A,D. 700 ;
see Assemanni Bibl. Orient., i. 496.
* Koran i. and Ixxxiii-xciii. s Ibid. ii. 256.
172 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
All is set forth as the one true GOD : afterwards he directs
the assembly to bow the head, which they do while reciting
the Sixth Chapter (see p. 159) ; then he takes the cup which
is in the hand of him who sits on his right, and mingles
its wine with his own, saying, as he mingles ; " Seest thou
yonder ? Seest thou ? delightsomcness ! O great
magnificence ! They are arrayed in green silk gauze and
brocade, and their Lord gives them pure wine to drink.
Verily this is your portion ; your zeal will surely be re-
compensed."
Next he recites the Ninth Chapter (see p. 161), the assembly
repeating after him, and then drinks a little from one of
the two cups, and presents it to him who sits on his right.
Then he takes the third cup l from him who sits on his
left, drinks a little of that, and gives it back to him, and
presents the cup which he still retains to the ministering
Pursuivant : and so the cups pass round among them,
from one to another ; and as they are offered, each offerer
kisses the hand of the receiver, saying to him : "Be thou
extolled ! drink, O my brother and lord, in the faith of
the mystery of Ain-Mim-Sin " ; whereupon he takes the
cup, and drinks, saying to the offerer : " May God give thee
to drink, O my brother and lord." To this the offerer
replies : " May GOD cheer thee through thy fellowship
of the cup, and thy draught, and cause thee to attain to
thy goal, and that which thou seekest after ! " When the
offering of the cup is over, the assembly pronounce an
14 Amen " ; then the Imaum reads some verses from the
Koran as follows : " TSM those are marks of the Plain
Book. Perchance thou wearest thyself out with "grief,
because they are not believers : if we please, we will reveal
to them a sign from heaven to which their necks will bow,"*
adding : " To GOD, O believers, bend."
When this direction has been obeyed by the recitation of
the Sixth Chapter, as before, the Chapter of Salutation
(see p. 159) is read by the Imaum, and repeated by the
1 The various libations mentioned in the course of this ceremony might
well be the source of the introduction of similar repeated libations in the
ritual of Knights Templar.
* Koran xxvi. 1-3.
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE NUSAIRIS 178
assembly, after which the Imaum reads the Second Mass
of " The Incense String/' (see p. 169) and then concludes
his prayer with three Melodies by al-Hussain Bin Hamdan
al-Khusaibi, the assembly repeating them after him.
Then, facing the assembly, he says : " Forgive us, O
brothers, any errors or negligences, and addition or omission ;
for all men are prone to negligence and forgetfulness, and
absolute perfection pertains only to your Master the
Exalted to the Glorious One, whose knowledge is all
surpassing. This homage to GOD and to you, O brothers,
O believers ! " He then kisses the ground, and the assembly
also kiss it, responding to him : "To GOD be thy homage
paid O our Chief and Lord." After this, all standing up,
they kiss the hands of one another, on the right and left,
and near by and, at the same moment, the candles are ex-
tinguished, as it is day, and the Master of the Festival gives
alms to the Imaum and the ministering Pursuivant, which
are called dirhams, as well as to all who have joined in the
recitations.
Then the Imaum takes in his hand the Summary, and
reads a little of it to the assembly and bids them bend,
which they do as before ; and after that directs the one
who sits on his right to read the Right-hand Invocation
and then directs all to recite the Chapter of Salutation
(see p. 159), and when this is finished, bids him who
sits on his left to read the Left-hand Invocation, and
at the close says : " This homage to GOD, and to you,
O brothers, all ye who are present/' He again kisses the
ground, while the assembly do likewise, and also kiss the
hands of one another, on the right and left ; whereupon
the Imaum stands up, and uncovers his head ; the assembly
do the same ; he directs them to recite the Chapter of
The Opening, 1 saying " The Chapter of the Opening, O
brothers, has to do with the subversion of the dynasty of
Othman, and the succour of the people of al-Khusaibi,
the Nusairis." Frequently, to this petition is added a petition
to Ali for the overthrow of all Moslem rulers,
In conclusion, the Ministers rise and place food before
the assembly, presenting most of it to the Imaum, who
Koran i.
174 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
distributes a little to those near him ; after which they all
eat, and disperse.
Having thus recounted the ceremonies usually observed
at the festivals of the Nusairis, Sulaiman also specifies
some customs which are peculiar to certain occasions. At
the festivals in the month of Nisan, of the ijth of Adhar,
and of the i6th of First Tishrin, when they begin their prayers,
there is placed before the Imaum a large basin of water,
with twigs of olive, myrtle, or willow in it ; and as soon
as prayers are over, all uncover their heads, and the Dignitary
stands up and sprinkles over them some of the water, and
distributes a few of the twigs, which they place in their
bee-hives to obtain good luck. Whenever they recite the
Chapter of the Bowing of the Head (see p. 159), they bend
to the ground, excepting on the day of al-Ghadir, when in
reading it, they raise their heads heavenwards.
CHAPTER XIX
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND DEEPER
MYSTERIES OF THE NUSAIRI RELIGION
ALL the Nusairis believe, says Sulaiman, that the spirits of
the chiefs of the Moslems, firmly grounded in the science
of their religion, assume, at death, the bodily forms of asses ;
that Christian ministers enter into the bodies of swine :
that Jewish rabbis take the form of male apes ; and as
for the wicked of their own sect, that their spirits enter
into the bodies of quadrupeds used for food, sceptics of
note excepted who, after death, are changed into male
apes. Persons of mixed character, partly good and partly
bad, become invested with human bodies in other sects.
When a professor of some other belief apostatizes, and is
united with them, they hold that in past incarnations he
was one of themselves, and that his birth within the pale of
that faith which he abandons was consequent upon some
crime which he had committed.
No member of any alien sect is admitted into their
fraternity, for the first time, unless he be a Persian, the
Persians being believers in the divinity of Ali-Ibn-Abu-
Talib like themselves. There is little doubt the progenitors
were from Persia and Irak. " In Jewish history they are
said to have originated in Palestine," goes on this author,
" and this statement is not groundless, inasmuch as they
hold many principles in common with people of that
country, such as the worship of the sun and the moon.
But, unquestionably, Magians are found among ttyem, so
that their worship may be of Magian origin, and they may
be practising in the present time rites which are none other
than Magian.
176
176 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
" As for one of their faith by birth, who apostatizes,
their judgment respecting the separatist is that his mother
was an adulteress among them, being of that sect whose
creed he adopts. They simulate all sects, and, on meeting
with Moslems, swear to them that they likewise fast and
pray. But their fasting is after a worthless manner : and,
if they enter a mosque in company with Moslems, they
recite no prayer, but lowering and raising their voices in
imitation of their companions, curse Abu Bekr, Omar,
Othman, and other persons. The simulation of sects is
set forth by them, allegorically, as follows : ' We, say they,
are the body, and all other sects are the clothings ; but
whatever sort of clothing a man may put on, it injures
him not ; and whosoever does not thus simulate is a fool,
for no reasonable person will go naked in the market-place/
I will specify, however, a token by which the dissembler
may be recognized : when a Nusairi disavows the worship
of Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib it may be known that he sets light by
his belief, since he could not so express himself without
having abandoned his religion ; or, when a Nusairi reveals
his form of prayer, it is certain that he has apostatized,
for thus says their lord al-Khusaibi : ' Whoever discloses
our testimony is forbidden our garden ; and if anyone
says to you ' Disclose, and be guiltless, hasten away.'
" A token by which members of the sect recognize one
another is as follows : If a stranger comes among his fellow-
believers, he inquires : ' I have a relative : do you know
him ? ' To this they reply : ' What is his name ? ' He
then says ' His name is al-Hussain/ when they rejoin :
' Ibn Hamdan/ and he adds ' al-Khusaibi/ 1
" A second token consists in their saying to the stranger :
' Thy uncle was unsettled for how many periods ? ' To
which if he replies ' Sixteen/ they receive him. 2 A third
is the question : ' If thy uncle should thirst, whence wouldst
thou give, him to drink ? ' To this the answer is : ' From
the fountain of Ali-quality/ A fourth token is this inquiry :
1 Here we have, in all probability, the source of the Masonic custom
of " lettering or halving " passwords in perambulating the Lodge during
certain ceremonies.
An allusion to the successive stages of divine manifestation down to
All, sixteen in number.
MYSTERIES OF THE NUSAIRI RELIGION 177
' Should thine uncle's feet sink in the sand, whither wouldst
thou direct him ? ' , The answer to this is : 'To the
Serpent of Mu'awiyah/ 1 A fifth question is : ' Should
thine uncle annoy where wouldst thou meet him ? ' The
answer being: 'In the Pedigree Chapter' (see p. 157).
Then comes the following dialogue : ' Four, two fours,
three and two, and as many more, twice over, in thy religion,
what place have they ? ' The answer to this is : 'In
the Journeying Chapter ' (see p. 162). ' Portion them out
to me, wilt thou ? ' ' Seventeen of them of Irak, seven-
teen of Syria, and seventeen unknown/ ' Where are they
to be found ? ' 'At the gate of the city of Harran/
' What is their employment ? ' ' They receive justly, and
render justly/ The binding adjuration among the
Nusairis, universally, is to place one's hand in that of another,
saying : ' I adjure thee by thy faith, in the faith of the
covenant of Ali the Prince of Believers and by the covenant
of Ain-Mim-Sin ; ' this makes it obligatory to speak the
truth. Another form is to moisten a finger with one's
spittle, and place it on the other's neck, saying : ' I am
absolved of my sins, and lay them on thy neck ; and I
adjure thee, by the foundation of thy religion, by the
mystery of the covenant of Ain-Mim-Sin, that thou tell
me the whole truth touching such and such a matter/
which also debars from falsehood. The latter form of
adjuration is more established with the Northerners than
with the Nusairis of other parties ; whoever takes it falsely,
supposes himself to assume all the sins of the adjurer.
" All the Nusairis imagine the eminent chiefs of their
sect to have no sexual intercourse with their wives : but
they make passes over them, by which they conceive. But
among the Imaums of the Kalazians conjugal communism
is said to be a law of hospitality, supported in part by a
figurative interpretation of Koran xxxiii, 49, and partly
by inference from one of ten rules of life attributed to Ja'far
as-Sadik, enjoining upon every believer to gratify his fellow-
believers as he would gratify himself, which the Northerners
understand to require only a readiness to impart of one's
* Meaning, of course, Ali, the biter of the heel, as it were, of Mu^wiyah,
who nevertheless brought to an end his temporal dominion. ''
12
178 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
knowledge and property to a fellow-believer. It is also
worthy of notice that the common people among the Nusairis
regard their Imaums as infallible, and as having bodies not
subject to the ordinary necessities of flesh and blood.
" If anyone who has abjured their faith passes by when
they are at prayer, that prayer is spoiled, and they repeat
it over again. They must not pray at all on the same day
that they hear a story told."
After Sulaiman had been three years an Initiate he
bribed one of the chiefs of the party of Northerners to
disclose to him the hidden mystery, his advance in the sect
being hindered by a suspicion of his holding even then
heretical opinions.
The chief undertook to present to Sulaiman proofs of
the divinity of the heavens, instancing the Prophet's words
in the Koran : " Whithersoever ye turn, there is GOD'S
presence GOD is omnipresent, omniscient," 1 to which he
added : " Know thou that in the name of Ali there are
three letters, and that the words for the heavens, the twilight,
the glimmering day, and the arching sun all have three
letters which is a plain proof of the correctness of our
doctrine. Hast thou not read the Chapter of Testimony in
the Dustur, which says : ' He is immeasurable, illimitable,
incomprehensible, inscrutable ? ' 2 And know thou, O my
son, that sight cannot reach to the limit of the heavens,
nor can anyone behold them in their prime configuration,
that is, their real aspect, save only the Expressed Deity.
" ' Know thou also/ continued the chief, ' that the dog
of the Companions of al-Kahf was an impersonation of
Ali-Ibn-Abu-Talib ; that he appeared to the seven youths
who had fled from the Emperor Decian in the form of a
dog, in order to try their faith and to prove them : and
that, inasmuch as they believed in hin, they were elevated
to the heavens, and became stars. Previously, he appeared
to the Children of Israel in the form of a cow, when they
had grievously sinned, and the earth had wellnigh swallowed
them up, and so they who believed were delivered, while
the doubting were engulfed in the earth, such as Korah
and his company. In the Koran, this cow is said to have
* Koran ii. 109. * See the Chapter of Testimony, p. 161.
MYSTERIES OF THE NUSAIRI RELIGION 179
been sacrificed, by which is meant that she was perfectly
recognized. He appeared also to the people of Salih, in
the form of a camel, which they mutilated, that mutilation
signifying a rejection, on account of which they perished,
and their city was turned upside down. Many other of
his manifestations we leave unnoticed."
Shortly after this interview, his doubts as to the truth
of the Nusairian tenets increasing, Sulaiman renounced
his faith altogether, and became a Jew, and subsequently
a Christian.
CHAPTER XX
THE "HOUSE OF WISDOM 1 ' AT CAIRO, AND
THE FOUNDING OF THE DRUSE SECT BY
EL DORAZI AND HAMZEH
DURING the reign of the Abbasside dynasty, Abu Mohammed
Abdallah, who claimed to be a descendant of Ali by Fatimah,
the daughter of the Prophet, and who claimed the Caliphate
for this reason, succeeded in detaching from the sway of
the Abbassides, who were then living in magnificent Oriental
luxury on the banks of the Tigris, the whole of Arabia,
Syria, Egypt, and the provinces west of it. He was the
founder of the Fatimite dynasty, and established his throne
at Cairo. Upholding Ismael as the founder of his " Path,"
and one of his descendants as the seventh Imaum, he took
vigorous steps for the propagation of his system.
" No history of the Fatimites," says Ameer Ali, 1 " can
be complete without some mention of the extraordinary
propaganda established by them, for in their desire to
promote the diffusion of knowledge among their subjects,
they did not ignore the political advantages of obtaining
proselytes to their sect. To the central Dar-ul-Likmat,
' House of Science,' was attached a Grand Lodge, where
the candidates for initiation into the esoteric doctrines of
Ismaelism were instructed. Twice a week, every Monday
and Wednesday, the Dai-ud-Daawat, the Grand Prior of
the Lodge, convened meetings, which were frequented
by both men and women, dressed in white, occupying
separate seats. These assemblages were named Majalis-
ul-Likmat, or ' philosophical conferences.' Before the in-
itiation the Dai-ud-Daawat waited on the Imaum (the Caliph),
1 A Short History of the Saracens, p. 615.
180
THE " HOUSE OF WISDOM'* AT CAIRO 181
the Grand Master, and read to him the discourse he proposed
to deliver to the neophytes, and received his sign manual
on the cover of the manuscript. After the lecture 1:he pupils
kissed the hands of the Grand Prior, and reverently touched
the signature of the Master with their foreheads. Makrisi's
account of the different degrees of initiation adopted in
the Lodge * forms an invaluable record of Freemasonry.
In fact, the Lodge at Cairo became the model of all the
Lodges created afterwards in Christendom."
In this last assertion I am myself greatly in agreement,
as it seems exceedingly evident, in considering the rituals
and ceremonies of these Syrian secret sects, that herein
are to be found very many of the foundations of our modern
rituals, in many of the degrees allied to Freemasonry, as
well as primarily in the three degrees of the Craft.
Abu Ali el-Hakem li-Amr-illah, usually known as El
Hakem, the sixth of the Fatimite dynasty, was born in
A.D. 985 (A.H. 375) and succeeded to his father's throne
at the early age of eleven. All historians agree that his
reign, which extended to a period of twenty-five years,
is distinguished only for its folly and tyranny, and he is
stigmatized as an impious and bloodthirsty monster, the
sanity of whose mind appears to be very doubtful. Many
pages could be filled with even a condensed account of his
awful cruelties. Anyone doubting the exclusive claims of Ali
to divinity and the caliphate was promptly massacred.
About the year 1017 a Persian named Mohammed Ibn
Ismail el-Dorazi came to the court of Egypt. He was
graciously received by El Hakem, and appointed to one of
the first offices in the state. Dorazi appears to have published
assertions of divinity previously claimed in private by
Hakem, and ventured to read these in the principal mosque,
in the presence of a large multitude. Though supported
by the whole strength, public and secret, of the Caliph,
who was to be made the object of adoration, the new
doctrines were most unfavourably received by the turbulent
and fanatical mob. Dorazi had to fly, to escape their
threatened violence, and he was sent by Hakem to Wady
1 Further details of these degrees, as given by Makrisi, will be found
in Chapter XII, in dealing with the Karmathians,
182 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
el-Teim, the great valley which separates the Lebanon
from Hermon, with the view of making proselytes among
the people of that region. The inhabitants of that valley,
already belonging to the Batenite, or Schiite secret sect,
appear to have been prepared to receive a new and modified
form of their Ismaelian religion. Dorazi gave his name to
the Druse nation, as is generally accepted, although Colonel
Churchill says that some of the Druse Akkals, or priests,
prefer it to the Arab word " Durs," which signifies clever,
or industrious ; while others deduce it from " Turs/'
or shield, because, they say, in the days of Nouradeen and
Saladin they were selected to watch and defend the Syrian
coast, from Beyrout to Sidon.
But Dorazi is held in no respect by the Druses, although
they accept, and retain, the doctrine of the divinity of
Hakem which he thus promulgated amongst them. But
the power of his position aroused in him ambitious designs.
He attempted to introduce heretical innovations into the
very doctrines he had been sent to inculcate, and seems
to have aimed at converting the influence of a missionary
into the independence of a rival prophet.
However, after his departure from Cairo, another Persian
appeared, and took his place. This was Hamzeh Ibn- Ahmed,
surnamed El-Hady, who may be regarded as the real founder
of the Druse religion. Hakem had succeeded in establishing
in Egypt a belief in his own divinity, and obtained something
like sixteen thousand converts. Hamzeh became successively
his follower, his vizier, the director of the new sect, and an
object of veneration almost as great as Hakem himself.
The disciple whom Hamzeh sent to replace Dorazi was
named Moktana Baha-edeen. He it was who may be said
to have placed the Druse religion on the basis on which it
at present stands. His numerous tracts and epistles have
ever been the chief subjects of study and contemplation
in the Druse Khalwehs.
" Nevertheless, the teaching of Dorazi was too seducing
in its tendency to be ever entirely abandoned by many
who had once reconciled themselves to a system of theology,
which, under the imposing epithet of the Mysteries, threw
a cloak over the indulgence of the worst passions of human
THE "HOUSE OF WISDOM " AT CAIRO 188
nature. The schism was never eradicated, and to this
day the Druses are divided into two sects, who, although
bound together in a common faith in the Hakim and Hamzeh,
are actuated, respectively, in their conduct, by the purer
and more orthodox moral and religious teaching of Baha-
edeen, or by the dark and unscrupulous libertinism of
Dorazi. The former, it is but just to say, form a great
majority ; the latter are ever ready for the indulgence and
committal of every kind of lust and atrocity." *
Dorazi, however, exercised his authority for a sufficient
number of years to enable him to stamp his name on the
sect which first arose under his auspices ; and to this circum-
stance it is owing that all the followers of the doctrines
preached by Hamzeh, instead of being called Hamzeites
as they might and ought to have been, are called Druses.
" Into that system," says the Earl of Carnarvon,* " Ham-
zeh introduced every element of ^strength or attraction. The
Mohammedan was reconciled by the profession of Unitarian-
ism ; the Schiites, or followers of Ali, were already enlisted by
sympathy for a Fatimite Caliph ; the Sufeistic, or mystical
sects, which then, as ever, had their seat in Persia, and the
far East, were allured by the esoteric doctrines and allegorical
interpretations, whose existence must have easily betrayed
itself to the initiated ; even the Karmathites, the Ismaelis,
the Ansairis, were is some degree influenced by the ties
of blood and locality, and the Christian was only required, by
a simple process of conversion, to apply the familiar precepts
of the Gospel to the faith of Hakem and Hamzeh. Thus blend-
ing the doctrines of the Pentateuch, the Christian Gospel,
the Koran, and the Sufee allegories, men were taught that
seven mighty prophets in succession, whose order numbered
not only Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses, but also our
Saviour, had guided and instructed the world in its various
periods, and that their ministrations were closed by
Mohammed, the Prophet of Mecca, and Mohammed the son
of Ismael, the author and head of the last and mystical
development of the Faith."
" The real facts of the case are," says Chasseaud,3 " that
1 Churchill, The Druses and the Maronites, p. 12.
a Recollections of the Druses of the Lebanon, p. 60.
3 Chasseaud, The Druses of the Lebanon, p. 369,
184 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
the Druse creed possessing items of every acknowledged
religion is itself a marvellous fable, evidently collected from
every -existing creed, and yet so badly arranged that it
contains in itself no plausible theory, and nothing that will
admit of investigation. They tamely submit to the supposed
superior knowledge of their Akkals, men, in reality, possessed
of but little knowledge, and who might meet with a parallel
in the professors of a faith in many lands claiming to greater
civilisation than the Lebanon.
" The word Akkal, which means sober or quiet, is very
properly applied to the people who bear that name ; for,
in reality, the Akkals are the more quiet, good, and sober
part of the Druse population ; their whole lives are devoted
to doing good, and they meet several times in the week
in their Khalwehs, or sacred edifices, (or, as we should say,
their Lodge-rooms,) where they discuss their creed, and give
each other good advice."
So much for the description from a non-Masonic point of
View. It would seem clear, from the ceremonies of initiation
into the sect described in a later chapter, as experienced
by an American traveller who had been admitted a member
of the sect, that these Akkals have attained to higher degrees
in that Order of Masonry which has been preserved amongst
these Syrian peoples from the very earliest periods of the
world's history.
The class of Akkals is not necessarily restricted to the
male part of the population ; women are often admitted,
provided they are of certain age, and are prepared to subject
themselves to the same system of self-denial which character-
izes the men. The following is the course of pro-
ceeding which is adopted when a person is desirous of joining
the Order. A necessary preliminary is, that the person who is
a candidate for the honour of admission into the sacred corps
should intimate his intention to an Akkal, upon which a
special meeting is held. This is a very solemn affair, and
the ordeal one of the strictest imaginable. An inquiry
takes place into the general character and conduct of the
aspirant ; his whole life is passed in review ; his habits
criticized, and everything that is known respecting him
fully discussed,
THE "HOUSE OF WISDOM" AT CAIRO 185
Supposing him not to have been guilty of any crime,
and to be well recommended, the next step is that he should
be made acquainted with the requisitions of the Druse
religion, which are then clearly set before him ; and he is
informed that to be worthy of becoming an Akkal, he must
forthwith abandon every vice, and relinquish all the idle
habits he may hitherto have indulged in. He must not
smoke, or drink wine or spirits ; neither must he take
snuff ; he must be content to wear the plainest apparel
(this is perhaps aimed at the fairer portion of the Akkal
society) ; and, in short, laying aside every thought of
splendour and luxury, must only consider how he can best
show, in his demeanour and life, a firm devotion to the simple
habits and sacred principles of the Order of which he now
desires to become an adopted member.
But this is not enough ; the capability to lead a holy
life is not always equal to the desire. A temporary excite-
ment of religious tendencies, a more than ordinary warmth
of imagination, a sudden calamity, may for a time awaken
the stings of conscience, and affect the tenderest sensibilities
of the heart ; but the good impressions too often yield
before the force of temptation, and the dormant energies
which have been aroused for the moment sink back into
their wonted lethargy ; or a zeal untempered by knowledge
proves that we have undertaken a burden too heavy for
us to bear, and that we had better not have put our hand
to the plough if we cannot forbear to look back.
The wise Akkals, therefore, are not satisfied with the best
of promises. They require a little proof, and to this end
they allow the candidate for admission into their ranks a
certain fixed period, varying in duration according to the
man's previous life, before the lapse of which he is expected
to have made up his mind finally as to his capability of
conforming faithfully, for the rest of his life, to the tenets
of so strict and severe a profession. During this period
of probation all his actions and pursuits are closely watched
and scrupulously noted ; and should he, at the end of this
allotted time, still evince a desire to become an Akkal,
he is then admitted into the Khalwehs, and suffered to kttend
of their religious meetings an4 listen to an exposition
186 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
of their creed and doctrines. Twelve months are now
devoted to his religious education, at the end of which time
he is considered to be sufficiently tried and instructed to
assume the title of Akkal. Then the ceremony of donning
the white turban takes place, for by this white turban the
Akkals are recognized ; and he is thereupon admitted into
all the mysteries of the faith, and becomes one of the initiated
brethren.
The sect is divided into the three degrees, Profanes,
Aspirants and Wise. A Druse who has entered the second
may return to the first degree, but incurs death if he reveals
what he has learned. Heckethorn J refers to the allegation
that they worship a calf's head in their secret meetings,
but agrees that it is more probable " this effigy represents
the principle of falsehood and evil, Iblis, the rival and
enemy of Hakim. The Druses have been accused, as
mentioned above, in common with other Syrian (and probably
all other) secret sects, of licentious orgies, and they are said
by Bespier, in his Remarks on Ricaut (an English diplomatist
who wrote in 1700) to marry their own daughters ; but
according to other evidence, including that of neighbouring
Christians, a young Druse, as soon as he is initiated, gives
up all dissolute habits, and becomes, at least in appearance,
quite another man, meriting, as in other initiations, the
title of " new-born."
According to Druse traditions, the world was, at the
appearance of GOD, in the form of Hakim three thousand,
four hundred and thirty million years old, and they believe,
like certain sects in England and America, that the millennium
is close at hand.
Every village has its meeting place (Khalweh), where
religious and political affairs are discussed every Thursday
night, the Wise, men and women, attending. The resolutions
passed at such meetings are communicated to the district
meetings, which again report to the general assembly in
the town of Baklin, on Mount Lebanon. This was the fortified
seat of government until, in the last century, Deir-el-Kammar
(the Moon-Monastery), was built as the Lebanon metropolis.
At the general assembly the questions raised at the district
* Heckethorn, Secret Societies, vol. i. p. 128. London, 1874,
THE "HOUSE OF WISDOM 5 * AT CAIRO
meetings are discussed, and the deputies from the different
villages who have attended, on their return home, announce
the decisions arrived at ; so that the Druses, in fact, have
a regular family council, to which, however, the Wise only
are admitted, the uninitiated never being consulted in political
or social matters. The Wise often retire into hermitages,
whereby they acquire great honour and influence. Heckethorn
puts the number of Druses as not exceeding fifty or sixty
thousand occupying in the Lebanon upwards of forty large
towns and villages, and nearly two hundred and thirty
villages with a mixed population of Druses and Christians,
whilst in the Anti-Lebanon they are also possessed of nearly
eighty exclusively Druse villages.
CHAPTER XXI
THE RELIGION OF THE DRUSES
" BEFORE we enter on an exposition of the religion of the
Druses," says Dr. Wortabet, 1 who is a standard authority
on the Druses, from his many years' residence as a missionary
of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in their
district, " we shall premise a few remarks on the source
from which it is derived. And we think there can be no hesi-
tation as to the real origin of the tenets which were collected
and incorporated by Hamzeh into his religion, because the
authority of history in this matter is both explicit and
unmistakable. About two centuries after the rise of
Mohammedanism, several sects flourished in Persia and on
the eastern confines of Irak, under the general name of
Batenites, or Mystics. This name is derived partly from
the recondite nature of their creed, which, on the principle
of allegorization, raised from old and existing religions a
new fabric different from them all, and partly, perhaps,
from their outward profession of the prevailing and dominate
religion of Islam in the East. Among them the Karmathians,
by their sword, won the highest degree of celebrity and
eminence of position. After subduing all Arabia, Syria and
Irak, and threatening to capture the royal city of the successors
of Mohammed, they were defeated by the Abbassides,
and their religion and position reduced to their original
narrow limits, but not, however, until their principles had
been diffused throughout the extensive tract of country
which they had overrun with their sword. The other
kindred sects were supported by feeble numbers, and their
* Wortabet, Researches into the Religions of Syria, pp. 297 ff, London, 1860*
16$
THE RELIGION OF THE DRUSES 189
influence out of their own communion could not have been
much. It was from the doctrines of these sects that both
El Dorazi and Hamzeh took the religion of the Druses.
Both were Persians, and, according to the testimony of
historians, learned Batenite doctors. But in arriving at
this conclusion the greatest satisfaction may perhaps be
obtained by comparing the Druse with the Batenite doctrines,
observing the close resemblance between them, and in some
cases the complete identity, and tracing the relation of
the one to the other, as we trace a developed theory to the
primary idea or ideas which gave rise to it."
But the religion of the Druses can be traced to a still
more remote source. For the Batenites have evidently
borrowed many of their doctrines from the philosophers of
ancient times, especially the Persian, as improved by Zoro-
aster systems, which were so prevalent before the Christian
era, which subsequently to it misled some of the Christian
doctors, and tainted or gave rise to many of the heresies of
the Christian religion, and which continued to exercise their
fascination on some of the philosophers who professed
Mohammedanism .
Six volumes, containing one hundred and eleven treatises
or epistles, form the sacred books of the Druses, each volume
taking its name from the title of the first treatise. They
were written by Hamzeh and his coadjutors, the other four
ministers, in which they attempt to imitate the style of the
Koran ; but the performance ranks far inferior to the rich
eloquence, forcible expression, and classic Arabic in which
Mohammed composed his book. It is said that a seventh
volume was presented to them by a native Christian traveller,
who found it in one of the libraries of Egypt, and for which
they evinced much gratitude ; but no one, apparently,
has ever seen the book, though the statement is probably
quite true. These books contain a discussion of their
doctrines, controversial treatises, and epistles to particular
persons. To these have been added, in later times, other
books written by some of their learned men, in explanation
of their creed, on the morality enjoined by their religion,
and on their future hopes and expectations ; but they are
held ifi a much lower estimation as to authority and respect!
190 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
than the six books. None are allowed the privilege of
possessing or reading them but such as have been inducted
into the mysteries of their religion, and who form that class
among them known by the name of Akkal, or initiated.
If a stranger asks for admission to a Thursday meeting he
will never be refused. Only if he is a Christian, the Akkal
will open a Bible and read from it ; and if a Mohammedan,
he will hear a few chapters of the Koran, and the ceremony
will end with this. They will wait until he is gone, and then
shutting fast the doors of their convent, take to their own
rites and books, passing for this purpose into their subter-
ranean sanctuaries. " The Druses remain, even more than
the Jews, a peculiar people/' says Colonel Churchill, one of
the few fair and strictly impartial writers. " They marry
within their own race ; they are rarely if ever converted ;
they adhere tenaciously to their traditions, and they baffle
all efforts to discover their cherished secrets. . . . The
bad name of that Caliph whom they claim as their founder
is fairly compensated for by the pure lives of many whom
they honour as saints, and by the heroism of their feudal
leaders."
As to the uninitiated, they are never allowed to even see
the sacred writings, and none of them have the remotest
idea where these are kept. There are missionaries in Syria,
who boast of having in their possession a few copies. The
volumes alleged to be the correct expositions from these
secret books (such as the translation by Petis de la Crixo,
in 1701, from the works presented by Nasr-Allah to the
King of France), are nothing more than a compilation of
* f secrets," known, more or less, to every inhabitant of the
southern ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Libanus. They were
the work of an apostate Dervish, who was expelled from the
sect Hanafi, for improper conduct the embezzlement of
the money of widows and orphans. The ExposJ de la
Religion des Druses, in two volumes, by Sylvestre de Sacy
(1828) is another network of hypotheses. A copy of this
work was to be found, in 1870, on the window-sill of one of
their principal Khalwehs, or places of religious meeting.
To the inquisitive question of an English traveller, as to
their rites, an Akkal, a venerable old man, who spoke English
THE RELIGION OF THE DRUSES 191
as well as French, opened the volume of de Sacy, and,
offering it to his interlocutor, remarked, with a benevolent
smile ; " Read this instructive and truthful book ; I could
explain to you neither better nor more correctly the secrets
of GOD and our Blessed Hamzeh, than it does." The traveller
understood the hint.
Mackenzie says they settled at Lebanon about the tenth
century, and " seem to be a mixture of Kurds, Marid- Arabs,
and other semi-civilized tribes. Their religion is compounded
of Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. They have
a regular Order of priesthood and a kind of hierarchy . . .
there is a regular system of passwords and signs. . . .
Twelve months' probation, to which either sex is admitted,
preceded initiation."
Madame Blavatsky, in quoting the above, says it shows
" how little even persons as trustworthy as Mr. Mackenzie
really know of these mystics/'
" Mosheim, who know^ as much, or we should rather
say as little, as any others, is entitled to the merit of candidly
admitting that ' their religion is peculiar to themselves,
and is involved in some mystery/ We should say it was
rather !
" That their religion exhibits traces of Magianism and
Gnosticism is natural, as the whole of the Ophite esoteric
philosophy is at the bottom of it. But the characteristic
dogma of the Druses is the absolute unity of GOD. He is
the essence of life, and, although incomprehensible and
invisible, is to be known through occasional manifestations
in human form. Like the Hindus, they hold that He was
incarnated more than once on earth. Hamzeh was the
precursor of the last manifestation to be (the tenth avatar),
not the inheritor of Hakcm, who is yet to come. Hamzeh
was the personification of the ' Universal Wisdom/ Boha-
eddin in his writings calls him Messiah. The whole number
of his disciples, or those who at different ages of the world
have imparted wisdom to mankind, which the latter as
invariably have forgotten and rejected in course of time,
is one hundred and sixty-four (164, the Kabalistic s.d.k).
Therefore, their stages or degrees of promotion after initiation
are five ; the first three degrees are typified by the ' three
192 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
feet of the candlestick of the inner Sanctuary, which holds
the light of the five elements ; ' the last two degrees, the
most important and terrifying in their solemn grandeur,
belonging to the highest Orders ; and the whole five degrees
emblematically represent the said five mystic Elements.
The ' three feet are the holy Application, the Opening,
and the Phantom,' says one of their books, on man's inner
and outer soul, and his body ; a phantom, a passing shadow.
The body, or matter, is also called the ' Rival/ for ' he is
the minister of sin, the Devil ever creating dissentions
between the Heavenly Intelligence (spirit) and the soul,
which he tempts incessantly/ Their ideas on trans-
migration are Pythagorean and Kabalistic. The spirit,
or Temeami (the divine soul), was in Elijah and John the
Baptist ; and the soul of Jesus was that of Hamzeh ; that
is to say, of the same degree of purity and sanctity. Until
their resurrection, by which they understand the day when
the spiritual bodies of men will be absorbed into GOD'S
own essence and being (the Nirvana of the Hindus), the souls
of men will keep their astral forms, except the few chosen
ones who, from the moment of their separation from their
bodies, begin to exist as pure spirits. The life of man
they divide into soul, body, and intelligence, or mind. It
is the latter which imparts and communicates to the soul
the divine spark from its Hamzeh (Christos)/'
The fundamental parts of the Druse religion may there-
fore be thus summed up : (i) The Knowledge of GOD,
especially with regard to His manifestations in human form.
(2) The Knowledge of the Universal Mind, the highest
and noblest creating intelligence, yet the servant and slave
of GOD. His name in the time of Jesus was Lazarus : in
the time of Mohammed, Salman al-Farisee : in the time of
El Hakim, Hamzeh. (3) The Knowledge of the other four
Spiritual Ministers the Universal Soul ; the Word, or the
Ambassador of Power ; The Preceder, or the Right Wing ;
the Succeeder, or the Left Wing. These took the human
forms of Ismael, Mohammed, Salman and Ali. (5) The
Knowledge of the Seven Ethical Commandments, as intro-
duced by Hamzeh Veracity ; Love of the Brethren ; For-
saking the Worship of Idols ; Repudiation of Devils and
THE RELIGION OP THE DRUSES 198
Delusions ; Acknowledging the Unity of God at all times ;
Consent to the Actions of GOD (or, as stated by some writers,
Secrecy in Religion, which is probably more correct) ;
Implicit resignation to the Will of GOD.
The Druses believe that though some degree of rewards
and punishments is distributed to men, first during their
lives, and then in the various fortunes or misfortunes which
meet the soul in its transmigrations, yet the good and the
wicked will not receive their just measure of desert until
the last Judgment-day, or the Resurrection. By these
terms, however, the Druses do not understand a real
resurrection of the bodies which have long mouldered in
death, an actual judgment scene, and another world in
which the soul and body shall live through all eternity.
They simply mean by these expressions that a universal
and just system of rewards and punishments will be
observed in a particular stage in the history of the world,
which may be conveniently called the judgment-day,
metaphorically the end, or mystically the Resurrection.
" In any account of the Druses," says Wortabet, 1 " that
which claims the first consideration is the complete secrecy
in which they have kept their religion for a period over eight
hundred years. Nothing but the actual plunder of their
houses and places of religious meetings has brought their
sacred books to light. For this watchful solicitude we
have a sufficient reason in the view which is held in their
books of all other religions and of their founders. Had
the general body of the Mohammedans known that their
venerable Prophet was regarded by this people as an incar-
nation of the Evil One, who had first transmigrated through
the bodies of Noah, Moses, and Jesus, who they revere as
the apostles of GOD, they would certainly, in the time of
their bygone power, have exterminated the Druses from
the face of the earth, and they would even now, if they
knew all, bear eternal hatred against them. It required,
therefore, but little sagacity to show the Druses their real
interest, and to indicate their wisest policy in this matter ;
and so far from impugning the religions of others, they
have actually assumed outwardly the Mohammedan religion,
* Rtst arches info (hi Religions of Syria, pp. 327 ft
18
194 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA
and under this cover have effectually succeeded in deceiving
men as to what they really believed for nearly nine hundred
years. This outward profession, however, does not criminate
them in the least before Him whom they believe to be GOD ;
but it is rather a precept of their religion."
It is, perhaps, with this object in view that they have
divided themselves into the two well-known classes Akkal
(the Initiated) and Juhhal (the Uninitiated). By the former
is designated that class of persons who are admitted into
the secrets of religion, and indoctrinated in its mystical
meanings. The Uninitiated are excluded both from the
knowledge of religion, and the meetings which are conse-
crated to its service. No other present advantages are
either gained or lost by belonging to the first or second
class ; but thus another effectual precaution is adopted
to keep the world in ignorance of their belief. On this
subject Hamzeh says : " Keep away wisdom (religion) from
those who are not worthy of it ; but take care not to exclude
those who deserve it. For he who keeps it away from the
worthy defiles his faith and religion ; and he who delivers
it to the unworthy corrupts his confidence in the truth,
Take heed, then, that ye do not deliver it to those who
are unworthy of it, and see that ye are concealed in the
prevailing religion." 1
When a Druse desires to be initiated into his religion,
he is required to bind himself solemnly by the following
covenant : " I, , the son of , in sound reason,
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