d. 254. (11) al Hasan al Askari d. 260. | (12) Muhammad al-Muntazar “disappeared” A. H. 260. II THE ISMAʿILIAN SECT From the beginning the neo-Ismaʿilian sect showed all the characteristics of the ultra Shiʿite bodies: it accepted the _ʿalim l-batin_, or the principle of allegorical interpretation which is especially associated with Jaʿfar as-Sadiq, the doctrine of incarnation, and of the transmigration of the Imam’s soul. But underneath all this, borrowed from current Shiʿite ideas, it had a strong element of agnosticism, a heritage of the philosophical ideas borrowed from Greek scientists, and developed in certain directions by the Muʿtazilites. As organised by its leader, whose name was Abdullah b. Maymun, it was arranged in seven grades to which members were admitted by successive initiations, and which diverged more and more from orthodox Islam until its final and highest stages were simply agnostic. According to Stanley Lane-Poole “in its inner essence Shiʿism, the religion of the Fatimids is not Mohammedanism at all. It merely took advantage of an old schism in Islam to graft upon it a totally new and largely political movement” (Lane-Poole: _Story of Cairo_, Lond., 1906, p. 113). In this passage “Shiʿism” is taken as denoting the sect of the “Seveners,” and the “political movement” is simply disaffection towards the Khalifate. Similarly Prof. Nicholson considers that “Filled with a fierce contempt of the Arabs and with a free-thinker’s contempt for Islam, Abdullah b. Maymun conceived the idea of a vast secret society which should be all things to all men, and which, by playing on the strongest passions and tempting the inmost weaknesses of human nature, should unite malcontents of every description in a conspiracy to overthrow the existing _régime_” (Nicholson: _Literary History of the Arabs_, pp. 271-272).