The baron de Hammer says (Journ. As., juin 1825, p. 321, Tableau généalogique des soixante-treize sectes de Islam): “The best information which we have yet upon the sects and the heresies of Islam are those given by Pococke, Marraccius, and Sale, according to Sheheristânî, and the Commentary of Mewakif. Pococke (Specimen historiæ Arabum, Oxoniæ, 1650, pp. 194 and 210), Marraccius (Prodromus), and Sale (Engl. transl. of the Koran) trace the principal classes of the genealogical table of the heresies; but their catalogue is not quite exact, and still less complete. This subject, interesting for the history of religions, and above all for that of the Islamitic heresies, is treated fundamentally in the Commentary of the great scholar Jorjani upon the _Mewakif_, that is to say, the metaphysics of Adhad eddin al Ijí, a valuable work in more than one respect, which work was printed in Constantinople” (in folio, of 635 pages, in the year of the Hejirah 1039, A. D. 1824). The baron de Hammer treated this subject summarily in the number of the journal quoted, pp. 321-335, and in the subsequent number for July, 1825, pp. 32-46. [500] The points of faith in dispute among the schoolmen are reducible to four general heads, called the four bases or great fundamental articles. The first relates to the attributes of God, and his unity consistent therewith; the second regards predestination and the justice thereof; the third concerns the promises and threats; the fourth treats history and reason, and also the mission of prophets, and the office of Imâm, or chief pontiff. About all these heads the Muhammedans are divided into different sects, which may be classed under two principal sorts: the _orthodox_ and the _heretical_; the former, by a general name, are called _Sonnites_, or “Traditionists:” the latter _Shiâts_ (see note, vol. I. p. 101). [501] Jamaât signifies properly the _assembly_, or as we may say, the _church_ of Muselmans. This name is assumed by the Ashârian, who, as Sheheristâni contends (see Pococke, p. 211), were the sect whom the prophet indicated as selected for salvation. [502] The Sonnites, just mentioned, are divided into four sects, the founders of which I shall mention, in the order as they occur, in the text of the Dabistán. [503] The Sifátiah are one of the orthodox sects; they maintain the existence of the eternal attributes of God, and are on this account named _Sifátiah_, or “Attributists.”