virility, had connexion with the lawful wife of Muhammed, the son of Buzerg Umíd, and Ali zikrichi al salam was the fruit of it. Although, because proceeding from a prophet and Imám, this action be legal, yet it was not necessary. The relation between Alî zikrichi al salam and Montaśer Billah is derived from this cause. The Ismâílíah acknowledge as a legitimate Imám the victorious by the power of God, Hassan, the son of Mahdi, the son of Ilhádi, the son of Nazár, the son of Montas ar. They call his precious spirit “the resurrection;”[662] because they believe that the resurection takes place at the lord’s time, when men join God, and when the inconveniences of the law are taken off; this meaning is expressed by “resurrection;” and that the lord, at the time of his Imámate, having united the creatures with the Creator, threw off the observances of the law. It is reported that, when this lord placed his foot upon the cushion of the khiláfet, in the year of the Hejira 559 (A. D. 1163-4), he convoked all the chiefs and nobles of his dominion in Buldet ul ikbál, and ordered that, in the meeting-place of that fortunate fort, a pulpit should be placed towards the Kiblah, and four flags, one red, another green, the third yellow, and the fourth white, should be fixed in the four corners of the pulpit. On the seventeenth day of the blessed Ramzan of the said year, he ascended the pulpit, and unfolding the tongue of prodigious speeches, he said: “I am the Imám of the age; and I took off the hardship of the ordinances and prohibitions from the inhabitants of the world, and I held the commands of the law for nothing; now is the period of the lord of the resurrection; the creatures are to be bound by ties of love to God, and enjoy the external things in whatever manner they like.” He then descended from the top of the pulpit, and, having broken fast, ordered that, in the manner of a festival, all should occupy themselves with mirth and cheerfulness, and playing and gaming; and this fortunate day was entitled “the festival of resurrection,” and made the beginning of a new era. This is also the day on which, according to the reckoning of many historians, the lord _Amír Almumin Alí_, “the Amír of the believers,” was wounded by Abd ul rahmen. As to escape from this world and to join heaven is the object of enjoyment of perfect spirits, so do they on this day chiefly devote themselves to pleasure. The creed of this lord was, that the world is ancient, and time infinite; that the other world is spiritual, and heaven and hell figurative; that the resurrection is the particular death of every one. This lord was stabbed with a dagger in the month Rubiâ (August) of the year of the Hejira 561[663] (A. D. 1165-6) by Hassan, the son of Namvár, who descended from Bavíah.[664] On account of the last will of his father, he occupied the Imámate; like his celebrated father, he upheld the faith.