Abd ullah, one of them so named, reported, that among his relations was a man called Azíz, upon whom, when he pronounced with fervour Alí allah, and gave himself up to an ecstatical song or dance, no sword could take effect. Thus, when one of the incredulous denied this, Azíz became warm, and took to calling out “Alí allah” in such a manner that foam settled upon his lips, and he cried to the denier: “Strike, O accursed!” The latter aimed several blows with a sword at him, but effected nothing. This person has now joined Alí allah in the other world. Among these sectaries it is not permitted to kill any living being, nor to eat any flesh, as Alí allah said: “Make not of your bellies the tombs of living beings.” And the animals which the Koran permits to be killed, and the flesh which he allows to be eaten, is that of Abu bekr, of Omar, and Osman, and of their followers, and all prohibited things, they say, have reference to these three persons. With them, Iblis, the serpent, and the peacock are symbols of these three, and likewise Shedád,[677] Nimród, and Phárâún are they. These sectaries admit prostration before the image of Alí allah; the breaking and worshipping of idols relates, according to them, to the said three individuals, as Alí allah called the Shaikhs the idols of the Korêsh. They agree upon transmigration, and say, that when Alí appeared in former times in the form of a prophet, those three also made their appearance in the shape of deniers, and after them many others will come. [549] The Zaydíyat derive their name from _Záíd_, son of Alí, son of Záín el-abeddin. They are subdivided into three branches, according to others into five, under as many chiefs. I shall only mention three. The first, the _Jarudíyat_, think that the Imámate was destined by the prophet to Alí, but that after the two sons of the latter, Hasan and Hosain, the sacred office was uncertain in their children, and that those only who rose, sword in hand, were Imáms; they do not agree upon the last Imám, still expected. The second branch, the _Salaimaniyat_, admit the right of Abubekr and Omar to the Imámate, but declare as infidels Osman, Zobeir, and Aisha. The third branch, the _Báíteriyat_, are for the most part in accordance with the second, as to what regards Osman. These three branches are heretics in the dogmas only, but, in jurisprudence, they follow almost all the orthodox doctrine of Abú Hanifáh.――(See _Journal asiatique_, 1825, tome VII. p. 32. Art. de M. de Hammer.)