[620] We find in Herbelot’s oriental library a notice of Nasser Khosrú, an ancient Persian poet, whose animated and pious verses are often quoted by persons of a contemplative turn of mind. Baron von Hammer (Schöne Redekünste Persiens, S. 43) adduces Nassir Khosru of Ispahan, who, famous as a poet and philosopher, was persecuted on account of doubtful orthodoxy in matters of faith, and who died in the year of the Hejira 431 (A. D. 1039). A sect of Ismâilah is said (_As. Res._, vol. XI. p. 425) to have been called Naśariah, from Naśar, a poet and learned man. [621] The mention made above of Hassan, and further of the Almutiahs, points to the reign of Abu Tamim Moâd Mostanser Billah, from the year of the Hejira 427 to 487, (A. D. 1035 to 1094). At the beginning of this reign, Amir Naśer Khusro, if the date of his birth be right, would have been more than sixty-six years old, and twenty years of concealment in Badakhshan extend his age beyond eighty-six years. [622] Badakhshan is the country situated towards the head of the river Jihon, or Oxus, by which it is limited on its eastern and northern side. Balkh is the capital of Badakhshan. [623] The author of the Dabistán has given a sufficiently explicit account of the doctrine of the Ismâilahs, but without separating the opinions belonging in particular to each of the sects into which the Ismâilahs in the course of time divided. We have already mentioned the _Batenian_. Another division was that of the _Karmatians_, founded by Hamadan, surnamed _Karmata_, “small and distorted,” son of Ashath. He appeared first in the year of the Hejira 278 (A. D. 891), as an adherent of Ahmed, son of Abdallah, son of Maimun Kaddah, before mentioned (note 1, p. 418). This Ahmed was an ancestor of Sáid, or Obaid-allah, the founder of the Fatimite khalifs. Hamden Karmata recommended community of women, and released men from all moral and religious duties. In the year of the Hejira 286 (A. D. 899), Abu Sáid, surnamed Habab, at the head of the Karmatians, waged war upon the khalif Motadhet, in Syria; he took the town Hagiar, the Petra deserti of the Romans, once the capital of Arabia, and made it his residence. He was assassinated in the year of the Hejira 301 (A. D. 913). He left six sons; after the death of the last of them, Yusuf (Abu Yakub), in the year 366, (A. D. 976), the Karmatians confided their government to six seids called _sadah_, “pure.” This sect, after many combats, was dissipated towards the end of the tenth century of our era.――(See _Chrestom. ar._, vol. II. p. 126.)