a large sum for his liberty, having first served him in his own kind, by causing his mother, sister, and wife to be ravished before his face; for so Bâbec used to treat his prisoners. Afshîd, having the arch-rebel in his power, conducted him to al Mótasem, by whose order he was put to an ignominious and cruel death. This man had maintained his ground against the power of the Khalîfs for twenty years, and had cruelly put to death above two hundred and fifty thousand people; it being his custom never to spare man, woman, or child, either of the Mohammedans or their allies.3 The sectaries of Bâbec which remained after his death seem to have been entirely dispersed, there being little or no mention made of them by historians. 1 They were a sect in the days of Abulfaragius, who lived about five hundred years after this extraordinary event; and may, for aught I know, be so still. 2 Ex Abulfarag, Hist. Dyn. p. 226. Lobb al Tawârikh, Ebn Shohnah, al Tabari, and Khondamir. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Hakem Ben Haschem. 3 Ex Abulfarag, p. 252, &c. Elmacin. p. 141, &c., and Khondamir. Vide D'Herbel. Art Bâbec. About the year 235, one Mahmûd Ebn Faraj pretended to be Moses resuscitated, and played his part so well that several people believed on him, and attended him when he was brought before the Khalîf al Motawakkel. That prince, having been an ear-witness of his extravagant discourses, condemned him to receive ten buffets from every one of his followers, and then to be drubbed to death; which was accordingly executed; and his disciples were imprisoned till they came to their right minds.4 The Karmatians, a sect which bore an inveterate malice against the Mohammedans, began first to raise disturbances in the year of the Hejra 278, and the latter end of the reign of al Mótamed. Their origin is not well known; but the common tradition is, that poor fellow, whom some call Karmata, came from Khûzistân to the villages near Cûfa, and there feigned great sanctity and strictness of life, and that GOD had enjoined him to pray fifty times a day, pretending also to invite people to the obedience of a certain Imâm of the family of Mohammed: and this way of life he continued till he had made a very great party, out of whom he chose twelve, as his apostles, to govern the rest, and to propagate his doctrines. But the governor of the province, finding men neglected their work, and their husbandry in particular, to say those fifty prayers a day, seized the fellow, and having put him into prison, swore that he should die; which being overheard by a girl belonging to the governor, she, pitying the man, at night took the key of the dungeon from under her master's head as he slept, and having let the prisoner out, returned the key to the place whence she had it. The next morning the governor found the bird flown; and the accident being publicly known, raised great admiration, his adherents giving it out that GOD had taken him into heaven.