Karmatians, under several leaders, gave almost continual disturbance to the Khalîfs and their Mohammedan subjects for several years; committing great disorders and outrages in Chaldea, Arabia, Syria, and Mesopotamia, and at length establishing a considerable principality, the power whereof was in its meridian in the reign of Abu Dhâher, famous for his taking of Mecca, and the indignities by him offered to the temple there, but which declined soon after his time and came to nothing.2 To the Karmatians the Ismaelians of Asia were very near of kin, if they were not a branch of them. For these, who were also called al Molâhedah, or the Impious, and by the writers of the history of the holy wars, Assassins, agreed with the former in many respects; such as their inveterate malice against those of other religions, and especially the Mohammedan, their unlimited obedience to their prince, at whose command they were ready for assassinations, or any other bloody and dangerous enterprise, their pretended attachment to a certain Imâm of the house of Ali, &c. These Ismaelians in the year 483 possessed themselves of al Jebâl, in the Persian Irâk, under the conduct of Hasan Sabah; and that prince and his descendants enjoyed the same for a hundred and seventy-one years, till the whole race of them was destroyed by Holagu the Tartar.1 The Bâtenites, which name is also given to the Ismaelians by some authors, and likewise to the Karmatians,2 were a sect which professed the same abominable principles, and were dispersed over several parts of the east.3 The word signifies Esoterics, or people of inward or hidden light or knowledge. Abu'l Teyyeb Ahmed, surnamed al Motanabbi, of the tribe of Jófa, is too famous on another account not to claim a place here. He was one of the most excellent poets among the Arabians, there being none besides Abu Temâm who can dispute the prize with him. His poetical inspiration was so warm and exalted that he either mistook it or thought he could persuade others to believe it to be prophetical, and therefore gave himself out to be a prophet indeed; and thence acquired his surname, by which he is generally known. His accomplishments were too great not to have some success; for several tribes of the Arabs of the deserts, particularly that of Kelâb, acknowledged him to be what he pretended. But Lûlû, governor in those parts for Akhshîd king of Egypt and Syria, soon put a stop to the further progress of this new sect by imprisoning their prophet and obliging him to renounce his chimerical dignity; which having done, he regained his liberty, and applied himself solely to his poetry, by means whereof he got very considerable riches, being in high esteem at the courts of several princes. Al Motanabbi lost his life, together with his son, on the bank of the Tigris, in defending the money which had been given him by Adado'ddawla, soltân of Persia, against some Arabian robbers who