The 17th Ramadan was celebrated with banquets and games, not only as the feast of the manifestation, but as the true date of publishing their doctrine. As the followers of Islam reckon their time from the flight of the Prophet, so did the Molahids from the manifestation of the Imam, the 17th of Ramadan in the 559th year of Hegira. As Mohammed’s name was never mentioned without adding “The Blessed,” so after that day the words “Blessed be his memory” were added to Hassan’s name. The Grand Priors had called themselves simply missionaries or precursors of the Imam, but Hassan insisted that he was the Imam; in him lay all power to remove the restrictions of the law. By this claim he appeared before the people as a lawgiver. In this spirit he wrote to the different princes. His letter concerning Reis Mossafer, the Grand Prior of Kuhistan, a namesake of whom had been Grand Prior in Irak under Hassan Ben Sabah, was as follows: “I, Hassan, declare to you that on earth I am God’s vice-gerent. Reis Mossafer is my vice-gerent in Kuhistan. The men of that province will obey him; they must listen to his words as to mine.” Reis had a pulpit erected in the Mumin Abad castle, his residence. From the pulpit he read this epistle to the people, most of whom listened to it with pleasure. There was a great festival with music and sports; they fell to dancing, they drank wine at the foot of the pulpit, and in every way possible made known their joy at liberation from the bonds of the law. A few who remained faithful to Islam withdrew from the Order; others who did not believe but could not decide to take this step remained and shared the reputation of the “Lost Ones.” Profligacy, atheism, infidelity and freedom from all restraint now ruled supreme, and Hassan’s name was heard from every pulpit of the Order as that of the real successor of the Prophet, the long waited for Imam. But it was much easier for Hassan to make himself a teacher of atheism and immorality than to assume the character of Imam.