the placation of the powers of
darkness practised by the Euchites at the end of the fourth century and
later by the Paulicians, the Bogomils, and the Luciferians.

So it is in Gnosticism and Manicheism that we find evidence of the first
attempts to pervert Christianity. The very fact that all such have been
condemned by the Church as "heresies" has tended to enlist sympathy in
their favour, yet even Eliphas Levi recognizes that here the action of
the Church was right, for the "monstrous gnosis of Manes" was a
desecration not only of Christian doctrines but of pre-Christian sacred
traditions.

2

THE REVOLT AGAINST ISLAM[127]

We have followed the efforts of subversive sects hitherto directed
against Christianity and orthodox Judaism; we shall now see this
attempt, reduced by gradual stages to a working system of extraordinary
efficiency, organized for the purpose of undermining all moral and
religious beliefs in the minds of Moslems. In the middle of the seventh
century an immense schism was created in Islam by the rival advocates of
successors to the Prophet, the orthodox Islamites known by the name of
Sunnis adhering to the elected Khalifas Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman,
whilst the party of revolt, known as the Shiahs, claimed the Khalifate
for the descendants of Mohammed through Ali, son of Abu-Talib and
husband of Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. This division ended in open
warfare; Ali was finally assassinated, his elder son Hason was poisoned
in Medina, his younger son Husain fell at the battle of Kerbela fighting
against the supporters of Othman. The deaths of Hasan and Husain are
still mourned yearly by the Shiahs at the Moharram.

The Ismailis

The Shiahs themselves split again over the question of Ali's successors
into four factions, the fourth of which divided again into two further
sects. Both of these retained their allegiance to the descendants of Ali
as far as Jafar-as-Sadik, but whilst one party, known as the Imamias or
Isna-Asharias (i.e. the Twelvers), supported the succession through his
younger son Musa to the twelfth Iman Mohammed, son of Askeri, the
Ismailis (or Seveners) adhered to Ismail, the elder son of
Jafar-as-Sadik.

[Illustration:

Choice of SUNNIS
Abu Bakr (1st Khalifa) 632
Omar 634
Othman 644
Ali

Choice of SHIAHS

Abd-ul-Muttalib
Abdullah
MOHAMMED A.D. 570-632
Fatima married Ali
Abu Talib