Читать книгу A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate онлайн

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The daʿi chose in each village a man worthy of confidence, and in his charge they placed the property of the inhabitants. By this means clothes were provided for those who were without, and all had their needs supplied so that there was no more poverty. All worked diligently, for rank was made to depend on a man’s utility to the community; no one possessed any private property save sword and arms. Then it is said the daʿi assembled men and women together on a certain night, and encouraged them to indulge in promiscuous intercourse. After this, assured of their absolute obedience, he began to teach them the more secret doctrines of the sect, and so deprived them of all belief in religion, and discouraged the observance of external rites such as prayer, fasting, and the like. This was the distinctive mark of the Qarmatian branch: the initiated were no longer a small minority living in the midst of their fellow sectarians who still adhered to the external forms of Islam, but amongst the Qarmatians all were initiated to the fullest extent in all the teachings of the sect. Before long they began to steal and to commit murders, so that they produced a reign of terror in the vicinity. Then the daʿis felt that the time was ripe for open revolt, and selected a village in the Sawad called Mahimabad, near the river Euphrates, and within the royal domain as their rallying place or “house of flight”: thither they carried large stones, and in a short time surrounded it with a strong wall and erected a building in the midst, in which a great many persons could be assembled and where goods could be stored. This took place in 277.