ir religious teaching they claimed to be Shi'ites; i.e. they
asserted that the imamate belonged by right to the descendants of Ali.
Further, they were of the Isma'ilite branch of these, i.e. they
acknowledged the claim to the imamate of Isma'il the eldest son of the
sixth imam. The claim of Isma'il had been passed over by his father and
many Shi'ites because he had been guilty of drinking wine. The
Isma'ilites said that as the imam could do no wrong, his action only
showed that wine-drinking was not sinful. Abdallah taught that from the
creation of man there had always been an imam sometimes known, sometimes
hidden. Isma'il was the last known; a new one was to be looked for. But
while the imam was hidden, his doctrines were to be taught by his
missionaries (_da'is_). Hamdan Qarmat was one of these, Ahmed ibn
Abdallah being nominally the chief. The adherents of this party were
initiated by degrees into the secrets of its doctrines and were divided
into seven (afterwards nine) classes. In the first stage the convert was
taught the existence of mystery in the Koran and made to feel the
necessity of a teacher who could explain it. He took an oath of complete
submission and paid a sum of money. In the second stage the earlier
teachers of Islam were shown to be wrong in doctrine and the imams alone
were proved to be infallible. In the third it was taught that there were
only seven imams and that the other sects of the Shi'ites were in error.
In the fourth the disciple learnt that each of the seven imams had a
prophet, who was to be obeyed in all things. The prophet of the last
imam was Abdallah. The doctrine of Islam was that Mahomet was the last
of the prophets. In the fifth stage the uselessness of tradition and the
temporary nature of the precepts and practices of Mahomet were taught,
while in the sixth the believer was induced to give up these practices
(prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, &c.). At this point the Carmathian had
completely ceased to be a Moslem. In the remaining degrees there was
more liberty of opinion allowed and much variety of belief and teaching
existed.

The last contemporary mention of the Carmathians is that of Nasir ibn
Khosrau, who visited them in A.D. 1050. In Arabia they ceased to
exercise influence. In Persia and Syria their work was taken up by the
Assassins (q.v.). Their doctrines are said, however, to exist still in
parts of Syria, Persia, Arabia and India, and to be still propagated in
Zanzibar.