primogeniture; and the twelve imams, or pontiffs, of the Persian creed,
are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the lineal descendants of Hosein to
the ninth generation. Without arms, or treasures, or subjects, they
successively enjoyed the veneration of the people, and provoked the
jealousy of the reigning caliphs: their tombs, at Mecca or Medina, on
the banks of the Euphrates, or in the province of Chorasan, are still
visited by the devotion of their sect. Their names were often the
pretence of sedition and civil war; but these royal saints despised the
pomp of the world: submitted to the will of God and the injustice of
man; and devoted their innocent lives to the study and practice of
religion. The twelfth and last of the Imams, conspicuous by the title
of _Mahadi_, or the Guide, surpassed the solitude and sanctity of his
predecessors. He concealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad: the time and
place of his death are unknown; and his votaries pretend that he still
lives, and will appear before the day of judgment to overthrow the
tyranny of Dejal, or the Antichrist. In the lapse of two or three
centuries, the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet, had multiplied
to the number of thirty-three thousand: the race of Ali might be equally
prolific: the meanest individual was above the first and greatest of
princes; and the most eminent were supposed to excel the perfection of
angels. But their adverse fortune, and the wide extent of the Mussulman
empire, allowed an ample scope for every bold and artful imposture, who
claimed affinity with the holy seed: the sceptre of the Almohades, in
Spain and Africa; of the Fatimites, in Egypt and Syria; of the Sultans
of Yemen; and of the Sophis of Persia; has been consecrated by this
vague and ambiguous title. Under their reigns it might be dangerous to
dispute the legitimacy of their birth; and one of the Fatimite caliphs
silenced an indiscreet question by drawing his cimeter: "This," said
Moez, "is my pedigree; and these," casting a handful of gold to his
soldiers,--"and these are my kindred and my children." In the various
conditions of princes, or doctors, or nobles, or merchants, or beggars,
a swarm of the genuine or fictitious descendants of Mahomet and Ali is
honored with the appellation of sheiks, or sherifs, or emirs. In the
Ottoman empire they are distinguished by a green turban; receive a
stipend from the treasury; are judged only by their chief; and, however
debased by fortune or