Note 160 — Chapter VII · MÔṢUL TO ZÂKHÔ April 28—May 10

I fancy that ’Abdullah’s explanation was not far from the truth. Layard, who is the best of all authorities on this country, makes the following remarks about the Shabbak: “Though strange and mysterious rites are as usual attributed to them” (i.e. as is usual with regard to a secret creed), “I suspect they are simply the descendants of Kurds who emigrated at some distant period from the Persian slopes of the mountains, and who still profess Sheeite doctrines. They may, however, be tainted with Ali-Illahism, which consists mainly in the belief that there have been successive incarnations of the Deity, the principal having been in the person of Ali, the celebrated son-in-law of the prophet Mohammad. The name usually given, Ali-Illahi, means ‘believers that Ali is God.’ Various abominable rites have been attributed to them, as to the Yezidis, Ansyris, and all sects whose doctrines are not known to the surrounding Mussulman and Christian population.” Nineveh and Babylon, p. 216.