Note 466 — Chapter XXXII · DANGEROUS FACTION AT KUFA. GROWING DISAFFECTION. A.H. XXXII.—XXXIV. A.D. 653–655

The name of this demagogue was Abdallah ibn Saba, but he was usually called Ibn Sauda, and was supposed to come from Yemen. It is notable that this first sect of Alyites (if it can be so called) was founded by a Jewish convert. What led him (if the story of his teaching be not altogether a proleptic fiction of tradition) to magnify Aly, who had hitherto put forth no claim, nor indeed at any time dreamed of the extravagant pretensions in store for him after his death, it is difficult to understand. Nor did these transcendental notions regarding Aly gain any ground whatever till a much later period. Ibn Sauda had evidently imbibed some extreme notions on the dignity of prophets. ‘Strange,’ he is reported to have said;—‘strange that men should believe in the second coming of the Messiah, and not in that of Mahomet.’ The idea, we are told, was inspired by the verse in Sura xxviii. v. 84, ‘Verily, he who hath given thee the Corân will surely bring thee back again;’ which, of course, referred only to Mahomet’s returning again to Mecca. Indeed, the whole account of this man’s teaching is obscure and uncertain; and the Alyite notices of it may be altogether anticipatory and unreal.