Note 139 — APPENDICES. (continued 3)

It should be noticed that this apotheosis of “Al-Hákim,” the mad Fatimite Khalifa of Cairo (A.D. 996-1020), who was the head and originator of the special Ismailian sect, which became subsequently known to the Crusaders under the name of the “Assassins”—a corruption of “Hashishin,” or drinkers of Hashish (Canabis Indica)—commences with titles of governorship or Age which would seem (to the uninitiated) to be compatible with his subordination to the Deity, although, for practical purposes, Al-Hákim is the “ruler of this world,” whether for good or for evil. He is, therefore, the Prince of this world, if not Apollyon, and the fact that the words “Valî” = a deputed governor or “Hákim” = a governor, may cause him to be confounded with either an ordinary ruler, or be merely ringing the changes on his own name of “Al-Hákim,” it is clear, at any rate to the initiated, that the only Deity worth caring for is thereby meant, and that he began with the Khalifa Al-Hákim, who lives for ever. In the titles “Maula” and “Valî” there is also an allusion to A’li, who is “next to God,” and from whom Al-Hákim was descended. The Mauláis or Muláis of the Hindukush use similar titles for their spiritual head, whether dead, or continuing in his lineal descendant, Agha Khan of Bombay. The “Kelám-i-Pîr,” or “the Logos or word of the Pîr or ancient sage,” mainly refers to the sayings attributed to the “Sheikh-ul-Jabl,” or “Old Man of the Mountain.” In Hunza itself, the Muláis equally address their practical Deity as “The Ancient of the Age,” or “Pîr-uz-Zamán.”