Note 601 — Chapter VI

According to the Ismàilahs, each speaker or legislator is associated with a vicar, whom they call śamet, “silent,” because he has nothing new to teach; and of these vicars he who assisted the legislator, and succeeded immediately to him, receives the name of asás, “fundamental,” or sús, “root, source.” The seven natíks, or “legislators of the revolution, past,” and their vicars, are as follow: I. Adam and Seth; II. Noah and Sem; III. Abraham and Ismâil; IV. Moses and Aarún, replaced afterwards by Joshua; V. Jesus and Simon Kefas; VI. Muhammed and Alí; VII. Muhammed, son of Jsmâil, who is designated by the title قايم الزمان Kaím al zemán, or صاحب الزمان śáheb al zeman, “the chief, the lord of the age;” in him all the doctrines of the ancients are terminated.—(See Journal asiatique, 1824, t. IV. p. 298 et seq.; Recherches sur l’initiation à la secte des Ismaéliens. Par Silvestre de Sacy.)