The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-08-21
BEN-SABA. THE OLD ASSAS
SIN.

| NO Ran6K. fOunQ there, Wits
one OF his pupils, Nizsm- ooI-moolk
two other pupils of my own ag'
newly arrived, Hskem Omar Khay
yam and the i'll fortuned Ben-Ssba
Both we're endowed with sharpness o.
wit and the highest natural powers
and We three formed a close friend
ship One day Hassen. Ben-Sebs
said TO Us, 1t is a universal belle
that the pupils of Mowsfiek attain tC
fortune. If We all do not attain
thereto. one of Us surely will. What
shall De our mutual pledge" We
answered, What you plsase.' well,
he said. let us make a VOW that tC
whomsoever this fortune falle, be
shall snare it With the rest equally.
BE 1t So l replied. l went from
Z 1orassan to Ghuzree and Cabool,
and rose to be the Vizier Of the Sultan
Alp Arslau." The poems of Omar
give indications OF the thoughts thai
filled the bressts of the three youths
He was profound mathematician sc
well as poet, and has, not undeserv-
eddy, been called the Lucretius Of the
east. He revolted from the religion
OF bis country, and flung his genius
and learning into the abyss OF general
ruin. He writes, II came like water,
and like wiad I CO." To him life
is
"a moments halt,s momentsry taste
OF being from the well amid the waste,
And then the phantom caravan has
The Nothing it set out from"
He questioned the universe as to its
secret; bat earth gave no answer, nor
the seas ''thst mourn in flowing pur-
pie, nor the rolling heavens" There
was door to which be could tind no
key, a veil which his eyes could not
penetrate.
ooh threats of hell, and hopes ofparadise!
One thing at least is certain-this life flies;
One thing is certain, that the rest is lies:
The flower that once blown forever dies. "
His political sentiments, II he had
any, are not expresse1 in the verses
in which he has embodied mis-
Epicurean philosophy. He says in
deed,
81 sometimes think that never blows so
Tbs rose as where some buried Cesar
bled."
But the glories of the world had as
little attraction for him as the Proph-
cts paradise. He rejected the offers
OF his old school-lellow. With far
different spirit, Hasssn demanded, in
the tone Of neglected virtue, his share
of office and of power. His claims
were admitted; but be used his high
place only to intrigue against his
He was driven from the
court OF Bsgdsd. and fed to Ispahan,
Il moody and disappointed man. His
religious opinions became unsettled;
his belief Ia human friendship had
d shock. "Oh, that /
had" be exclaimed, 'but two faith
full friends al my devotionl" Finally,
like Augustine, like Ignatius Loyola,
ike Wesley like Newman, Ike Mills,
be experienced that crisis in his
spiritual Lille which Is most fitly styled
conversion" He writes: From
my childhood, even from the age OF
seven years, my sole endeAVor was to
acquire knowledge l had been
taught to oppose the doctrines Of the
Ismsilites; but the argument OF a
friend made great impression upon
me. When ne parted from me / fell
into a severe fit OF sickness. during
which l reprosched myself, saying
that the doctrine of the Ismailites
was undoubtedly true, and that,
should death overtske me, should
die without having attained the
truth" A strange confession when
We think of Hsssan's after. career.
Stih striving after the truth, he
sought seacner after teacher, and
finally set out from his distant home
to visit the spot which ne new deemed
the very source OF truth, the skepti-
cal college OF Cairo. The ex minis.
ter of a sultan, Hasssn was no ordin-
airy convert, and met with no ordinary
reception. The head OF the college,
the dai Ell doat, or missionary OF
met him at the from
tier, the high officers of the court
waited upon him when he arrived,
and the CaIiph placed palace at Isis
disposal. Henceiorth Hassan seems
to have held that the highest truth
was the formula already quoted,
Nothing is 10 be believed; everything
may be done" For a second time
Hassan's ambition and spirit OF in
trigue soon led to banishmeut. He
to Persia by devious wan
behring's, making converts as be
By their aid be obtained
possession of 8 hill fort, Alamoot,
''the Vulture's Nest" where be
could DEFY toe troops of the sultan.
It was TO Hasssn what Geneva was 10
Bakunin. From it ne derived the
title by which bis successors are best
known in the history of the Crussdes,
the Old man OF the Mountain. There
be organized his society into ever
circles of Aspirants
Believers, Teachers and Devoted
Thence be and his successors Gecreed
! i Il