Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-04-20
FALSE PROPHETS.
Some of the Principal ImpOstOrs of
islam.

Some of the Principal ImpOstOrs of
Islam.
The false prophets of whose coming
MOhammed forewarned his disciples, and
who have continued to appear at intervals
from his time down to that of El Mahdi,
says the New York Times, had begun to
fulfill the prediction even during his own
lifetime. In the year 631 an impostOr
named MOseilmah established himself on
an oasis in the Arabian desert, announced
himself as a prophet, and gained so many
adherents that MOhammed was preparing
to march against his rival in person when
death overlook him. His favOrite General.
khaled, however, took command of the
expedition, and one hard-fought battle
ended the reign and life of the pretender
About $50 years later another and
more formidable impOstOr appeared in the
south of Central Asia. whose career has
become familiar to English readers in the
pages of MOOre's CHASTITY epic. ''Ihe
Yelled Prophet of KhOrassan." This
was Hakim Ben Haschem, ncknamed
''Mokannah' the yelled from the veil of
silver gauZe he always wore. Fixing his
Capital at Merry in the TurcOman desert
(recently annexed by Russia), he pro-
claimed himself the last and greatest Of
the prophets, sent to free the world from
MOSlem tyranny. In mOckery of the
black standard of the Abbaside Caliphs,
he arrayed his soldiers in white and dis
played a snOw-whlte banner. He was at
length assaulted and defeated by the Caliph
Hahadi, who pursued him across the
OXus and besieged him in Neksheb the
modern karshi), which lies about ninety
miles southeast of the present City of
BOkhara. Here finding himself hard
pressed, this arbitrator poisoned all sur
viving warriors at a banquet, and then,
according to the historian d'HerbelOt,
flung himself into a cistern filled with
burning drugs, in order that the total dis
appearance of his body might give rise Gas
it actually did to a belief that he had as
cended into Heaven.
OF widely different temper was the
fiery and fearless Al Karmath himself a
dupe of his own impOsture. Like the
Sikh prophet GOvind, he was the pupil of
a gentle and-VisiOnary master, who sought
to give his doctrines a moral rather than
Il material supremacy. But this was not
enough for the impetuOus Karmath, who
raised the standard of revolt against the
Caliph himself, marched upon Mecca with
Il powerful army, and fought three days
battle there, which heaped around the
sacred Enclosure of the Haabah 10000
MOslem cOrpses. "The blood ran in the
streets of the holy city" said an eye-wit-
AtS94 INT N eNGl nOil Il U1Oulidlu
spring." The Caliph's troops, however,
at length succeeded in eXpelling the
Karmathites from the town; but such
was the savage tenacIty of these stern
enthusiasts that, according to some
Arabian chToniclers, 100 battles were
fought before their resistance was COM
pletely overcome.
The long series of insignificant pre-
tenders that followed eliminated at
length, early in the eighteenth century,
in the person Of ADD Ell Wahab, the
Luther of Islam, and one of the most
striking figures in Oriental history. After
spending his whole life in vigorous and
not altogether unsuccessful attempts to
reform the corrupti0ns of the Mohamme-
dan Church, he bequeathed his name and
doctrines to ehe Wahabi sect, which is
still an important element in the MOslem
world. Among the later Wahabis was an
Arab Chief of the Sinai peninsula, who
made himself conspicuous not many
years ago by assembling a band of native
guerrillas among the Arabian mountains,
putting forth pretensiOnS similar to those
now arrOgated by Ell Mahdi, and denounc-
ing the Sultan himselfas usurper. Two
successive expeditions were sent against
him in vain, but he was at length hemmed
in, given up to the Turks by his own men.
and imprisoned for life. Whether the
Mohammed of the Soudan
will be more fortunate than his predeces- /
SOTS remains to be seen,