32 A Short History of the Middle East
greater part of Persia, which had already been in revolt against the
Abbasids, became finally independent under the Persian Samanid
dynasty. In Iraq itself, which was practically all that now remained
under the direct rule of Samarra, the authority of the caliph was
challenged by the ferocious revolt in Lower Iraq of the Zanj or
negro slaves (870-83). And worse was to follow. Though the
Slii'is had helped the first Abbasid to overthrow the Umayyads,
the new dynasty proved itself no less oppressive of the Shi'a than
its predecessor had been, no doubt because the sect with its tendency
to fanatical extravagances was regarded as potentially subversive of
all ordered government. Driven underground by oppression, the
Slii'is remained numerous especially in Lower Iraq, and both there
and in the cities of Persia they perhaps found especial support from
the artisan class, as an expression of class-consciousness against the
ruling aristocracy, whether composed of Arabs, Persians, or
Turks.1
In this atmosphere of suppressed ferment it was natural that
schisms over doctrine should occur within the Shi'a. In particular
there was a difference of opinion which of the two sons of the
sixth Imam, who died in 760, should succeed him. The minority
who supported the claim of the elder son Isma'il held that the suc-
cession of imams ended with him. They thus regarded Isma'il as the
Hidden or Expected Imam, who according to Shi'i doctrine was
shortly to return among men as the Mahdi (the divinely-guided)
to restore true Islam, conquer the whole world, and introduce a
short millenium before the end of all things. In the ninth century a
Persian, Abdullah ibn Maymun, began to organize a secret esoteric
cult of Isma'il in nine degrees in which all religious belief was pro-
gressively allegorized away until only an atheistic philosophy was
left*2 This cult was extensively propagated by enthusiastic mis-
sionaries and made many converts among the unhappy and dis-
contented who always constitute the majority of mankind. At the
end of the century an Isma'ili sect, called the Qaramita or Carmath-
ians, organized itself as an independent political state on the Arabian
coast of the Persian Gulf and in the Yemen. Declaring total war on
all non-Isma'ilis its armies menaced Baghdad, interfered with the
pilgrim-traffic, and in 930 actually sacked Mecca and carried off
1 H. A. R. Gibb, in Toynbee, A Study of History, I, 400 ff.
2 The .most recent study of this intricate subject is Bernard Lewis's The Origin
of Isma'ilisrn.