Page:The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema (1863).djvu/85

flame; and especially he put to the sword all those who believed in Bubachar and Othman and Aumar, who are all companions of Mahomet; but he leaves unmolested those who believe in Mahomet and Ali." Here, we have another undesigned coincidence with contemporary Persian history which deserves special notice. Isma’îl es-Sûfî, the first of the Sufawîan dynasty, was the son of the famous Sheikh Haidar, the son of Juneid the great grandson of Seif ed-Dîn, who claimed descent from ’Ali by Hussein his second son, whose branch, according to the Persians, is that of the Imâms. Haidar's mother was the daughter of Hasan Beg, the first of the Turkmân dynasty called Bayandûrî, who furnished his son-in-law with an army to avenge the death of his father Juneid, who had been killed in battle with Ferukhzâd king of Shirwân; but Haidar lost his life in the attempt, his two sons Isma’îl and ’Ali Mîrza were made prisoners, and most of his adherents destroyed. Haidar's two sons were afterwards set at liberty by Rustam Beg, the grandson of Hasan Beg, who succeeded his uncle Yä’acûb. The subsequent portion of Ismai’îl's career illustrative of our narrative, I translate from D'Herbelot:—

"At this period there were among the Mussulmans scat-
tered throughout Asia an infinite number of people who professed publicly the sect of ’Ali, and especially the dis-
tinctive form of it ascribed to Haider, which Sheik Sûfî one of his illustrious ancestors had raised into high repute. Isma’îl Sûfî, hearing that there were a great many of these in Caramania, which is the ancient Cilicia, repaired thither,