Hakim (996–1020), whose apostle was the above-mentioned Darazi. Their meeting-place is known as the khalweh.
The Metawileh.—The name 'Metawileh' is believed to mean 'Friends,' i.e. Friends of ʾAli. The community traces its origin to a Companion of the Prophet, Abu Darr Ghifari, who is supposed to have first taught his doctrines in the villages of Sarafend and Meis. Others regard the Metawileh as immigrants from Persia who entered Syria and Palestine during one of the Persian invasions. Their religion is a form of the Shiah division of Islam, and they still maintain contact with the shrine of Kerbela. Most of the Metawileh dwell in Syria, where, in the eighteenth century, they were a powerful political force; there are only about 160 in Palestine, partly in Galilee, partly in Acre.
§ 18. The Bahaʾis.
In 1844 a Persian, Mirza ʾAli Mohammed, proclaimed himself in Tabriz as the 'Bab,' or Gate, whereby communication was to be re-established with the 'hidden' or Twelfth Imâm, or Mahdi, whose return to earth is awaited by a large number of Shiah Moslems. Later he stated that he himself was the expected Imâm, but his ministry was cut short by martyrdom in Tabriz in 1850. Before his death he appointed as his successor a lad named Mirza Yahya, called Subh-i-Ezel ('the Dawn of Eternity'), who, with his half-brother Mirza Husein ʾAli, afterwards better known as Bahaʾuʾllah, and other Babi leaders, took refuge in Baghdad in consequence of the persecution to which the sect was subjected by the Shah. After they had spent twelve years in Baghdad the Persian Government persuaded the Porte to have them removed, and they were taken to Adrianople, where they remained from 1864 to 1868. In A.H. 1283 (A.D. 1866–67) occurred an event which rent the sect in twain. Bahaʾuʾllah, who was of more assertive character than the retiring Subh-i-Ezel, suddenly announced that he himself was the expected Imâm, and that the 'Bab' had
