DECLARATION OF INFALLIBILITY 291 divines and lawyers, in the month of Rajab, 987 A. H. (1579 A. D.)." The draft of this document was in the handwriting of Shaikh Mubarak. The others had signed it against their will, but the Shaikh of his' own accord added at the bottom that he had most willingly signed his name, for it was a matter to which he had been anxiously looking forward for several years. After his Majesty had obtained this legal opinion, the road of deciding religious questions was opened, the superiority of the judgment of the Imam was estab- lished, and opposition was rendered impossible. The legal distinction between lawful and unlawful was set aside, the judgment of the Imam became paramount over the dogmas of the law, and Islam was called a counterfeit. His Majesty had now determined pub- licly to use the formula: " There is no god but God, and Akbar is the representative of God; " but as he found that the extravagance of this phrase led to com- motions, he restricted its use to a few people in the harem. In 990 A. H. (1582 A. D.), his Majesty was firmly convinced that a period of one thousand years from the mission of the Prophet was the extent of the duration of the religion of Islam, and that this period was now accomplished. There was no longer any obstacle to promulgating the designs which he secretly held, for now he was free from the respect and reverence due to the shaikhs and divines and from the deference owing to their authority. To his entire satisfaction, he was
