RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESwestern Iran away from the Rabbinic centers in Iraq, included religious
reform, were syncretistic, and led to the formation of small sectarian
communities.^10? During the second civil war, probably between 685
and 692, contemporary with or shortly after the movement of al-
Mukhtar at Kufa, Abii 'Isa al-I~fahani proclaimed himself to be a
prophet and the forerunner of the Messiah. He recognized Jesus and
Mu~ammad as prophets, each sent to his own people by God. He
advocated the reading of the Qur'an and the Gospels by Jews and said
that Jews, Muslims, and Christians should each observe the religion
they currently professed. He claimed to be the last such prophetic
messenger sent to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The mirac-
ulous proof of his claim was his ability to produce books without
having been educated and even though he was an illiterate tailor. On
the authority of divine revelation he prohibited the use of meat and
wine, and on Biblical authority (Ps. 119:164) he prescribed seven daily
prayers. He also forbade divorce "like Sadducees and Christians." He
seems to have combined the Islamic concept of successive miraculous
revelation, the Christian attitude towards divorce, and the tradition
of Jewish apocalyptic asceticism with an appeal to Biblical authority.
He also raised an army, rebelled against the government, and was
defeated and killed, although his followers claimed that he had not
been killed but disappeared into a hole in a mountain. The members
of his movement became a small sect that survived at Damascus as
late as the tenth century. One of his followers, called Yudghan, claimed
to be a prophet and the Messiah at Isfahan in the early eighth century.
His followers called him "the Shepherd," claimed that he had not died,
and expected him to return. The sect he founded survived at Isfahan
until the tenth century, prohibited meat and wine, regarded the Sab-
bath and holy days as memorial rather than obligatory observations,
and observed many additional prayers and fasts.los
Although the movements of Abii 'Isa and Yudghan seem to have
included an implicit rejection of Rabbinic authority, they were not
overtly directed against rabbis. Abii 'Isa is said to have held Rabbinic
107 For discussions of the nature and causes of messianic sectarian movements among
Jews in the early Islamic period see Baron, Social and Religious History, V, 138-39,
145-46, 168-69, 178-87; A. Paul, Ecrits de Qumran et Sectes ;uives aux premiers
Siecles de /'Islam (Paris, 1969), pp. 50-51.
108 Goitein, Jews and Arabs, pp. 168-170; Nemoy, "Qirqisani," pp. 328, 376, 382-
83,391; Shahrastani, Al-Milal wa n-ni~al (Cair.o, 1968), pp. 20-23. It is worth noting
in this respect that al-Mukhtar appointed Yazid ibn Mu'awiya al-Bajali governor of
Isfahan (Dinawari, Akhbiir at-{iwiil, p. 30).