the doctrine of transmigration, mesmerizing people with extraordinary feats, diabolical displays, and claims to unveil portions of the unseen, until crowds of the deaf and the dumb were led astray by him.

He alleged that Allah had taken on the form of Adam—and for that reason had ordered the angels to prostrate before him—then the form of Noah, then Abraham, then the ancient sages, then Abū Muslim, the leader of the movement, and finally his own form. So they worshipped him and fought in his defence, even while beholding the ugliness of his build and the repulsiveness of his distorted face.

He was one-eyed, short, and tongue-tied. He fashioned a mask of gold for his face, and hence was called al-Muqannaʿ (“the Veiled One”).

Among the tricks by which he deluded them was a second moon they thought they saw in the sky—travellers two months’ journey away could still behold it. Concerning this Abū al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Sulaymān said:

Awake, O full moon whose head is veiled—
Error and misguidance resemble the moon of al-Muqannaʿ.

And Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk wrote:

I turn to you; for the moon of al-Muqannaʿ when it rises
Is no more enchanting than the glances of my turbaned moon.

When the calamity brought about by this wretch became unbearable, the army prepared to march against him and besieged him in his fortress on the edge of Khurasan—some said beyond the Oxus River—and the governor was appointed to lead the campaign