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 Muslems, Christians and Jews,—indeed, all mankind. Kaddah had political ambition also, which he could not realize by openly antagonizing the existing governments. But he proclaimed a new right of succession.

There was Ismail, the son of the sixth Imam after Ali and descendant from Ali's line. And Kaddah, who was a master of mystic lore, ingeniously evolved the theory of hidden and revealed successors to the Prophet. Ismail, he claimed, was the last revealed, and since his death the succession continued through hidden or unincarnate imams. But he, Kaddah, awaiting the psychological moment, harbored the secret purpose, the ambition of proclaiming himself to Islam the first revealed imam and khalif after Ismail. He died, however, a disappointed man. For one named Obeidullah was the founder of the new dynasty. But Kaddah and his followers were nevertheless called Ismailites, a name that even today is despised and