Rawendis

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Rawendis or Rwendi, a Persian sect that took its name from a town (Rawend) near Isfahan. Its origin is unknown, but they held ultra-Shi'ite doctrines. Under the year 158 (AD 775) Tabari says that a man of the Rwendis, called al-Ablaq (because he was leprous), asserted that the spirit that was in Jesus was in Ali, then in the imams one after the other to Ibrahim ibn Mahommed, and that thus these were gods. Asad ibn Abdallah, then governor of Khorasan, put many of them to death. Under the year 135 (AD 752-3) the historian again mentions a rising of the Rwendis of Talaqan, and its suppression. Under 141 (AD 758-9) he gives a fuller account of them. They believed in metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, and asserted that the spirit of Adam was in Othman ibn Nahik; that the Lord who fed them and gave them drink was Abu Jafar ul-Mansur, and that al-Haitham ibn Moawiya was Gabriel. Accordingly they came to the palace of Mansur in Hashimiya and began to hail him as lord. Mansur, however, secured their chiefs and threw them into prison. By means of a mock funeral they succeeded in reaching the prison and delivering their leaders. They then turned in wrath against Mansur and almost succeeded in capturing him, but were defeated and slain by al-Haitham.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.