Hakem was a leader in one of the different divisions of the followers
of Mahomet. To inspire the greater awe into the minds of his
supporters, he pretended that he was the Most High God, the creator of
heaven and earth, under one of the different forms by which he has in
successive ages become incarnate, and made himself manifest to his
creatures. He distinguished himself by the peculiarity of always
wearing a thick and impervious veil, by which, according to his
followers, he covered the dazzling splendour of his countenance, which
was so great that no mortal could behold it and live, but that,
according to his enemies, only served to conceal the hideousness of
his features, too monstrously deformed to be contemplated without
horror. One of his miracles, which seems the most to have been
insisted on, was that he nightly, for a considerable space of time,
caused an orb, something like the moon, to rise from a sacred well,
which gave a light scarcely less splendid than the day, that diffused
its beams for many miles around. His followers were enthusiastically
devoted to his service, and he supported his authority unquestioned
for a number of years. At length a more formidable opponent appeared,
and after several battles he became obliged to shut himself up in a
strong fortress. Here however he was so straitly besieged as to be
driven to the last despair, and, having administered poison to his
whole garrison, he prepared a bath of the most powerful ingredients,
which, when he threw himself into it, dissolved his frame, even to the
very bones, so that nothing remained of him but a lock of his hair. He
acted thus, with the hope that it would be believed that he was
miraculously taken up into heaven; nor did this fail to be the effect
on the great body of his adherents. [148]