In the series "World History of baseness" collected stories about the life of killers, scammers, pirates. Among them is “Hakim of Merv, the dyer in the mask”,
Hakim, who later received the nickname Prophet Under the Veil, was born in 736 of the Cross (i.e., our era) in the fading city of Merv on the edge of the desert. Brother Hakim's father taught him the craft of the dyer, the “art of the wicked,” which inspired him heretical thoughts. ("So I perverted the true colors of the creatures.")
Then Hakim disappears from his hometown, leaving broken pots and dye tanks, as well as a Shiraz scimitar and a bronze mirror in the house. More than ten years after this, on the eve of the beginning of Ramadan, at the gates of the caravanserai on the road to Merv sat slaves, beggars, camel thieves and butchers. Suddenly they saw three figures appear from the bowels of the desert, which seemed to them unusually high. All three were human figures, but the one walking in the middle had the head of a bull. When the figures approached, people saw that the face of the one in the middle had a mask, and the other two were blind. They are blind, the masked man explained because they saw my face. He called himself Hakim and said that more than ten years ago a man entered his house, who, having bathed and prayed, cut off his head with a scimitar and carried it to heaven. There, his head was revealed to the Lord, who commanded her to prophesy and put words so ancient in her that they burned the lips repeating them, and endowed her with a heavenly radiance, intolerable to mortal eyes, When people on earth recognize the new teaching, the face will be revealed to them and they will be able to worship him without fear of blindness.
Having announced his messenger, Hakim called people to holy war, jihad, and martyrdom. Slaves, butchers, beggars, drovers, camels refused to believe in him. One of the guests of the caravanserai had a leopard with him. Suddenly he burst out of the cage. All but the masked prophet and his blind companions rushed to run. When they returned, it turned out that the beast was blind. Seeing the dead eyes of the beast, people fell at the feet of Hakim and recognized his supernatural power.
Hakim, who replaced the bull mask with a four-layer white silk veil embroidered with precious stones over time, became extremely popular in Khorasan. In the battles with the caliphs-Abbasids, the army of the Prophet Under the Veil won more than once. The role of Hakim in the battles was reduced to singing prayers offered to the deity from the ridge of the red camel in the midst of the battle. But not a single arrow touched the Prophet. He seemed to be looking for danger - one night, meeting disgusting lepers, he kissed them and bestowed them with gold and silver. The reign of Hakim entrusted six to seven to his adherents. He himself was inclined to reflection and peace; a harem of one hundred and fourteen blind women was intended to satisfy the needs of his divine body.
The heretical cosmogony of Hakim was based on the existence of a kind of ghostly God who has no name or appearance. Nine shadows come from him, inhabiting and leading the first heaven. The second from the first demiurgic crown arose, also with angels, powers and thrones, and those, in turn, founded another heaven below. The second holy gathering was reflected in the third, then in the next, and so on until 999. The lord of the original sky controls them - the shadow of the shadows of other shadows.
The land on which we live is simply a mistake, an inept parody. Mirrors and childbearing are disgusting, for they multiply and strengthen this error. The main virtue is disgust. Hakim’s paradise and hell were no less sad. “In this life,” Hakim promises, “you endure the torment of one body; but in spirit and in retribution - in countless bodies. " Paradise seems to be a place where it is always dark and everywhere stone bowls with holy water, and the bliss of this paradise - "the special bliss of parting, renunciation and those who sleep."
In the fifth year of his prophetic life, Hakim was besieged in Sanama by the caliph troops. There was enough food and warriors, in addition, an ambulance of a host of angels of light was expected to help soon. Suddenly a terrible rumor spread throughout the fortress. When they wanted to execute one of the harem women for adultery, she announced that there was no ring finger on the Prophet's right hand, and there were no nails on the remaining fingers.
On a high terrace, in bright sunshine, Hakim asked his deity to grant victory. Two of his commanders approached him and tore off the Veil embroidered with precious stones from him.
Everyone shuddered. The person who visited heaven did strike with whiteness — the special whiteness of spotted leprosy. There was no eyebrow, the lower eyelid of the right eye drooped to a flabby cheek, a heavy tuberous bunch wore lips, a nose swollen and flattened like a lion’s
Hakim for the last time tried to deceive others: - Your vile sins do not allow you to see my radiance ...
They did not listen to him and pierced with spears.
