Ansars

Ansars, more correctly Nossairians, an Arab sect living in the mountainous region of Syria north of the Lebanon Mountains. Their whole number is about 75,000. Their religious forms show their origin in Mohammedan gnosticism, with an admixture of the elements of old Syrian nature-worship. They appear first in the 10th century, but the history of their origin is obscure. They believe in a Mahdi or Messiah to come, the twelfth and last of the imams or emanations of the divine spirit, and they keep secret their religious rites and grades of initiation. Like the Shiites, they reverence Ali, the nephew of Mohammed; and they practise impure mysteries which have made them the by-word of the neighbouring races. Their prophet is Nossair, the first to proclaim the apotheosis of Ali, and from him they derive their name. They have special religious books, and a kind of holy communion with the cup; in their prayers they turn towards the rising and the setting sun; they believe also in a kind of Trinity; and in a constant transmigration of souls, which for the faithful is a process of purification until they reach at length the higher and more perfect states of earthly life, and find places as brilliant stars on the horizon. Those, however, who have derided or made known the sacred mysteries, or who have denied the divinity of Ali, are doomed to death, or are transmigrated into Jews, Christians, or Mohammedans, or into dogs, swine, and asses. The Ansars have often defended their freedom with bravery against the Turks. The name Ansars was also applied to the first adherents of Mohammed.