The Mughīriyya were originally the followers of al-Mughīra b. Saʿīd (d. 119/737), a prominent leader among the Kufan Shīʿī ghulāt (transgressives) of the early second/eighth century. Al-Mughīra is often described as a blind sorcerer or magician of some kind, purveying enchantments and sleights of hand (al-Ashʿarī, 7; al-Dhahabī, 6:490; Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd 8:121; al-Kashshī, 225; al-Ṭabarī, 2:1619-20). However, he presented himself as a prophet who possessed knowledge of the unseen and the true esoteric interpretation of the