MOKANNA{Al-Mokann<T, “the veiled”) was, as explained above, p. 580, the surname given to Hakim, or 'Atà, a man of unknown parentage, originally a fuller in Merv, who posed as an incarnation of Deity, and headed a revolt in Khorâsân against the caliph Mahdi. Much is related of his magical arts, especially of a moonlike light visible for an enormous distance which he made to rise from a pit near Nakhshab. He died by poison in a.h. 163 (779-80 A.D.).