He was one of the descendants of the venerable Shaikh Farīd-i-Shakarganj*

(may God sanctify his soul), and his native place was Dihlī. He stood in the relation of a disciple to Khājah Ibrāhīm (who was spiritually descended through five intermediaries from the most bountiful Khāja, the ascetic Fuẓail Ibn ‘Iyāẓ—* may the mercy of God be upon him!) through whose instrument­ality also he was first turned towards God. He twice travelled by land and sea from India to the two most holy places of pilgrim­age, * there to perform the duties of the pilgrimage.* He set forth on his travels, journeying to Asia Minor, Baghdād, Syria, Najaf,* (that holy spot), and other countries of the western regions, spending the whole year in travelling, returning to the glorious city of Makkah at the time of the pilgrimage, and then again setting out on his travels. In this manner he performed the pilgrimage twenty-two times, fourteen times during his first period of absence from India, and eight times during his second period of absence. On this latter occasion he spent four years in the glorious city of Makkah and four years in the delightful city of Madīnah, and during his sojourn in Makkah he used to spend the period during which Muḥammad's birthday occurred in Madīnah, and the period of the pilgrimage at Makkah. Shaikh Ya‘qūb of Kashmīr who accompanied Shaikh Salīm gave the date of his latter visit to Makkah in the following couplets:—

Thanks be to God, of whose mere bounty
The holy region became our halting-place.
If any one ask the date of this event
We answer him, “We entered the holy region.”*

And in that country he was known as Shaikhu-'l-Hind, or the holy man of India. He reached the age of ninety-five and travelled always in the path of the holy law delivered by the prophet (may God bless and save him!), always observing the most severe austerities and the most austere discipline, to a degree which can have been attained by but few of the holy men of this age. He observed, as a religious duty, the ceremonial purification and bathing before each of the five daily recitals of prayers, nor did he omit this duty before the weekly public prayers.

^12. When Shaikh Mān of Pānīpat, (may God sanctify his tomb!), enjoyed companionship with Shaikh Salīm he put to him this question:—“Was it induction or revelation that was the means of your attaining to your goal?” Shaikh Salīm replied, “Our means is ‘heart to heart.’”* Very many holy men who have reached perfection received their training in his service and companionship, and became his deputies and successors. Among them was the Shaikh* who after being perfected received authority to impart religious instruction to other disciples, and whose history is wellknown. Another was Shaikh Kamāl of Alwar, an old man inflamed and enwrapped with zeal, resembling in dis­position the leaders among holy men. Another was Shaikh Piyāra of Bangāl, a man distracted with the grief of longing after God. His fame is great in the country of Bangāl.* Another was Shaikh Fatḥu-'llāh Tarīn of Sambhal. Another was Shaikh Ruknu-'d-dīn of Ajūdhan,* and another was Ḥusain the Khādim, who was the best of Shaikh Salīm's deputies, and the midmost pearl in the string (of his disciples). He was the chief decider of abstruse questions in the hospice at Fatḥpūr. When Shaikh Salīm return­ed a second time to India the writer of these lines heard that he had attained to an extensive knowledge of, and pre-eminent profi­ciency in the Arabic language. I therefore sent him a letter containing two chronograms* of his two auspicious arrivals, which have been mentioned above. A verbatim copy of the letter is set forth below.

Verily the religion which is approved by God is Islām.

Verse.

Salutations to those who walk round the Ka‘bah,
By the circumambulation of which the pilgrimage of noble
men is consummated,
Salutations to those who dwell in a place,
In which he who surpassed all men lodgeth.*

I present the duties of prayers, the breezes of the sweet odours ^13. of which perfume the cells of the gathering places of holiness, and I send pages of greetings, the sweet odours of the waftings of which scent the meetings of the caravans of kindly fellowship. (These I send) to that high presence and to that exalted throne, the place of prostration for the foreheads of the great kings of the age—the spot to be kissed by the lips of the emperors of the cycle—the titles of which the imagination cannot comprehend by its intelligence, before the door of which titles are cast down— the high presence of the sun, which stands in need of neither praise nor description—that is, to the presence of the pattern for men, of him who is followed at this time, the Shaikhu-'l-Islām, may his shadow be ever extended over the heads of all creatures in general, and over the foreheads of the bands of feeble seekers after knowledge in particular. And since they (scil. my prayers and greetings) spring from sincerity of intention and proceed from singleness of heart, I hope that they will meet with the honour of acceptance, and the attainment of everything that is hoped for and prayed for is from God. After the performance of what is incumbent on the neck of one of your slaves* and on the conscience of my soul may it become clear to your enlightened mind, the mirror of what is hidden, aye, to your great heart, the mirror of certainty, that not the half of a line of the hardship of separation from you and of the violence of the pain of longing after you can be contained in vessels of letters,* should all the trees in the earth become pens, and should the sea (become ink) with seven more seas* to swell its tide, in the passage of time and its changes. And the heart is the most faithful witness, as is well affirmed.

Verse.

“God knows that my soul has perished
“With desire of thee, but thou revivest it;*
“And a sight of thee, Oh, object of my desire, and my hope!
“Is more pleasant to me than the world and all that it
contains.”

And your slave, distracted with love, has striven with an utter striving and has endeavoured with a supreme effort to obtain the felicity* of enjoying your noble company, and of hearing some of your polished discourse, but Fate assists not my designs, and ascent to the heaven of eminence is no easy matter.

Verse.

It is not everything that man desires that he obtains,
The wind blows in the direction which the ships do not
desire.

^14. In spite of this my reliance on the noble beneficence* of God is firm, and my hope in His gracious and boundless favours is sincere, (my hope being) that my eye may be suffused with light by the sight of your beauty, even as my heart is filled with the contemplation of the idea of you. Verily, God answereth our prayers and doth not disappoint us.

Verse.

I place my hope in God for the attainment of gifts,
And my Lord is the giver of what his slave desires.

And it is not far from your wonderful beneficence that you should give me to read an odour-diffusing epistle and send for me with a kind invitation. It is not fitting that the footsteps of my pen should wander more than this over the carpet of familiarity, and that the dove of composition should (any longer) sing on the branch of the tree of glee, and it is best to stop short at this period, and most meet and fitting to curtail (my letter) at the point of prayer (for you). May your exalted nature not cease to be protected from the casualties of ill-hap, and secured from the lightning-like mishaps of night and day.

Verse.

May you last as long as time, O refuge of the people of the
time!
This is the prayer of all creatures.

May God answer the prayer of his servant, by the right of him after whom there comes no one.”*

This letter was dated in the course of the years mentioned above. When I paid my respects to the Shaikh in the year H. 976 (A.D. 1568-69) having been introduced by Shaikh A‘am of Badāon, who was both son-in-law and cousin to Shaikh Salīm, he asked me “How has the position of the tomb of the prophet* (may God bless and save him) been determined in the books of ‘the sayings’ with regard to the tombs of the two Shaikhs?*

(may God regard them both with favour!)” I said “In such a way, and others have said ‘in such another way.’” He said, “Sahrawardī, in the ‘Wāqi‘a-yi-Ṣā‘iqa,’* where he verifies the forms of the three tombs, gives preference to the former state­ment of the case.” In accordance with the Shaikh's exalted com­mand I remained for two days with Shaikh A‘am, who has been ^15. already mentioned, in a cell in the old hospice, and enjoyed detailed conversations with the Shaikh. Then I obtained leave to depart for Basāwar.* Subsequently, in the year H. 978 (A.D. 1570-71) I repeatedly had the honour of paying my respects to the Shaikh, and one of his extraordinary acts* which I observed was that in the cold wintry air of the highlands of Fatḥpūr he never wore anything on the upper part of his body but a shirt of a single thickness of fine cotton cloth,* woven thin, and an upper garment of muslin,* and this in spite of the duty that he imposed upon himself of bathing twice daily. His daily food in the quadragesimal fasts of union with God* was half a water-melon, or even less than that. He passed away to the next world in the year H. 979 (A.D. 1571-72) and the words “the Indian Shaikh”* were found to give the date of his death.