His name was Shamsu-d-dīn, and in medicine and the healing art he was the Galen of the age, and was endowed with the heal­ing breath of the Messiah.* In other branches of traditional learning also he was distinguished far above all his fellows. I myself had no dealings with him, for when I first entered the imperial service and presented my preface to the Nāma-yi- Khirad-afzā* to the emperor, the ḥakīm served me very ill, replying, when asked by the emperor what he thought of my writing, “His style is polished, but his book is ill to read.” Notwithstanding this the ḥakīm was, to do him justice, a sincere well-wisher and a practical helper of God's servants, firm and steadfast in the faith, and devoted to the interests of his friends. He was constantly engaged in teaching students, to whom, indeed, he was not only a tutor, but also a generous patron. So devoted was he to them that he never on any occasion willingly took his food apart from them, and on this account he was an in­frequent guest at the houses of others. He was seated one day in the assembly of Shaikh Salīm-i-Cishtī, discoursing on theology and theologians and praising physicians and magnifying and extolling the importance and glory of the science of medicine, and the greatness of Shaikh Abū ‘Alī Sīnā.* This occurred at ¹⁶² the time when the ‘Ulamā and the physicians were at feud, and were daily wrangling, disputing, and quarrelling regarding the dignity of their respective orders. As I was unacquainted with these matters and had only recently come from the country and was ignorant of the real grounds of the controversy, I quoted the following verses of Shaikh Shihābu-d-dīn-i-Sahravardī* (may God sanctify his soul!).

Verses.

“How long did I say to this people, “Ye are superfluous?
One cure, the grave, is to be found in books of medicine.”
But when they sought satisfaction in threatening us,
We rested in God for the sufficiency of our recompense.
And they died in the faith of Aristotle,
While we live in the faith of God's chosen prophet.”

And I also quoted, in support of the position which I had taken up, those verses of the inspired lord Jāmī* (may his tomb be sanctified!) which he has written in his Tuḥfatu-l-Aḥrār.

Couplet.

“Seek not enlightenment of the heart from the bosom of
Sīnā,*
Seek not for light from the eyes of the blind.”

This enraged the ḥakīm, and the Shaikh said: “The fire of strife was already blazing between these people. Now you have come and have blown it to a still fiercer blaze.”

When the arena of strife was closed to the ‘ulamā and shaikhs this physician disputed with the enemies of the faith whenever he could find an opportunity of doing so, as is briefly related in the account of that party.* At length Ḥakīmu-l-Mulk was no longer able to continue the unequal struggle and applied for leave to go to Makkah the glorious, and in the year H. 988 or 989 (A.D. 1580 or 1581)* he departed on the pilgrimage, and died in the land of the pilgrimage. Thanks be to God for his efforts.