The Safar-náma is written in the same simple and un­adorned style as the Siyásat-náma. The author, who gives The Safar-náma. his full name as Abú Mu'íni'd-Dín Náṣir-i-Khusraw al-Qubádiyání al-Marwazí, * says that he was employed for some while in Khurásán as a secretary and revenue-officer under Government, in the time of Chaghrí Beg Dá'úd the Seljúqid. In the autumn of A.D. 1045, being warned by a dream, he determined to renounce the use of wine, to which he had hitherto been much addicted, as being “the only thing capable of lessening the sorrow of the world,” and to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca. At this time he was about forty years of age. He performed a complete ablution, repaired to the Mosque of Júzjánán, where he then happened to be, registered a solemn vow of repentance, and set out on his journey on Thursday, the sixth of Jumáda II, A.H. 437 (=December 19, A.D. 1045). He travelled by way of Sháburqán to Merv, where he tendered his resignation. Thence he proceeded to Níshápúr, which he quitted in the company of Khwája Muwaffaq (the same, prob­ably, who appears in the 'Umar Khayyám legend as the tutor of the three companions), and, visiting the tomb of the Ṣúfí saint Báyazíd of Bisṭám at Qúmis, came, by way of Dámghán, to Samnán. Here he met a certain Ustád 'Alí Nisá'í, a pupil of Avicenna and a lecturer on arithmetic, geometry, and medi­cine, of whom he seems to have formed an unfavourable opinion. Passing onwards through Qazwín, he reached Tabríz on Ṣafar 20, A.H. 438 (=August 26, A.D. 1046), and there made the acquaintance of the poet Qaṭrán, to whom he explained certain difficult passages in the poems of Daqíqí and Manjík. From Tabríz he made his way successively to Ván, Akhláṭ, Bitlis, Arzan, Mayáfáraqín, Ámid, Aleppo, and Ma'arratu'n-Nu'mán, where he met the great Arabic philo­sophical poet Abu'l-'Alá al-Ma'arrí, of whose character and attainments he speaks in the warmest terms. Thence he came to Ḥamá, Tripoli, Beyrout, Sidon, Tyre, Acre, and Ḥayfá. After spending some time in Syria in visiting the tombs of prophets and other holy places, including Jerusalem and Bethlehem, he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca in the late spring of A.D. 1047. From Mecca he returned by way of Damascus to Jerusalem, whence, finding the weather unfavourable for a sea voyage, he decided to proceed by land to Egypt, and finally arrived in Cairo on Sunday, Ṣafar 7, A.H. 439 (=August 3, A.D. 1047).

In Egypt Náṣir-i-Khusraw remained two or three years, and this marks an epoch in his life, for here it was that he Náṣir-i­Khusraw in Egypt. became acquainted with the splendour, justice, and wise administration of the Fáṭimid Caliph, al-Mustanṣir bi'lláh, and here it was that he was initiated into the esoteric doctrines of the Isma'ílí creed, and received the commission to carry on their propaganda and to be their “Proof” (Ḥujjat) in Khurásán. In the Safar-náma, which would seem to have been written for the general public, he is reticent on religious matters; but from two passages (pp. 40 and 42 of the text) it is evident that he had no doubt as to the legitimacy of the Fáṭimid pedigree, while as to the excellence of their administration, and the wealth, content­ment, and security of their subjects, he is enthusiastic. His description of Cairo, its mosques (including al-Azhar), its ten quarters (ḥára), its gardens, and its buildings and suburbs is admirable; while the details which he gives of the Fáṭimid administration are most valuable. He seems to have been much impressed with the discipline of the army, and the regularity with which the troops were paid, in consequence of which the people stood in no fear of unlawful exactions on their part. The army comprised some 215,000 troops; viz., of cavalry, 20,000 Qayruwánís, 15,000 Bátilís (from North­west Africa), 50,000 Bedouin from al-Ḥijáz, and 30,000 mixed mercenaries; and of infantry 20,000 black Maṣmúdís (also from North-west Africa), 10,000 Orientals (Masháriqa), Turks and Persians, 30,000 slaves ('abídu'sh-shirá), a Foreign Legion of 10,000 Palace Guards (Sará'ís) under a separate commander-in-chief, and lastly 30,000 Zanj or Æthiopians. The wealth of the bázárs filled him with wonder, and withal, he says, such was the high degree of public safety that the merchants did not deem it necessary to lock up their shops and warehouses.

“While I was there,” he says (p. 53), “in the year A.H. 439 (=1047-48), a son was born to the King, and he ordered public rejoicings. The city and bázárs were decorated in such wise that, should I describe it, some men would probably decline to believe me or to credit it. The shops of the cloth-sellers, money-changers, etc., were so [filled with precious things], gold, jewels, money, stuffs, gold-embroidery, and satin garments, that there was no place for one to sit down. And all feel secure in the [justice of the] King, and have no fear of myrmidons or spies, by reason of their con­fidence in him that he will oppress no one and covet no one's wealth.

“There I saw wealth belonging to private individuals, which, should I speak about it or describe it, would seem incredible to the people of Persia; for I could not estimate or compute their wealth, while the well-being which I saw there I have seen in no other place. I saw there, for example, a Christian who was one of the richest men in Cairo, so that it was said to be impossible to compute his ships, wealth, and estates. Now one year, owing to the failure of the Nile, grain waxed dear; and the King's Prime Minister sent for this Christian and said, ‘The year is not good, and the King's heart is oppressed on account of his subjects. How much corn canst thou give me either for cash or on loan?’ ‘By the blessing of the King and his minister,’ replied the Christian, ‘I have ready so much corn that I could supply Cairo with bread for six years.’ Now at this time there were assuredly in Cairo so many inhabitants that those of Níshápúr, at the highest computation, would equal but one-fifth of them, and whoever can judge of quantities will know how wealthy one must be to possess corn to this amount, and how great must be the security of the subject and the justice of the sovereign in order that such conditions and such fortunes may be possible in their days, so that neither doth the King wrong or oppress any man, nor doth the subject hide or conceal anything.”

Náṣir-i-Khusraw's journey, from the time that he quitted his country until the time when he returned, lasted exactly seven years (from Thursday, 6 Jumáda II, A.H. 437, until Saturday, 26 Jumáda II, A.H. 444=December 19, 1045, until October 23, 1052), and during this time he performed the Pilgrimage five times. He finally returned to his country from the Ḥijáz by way of Tiháma, al-Yaman, Laḥsá, and Qaṭíf to Baṣra, where he remained about two months; and thence by Arraján, Iṣfahán, Ná'in, Ṭabas, Tún, and Sarakhs to Merv.

We must now leave the Safar-náma and pass on to the Díwán. Before doing so, however, it is necessary to advert Disproof of the Dual Theory. to a theory which, though championed by so great a scholar as the late Dr. Rieu, * and also by Pertsch * and Fagnan, * must, I think, in the light of further investigations, especially those of Schefer and Ethé, be definitely abandoned. * According to this theory, there were two distinct persons called Náṣir-i-Khusraw, both bearing the kunya Abú Mu'ín, one the poet, philosopher, and magician; the other the traveller.

“A few facts,” says Dr. Rieu, who puts the case most clearly “will show that we have to do with two distinct persons. Ḥakím Náṣir, as the poet is generally called, was born in Iṣfahán, traced his pedigree to the great Imám 'Alí b. Músá Riḍá, and was known as a poet before the composition of the present work (i.e., the Safar-náma ); his poem, the Rawshaná'í-náma, is dated A.H. 420 (see Pertsch, Gotha Catalogue, p. 13; the date A.H. 343, assigned to the same work in the Leyden copy, Catalogue, vol. ii, p. 108, is probably erroneous). Our author, on the contrary, designates himself by two nisbas which point to Qubádiyán, a town near Balkh, and to Merv, as the places of his birth and of his usual residence, and lays no claim either to noble extraction, or to any fame but that of a skilled accountant. Ḥakím Náṣir was born, according to the Ḥabíbu's-Siyar , Bombay edition, vol. ii, juz 4, p. 67, in A.H. 358, or, as stated in the Dabistán, vol. ii, p. 419, in A.H. 359, while our author appears from his own statement to have been forty years old in A.H. 437.”