After pursuing his studies with various other masters, he obtained his father's permission to follow his elder brother Hardships of travel “in search of knowledge.” to Ḥuwayza. The journey thither by boat through narrow channels amongst the weeds, tormented by mosquitoes “as large as wasps” and with only the milk of buffaloes to assuage his hunger, gave him his first taste of the discomforts of travel to a poor student. In return for instruction in Jámí's and Járbardí's commentaries and the Sháfiya, his teacher exacted from him “much service,” making him and his fellow-students collect stones for a house which he wished to build, and bring fish and other victuals for him from the neighbouring town. He would not allow them to copy his lecture-notes, but they used to purloin them when oppor­tunity arose and transcribe them. “Such was his way with us,” says the writer, “yet withal we were well satisfied to serve him, so that we might derive benefit from his holy breaths.”

He attended the college daily till noon for instruction and discussion, and on returning to his lodging was so hungry that, in default of any better food, he used to collect the Study under difficulties. melon-skins cast aside on the ground, wipe off the dust, and eat what fragments of edible matter remained. One day he came upon his companion similarly employed. Each had tried to conceal from the other the shifts to which he was reduced for food, but now they joined forces and collected and washed their melon-skins in company. Being unable to afford lamps or candles, they learned by heart the texts they were studying, such as the Alfiyya of Ibn Málik and the Káfiya, on moon­light nights, and on the dark nights repeated them by heart so as not to forget them. To avoid the distraction of conversation, one student would on these occasions often bow his head on his knees and cover his eyes, feigning headache.

After a brief visit to his home, he determined to go to Shíráz, and set out by boat for Baṣra by the Shaṭṭu'l-'Arab.

From Baṣra to Shíráz. He was so afraid of being stopped and brought back by his father that, during the earlier part of the voyage, he stripped off his clothes and waded behind the boat, holding on to the rudder, until he had gone so far that recognition was no longer probable, when he re-entered the boat. Farther on he saw a number of people on the bank, and one of his fellow-passengers called out to them to enquire whether they were Sunnís or Shí'a. On learning that they were Sunnís, he began to abuse them and invoke curses on the first three Caliphs, to which they replied with volleys of stones.

The writer remained only a short while at Baṣra, then governed by Ḥusayn Páshá, for his father followed him At College in Shíráz. thither to bring him home, but he escaped privily with his brother, and, as already nar­rated , * made his way to Shíráz and established himself in the Manṣúriyya College, being then only eleven years of age. He found one of the tutors lecturing on the Alfiyya of Ibn Málik, who, on the conclusion of the lecture, questioned him as to his aims and adventures, and finally, seizing him by the ear and giving it a sharp twist, said, “O my son, do not make thyself an Arab Shaykh or seek for supremacy, and do not waste thy time! Do not thus, that so perchance thou mayst become a scholar.”

In this college also the life was hard and the daily allowance of food inadequate, and the writer's brother Sufferings from cold and hunger. wished to return home, but he himself deter­mined to remain, copying books for a pittance, and working almost all night through the hot weather in a room with closed doors while his fellow-students slept on the roof. Often he had neither oil for his lamp nor bread to eat, but must work by moonlight, faint with hunger, while in the winter mornings his fingers often bled with the cold as he wrote his notes. Thus passed two or three years more, and, though his eyesight was perma­nently affected by the strain to which it was subjected, he began to write books himself, a commentary on the Káfiya, and another, entitled Miftáḥu'l-Labíb, on the Tahdhíb of Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dín Muḥammad. * He now began to extend the range of his studies beyond Arabic grammar, and to frequent the lectures of more eminent teachers from Baghdád, al-Aḥsá and Baḥrayn, amongst them Shaykh An exacting Professor. Ja'far al-Baḥrání. One day he did not attend this Shaykh's lecture because of the news which had reached him of the death of certain relatives. When he reappeared on the following day the Shaykh was very angry and refused to give him any further instruction, saying, “May God curse my father and mother if I teach you any more! Why were you not here yesterday?” And, when the writer explained the cause of his absence, he said, “You should have attended the lecture, and indulged in your mourning afterwards”; and only when the student had sworn never to play the truant again whatever might happen was he allowed after an interval to resume his attendance. Finally he so far won the approval of this somewhat exacting teacher that the latter offered him his daughter in marriage; an honour from which he excused himself by saying, “If God will, after I have finished my studies and become a Doctor ('álim), I will marry.” Soon afterwards the teacher obtained an appointment in India, at Ḥaydarábád in the Deccan.

Sayyid Ni'matu'lláh remained in Shíráz for nine years, and for the most part in such poverty that often he Life of a poor student at Shíráz. swallowed nothing all day except water. The earlier part of the night he would often spend with a friend who lived some way outside the town so as to profit by his lamp for study, and thence he would grope his way through the dark and deserted bazaars, soothing the fierce dogs which guarded their masters' shops, to the distant mosque where he lectured before dawn. At his parents' wish he returned home for a while and took to himself a wife, but being reproached by a learned man whom he visited with abandoning his studies while still ill-grounded in the Science of Traditions, he left his parents and his wife (he had only been married for three weeks) and returned to the Manṣúriyya College at Shíráz. Soon afterwards, however, it was destroyed by a fire, in which one student and a large part of the library perished; and about the same time he received tidings of his father's death. These two misfortunes, combined with other cir­cumstances, led him to leave Shíráz and go to Iṣfahán.

During his early days at Iṣfahán he still suffered from the same poverty with which he had been only too familiar in the past, often eating salted meat to increase his thirst,

He wins the favour of Mullá Muḥammad Báqir-i-Majlisí. so that the abundance of water he was thereby impelled to drink might destroy his appetite for solid food. The change in his fortune took place when he made the acquaintance and attracted the notice of that great but fanatical divine Mullá Muḥammad Báqir-i-Majlisí, perhaps the most notable and powerful doctor of the Shí'a who ever lived. He was ad­mitted to the house of this famous man and lived with him for four years studying theology, and especially the Tradi­tions . * Yet in this case familiarity did not breed contempt, for, as the author mentions in his Anwáru'n-Nu'mániyya, * though specially favoured by this formidable “Prince of the Church,” he often, when summoned to his library to converse with him, or to help in the compilation of the Biḥáru'l-Anwár , would stand trembling outside the door for some moments ere he could summon up courage to enter.

He obtains a lectureship at Iṣfahán. Thanks to this powerful patronage, however, he was appointed lecturer (mudarris) in a college recently founded by a certain Mírzá Taqí near the Bath of Shaykh-i-Bahá'í in Iṣfahán, which post he held for eight years, when the increasing weakness of his eyes and the inability of the oculists of Iṣfahán to afford him any relief determined him to set out again on his travels. He visited Sámarrá, Káẓimayn, and other holy places in 'Iráq, whence he returned by way of Shúshtar to Iṣfahán. In 1079/1668-9 his brother died, and ten years later, when he penned this autobiography, he still keenly felt this loss. After visiting Mashhad he returned to Ḥuwayza, where he was living a somewhat solitary and disillusioned life at the time of writing (1089/1678-9). Of his further adventures I have found no record, but his death did not take place until 1130/1718, only four years before the disaster which put an end to the Ṣafawí Dynasty.