XXX. SHAIKH MUBĀRAK OF ALWAR.*

Salīm Shāh used to call him Shāh Mubārak, and used to place his shoes before his feet. The Shaikh generally claimed to be a Sayyid, and was in great repute among the Afghāns. Thus when their power was on the wane and they were fleeing before the Mughuls some of the Afghāns seized Shaikh Islām* of Fatḥ-pūr suspecting him of being a wealthy man, and, having con­fined him in a strange manner, carried him off to the fort of Rantambhor. Shaikh Mubārak went thither from Alwar by way of Basāwar, and was the means of Shaikh Islīm's* liberation.

Shaikh Mubārak twice attained the honour of performing a pilgrimage to the glorious ka‘bah.

I was sixteen years of age at that time when, in company with my venerated father, I paid my respects to the Shaikh in Basā-wār, and after that, in the year H. 987 (A.D. 1579), when the 110 emperor was returning from his pilgrimage to Ajmīr at which the whole of the Qur'ān was read, and was journeying to Fatḥ-pūr by way of Alwar, I was again honoured by an interview with the Shaikh. He had, in truth, reached perfection and was most liberal and open-handed. It is now* reported that he has recently, at the age of ninety years, bidden farewell to this transitory world.