The alleged prophecies of the Founder regarding the advent of the Restorer of the Faith, assumed a peculiar importance when Islám entered on the century preceding the first millennium, and the learned everywhere agitated the question till at last the Mahdí movement assumed in India* a definite form through the teaching of Mír Sayyid Muhammad, son of Mír Sayyid Khán, of Jaunpúr. This man was a descendant of the Prophet, and bore his name; the fall of Jaunpúr was to him a sign that the latter days had come; extraordinary events which looked like miracles, marked his career; and a voice from heaven had whispered to him the words, “Anta Mahdí,” ‘thou art Mahdí.’ Some people indeed say that Mír Sayyid Muhammad did not mean to declare that he was the promised Mahdí; but there is no doubt that he insisted on his mission as the Lord of the Age. He gained many adherents, chiefly through his great oratorical powers, but pressed by enemies he went to Gujarát, where he found an adherent in Sulṭán Mahmúd I. From Gujarát he proceeded, at the request of the king and to the joy of numerous enemies, on a pilgrimage to Makkah. From there also he seems to have been driven away. On his return, it was revealed to him that his teaching was vexatious, and he said to the disciples that accompanied him, “God has removed from my heart the burden of Mahdí. If I safely return, I shall recant all.” But when he reached the town of Faráh in Balochistán, where his arrival had created a great sensation, he died (911, A. H.; 1505, A. D.). His tomb became a place of general pilgrimage, although Sháh Ismá'íl and Sháh Ṭahmásp tried to destroy it. The movement, however, continued. Some of his followers adhered to their belief that he was Mahdí; and even the historian Badáoní, who was strongly attached to the cause, speaks of him as of a great saint.

Other Mahdís appeared in various parts of India. In 956 (A. D., 1549), a Mahdí of great pretensions arose in Biánah, S.W. of A´grah, in the person of Shaikh 'Aláí. This man was a Bangálí Musalmán. His father had been looked upon in his country as a learned saint, and after visiting Makkah, he had settled, in 935, with his younger brother Naçrullah, likewise a learned man, at Biánah, where they soon became respected and influential men. Shaikh 'Aláí had shewn from his youth the learning of the lawyer and the rigour of the saint; and on the death of his father, he gathered numerous pupils around himself. ‘But the love of power issues at last from the heads of the just,’ and on the day of the 'I´d, he kicked an influential Shaikh from his haudah, and, supported by his brothers and elder relatives, he proclaimed that he alone was worthy of being the Shaikh of the town.

About the same time, one Miyán 'Abdullah, a Niyází Afghán and disciple of Mír Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpúr, arrived from Makkah, and settled at a retired spot near Biánah. Like his master, he was a man of oratorical powers and was given to street preaching; and in a short time he gained numerous followers among the woodcutters and water-carriers. Shaikh 'Aláí also was overawed by the impressive addresses of Miyán 'Abdullah; he gave up teaching and struggling for local influence, turned faqír, told his wife either to follow him to the wilderness or to go, distributed his whole property, even his books, among the poor adherents of the Niyází, and joined the fraternity which they had formed. The brethren had established among them­selves community of property, divided the earnings obtained by begging, and gave up all work, because it was said in the Qorán, ‘Let not men be allured by trade or selling to give up meditating on God.’ Religious meetings, the object of which was to prepare people for the advent of the promised Mahdí, were daily held after the five prayers, which the brethren said together, and wherever they went they appeared armed to the teeth. They soon felt strong enough to interfere with municipal matters, and inspected the bázárs and removed by force all articles forbidden in the law, defying the magistrates, if opposed to them, or assisting them, if of their opinion. Their ranks increased daily, and matters in Biánah had come to such a pass, that fathers separated them­selves from their children and husbands from their wives. Shaikh 'Aláí's former position and the thoroughness of his conversion had given him the rank of second leader; in fact, he soon outdid Miyán 'Abdullah in earnestness and successful conversions, and the latter at last tried to rid himself of his rival by sending him with six or seven hundred armed men towards Makkah. 'Aláí marched with his band over Basá­war to Khawáçpúr, converting and preaching on the way, but on account of some obstacles they all returned to Biánah.

Shaikh 'Aláí's fame at last reached the ear of Islám Sháh, who summoned him to A´grah; and although the king was resolved to put him to death as a dangerous demagogue, and was even offended at the rude way in which 'Aláí behaved in his presence, he was so charmed by an impromptu address which 'Aláí delivered on the vanities of the world and the pharisaism of the learned, that he sent cooked provisions to 'Aláí's men. To the amusement of the Afghán nobles and generals at court, 'Aláí on another occasion defeated the learned on questions connected with the advent of Mahdí, and Islám Sháh was day after day informed that another of his nobles had gone to 'Aláí's meetings and had joined the new sect.

It was at this time that Shaikh Mubárak also became a ‘disciple,’ and professed Mahdawí ideas. It is not clear whether he joined the sect from religious or from political motives, inasmuch as one of the objects of the brethren was to break up the party of the learned at Court, at whose head Makhdúm ul Mulk stood; but whatever may have been his reason, the result was, that Makhdúm became his inveterate enemy, deprived him of grants of land, made him flee for his life, and persecuted him for more than twenty years, till Mubárak's sons turned the tables on him and procured his banishment.*

The learned at Court, however, were not to be baffled by 'Aláí's success, and Makhdúm's influence was so great, that he at last prevailed on the king to banish the Shaikh. 'Aláí and his followers readily obeyed the command, and set out for the Dak'hin. Whilst at Handiah on the Narbadá, the frontier of Islám Sháh's empire, they succeeded in convert­ing Bahár Khán A'zam Humáyún and half his army, and the king on hearing of this last success cancelled his orders and recalled Shaikh 'Aláí.

About the same time (955), Islám Sháh left A´grah, in order to put down disturbances in the Panjáb caused by certain Niyází Afgháns, and when he arrived in the neighbourhood of Biánah, Makhdúm ul-Mulk drew the king's attention to Miyán 'Abdullah Niyází, who after Shaikh 'Aláí's departure for the Dak'hin roamed about in the hills of the Biánah district with three or four hundred armed men, and was known to possess great influence over men of his own clan, and consequently over the Niyází rebels in the Panjáb. Islám Sháh ordered the governor of Biá­nah, who had become a Mahdawí, to bring Miyán 'Abdullah to him. The governor advised his religious leader to conceal himself; but Miyán 'Abdullah boldly appeared before the king, and so displeased him by his neglect of etiquette, that Islám Sháh gave orders to beat him to death. The king watched on horseback for an hour the exe­cution of the punishment, and only left when Miyán 'Abdullah lay apparently lifeless on the ground. But he was with much care brought back to life. He concealed himself for a long time, renounced all Mah­dawí principles, and got as late as 993 [A. D., 1585] from Akbar a freehold, because he, too, had been one of Makhdúm ul-Mulk's victims. He died more than ninety years old, in 1000, at Sarhind.*