He is one of the grandsons of Shāh Isma‘īl-i-Ṣafavi.* He is a great master of exorcism, practises many austerities and strives much in the path of holiness, breaking his fast always with some coarse burnt barley bread and bitter herbs, which none but himself can bear to eat. He walks steadfastly in the straight path of the holy law, and recites the āẕān* at the five times of prayer, in the very portico* of Shaikh Abū-'l-Faẓl, at the Imperial Court, fearing nobody. Many miracles are related of him, one of them being as follows. He will throw a round piece of paper into a chafing-dish, with the fire burning therein, and will take out of the chafing-dish coined ashrafīs* and distribute them to the company, how many soever they be. They say that he 60. will come out of a locked room, just as bodies are transported from place to place, and will appear elsewhere. On one occasion he came from Gujarāt to the city of Lāhōr and gave to the people winter fruits in the summer time and summer fruits in the winter time. The ‘ulamā of the Panjāb, the chief of whom was Makhdūmu-'l-Mulk,* raised objections to what he was doing, and said, “It is evident that this fruit comes from some people's orchards, and that he has possessed himself of it without the owners' permission, and to eat it* is unlawful.” As he was not well received in that country, he went to Kashmīr, and ‘Alī Khān,* the ruler of that land believed firmly in him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, but, when he discovered that Shaikh ‘Ārit was setting up some claim or another,* he demanded his daughter's dowry back again, and took a deed of divorce from her husband; and the Shāh* went thence to Tibat, and there also, they say, he performed many miracles, one of them being that he shook a tree, and quantities of dirhams and dīnārs* fell from it. In this manner he exhibited great supernatural power, in Gujarāt, Hindūstān,* Kashmīr, and Tibat, and wherever he went attempts were made on his life, and he travelled from country to country.
On the first occasion on which the Emperor made a tour from
Kashmir to Kābul the Shāh came to see him in the course of
that journey, and the Emperor appointed persons to have charge
of him, who should not let him go out of their sight.*
And
sometimes, when he came into the Emperor's presence, his
Majesty would place musk, and camphor, and other perfumes
in a golden cup, and present it to the Shaikh as a gift, but
however much he said “Accept from*
me some gold, or some
land,” the Shaikh would reply, “Bestow*
the gold upon your
Aḥadīs,*
for they are in sorry case. What should I do with it?”
When I saw the Shāh in company with Qalīj Khān, in the portico*
of Shaikh Abū-‘l-Faẓl, under whose protection the Shāh was,*
I
standing on the parapet of a roof which overlooked his cell, he
had his face covered with a veil, and was writing, and was saying
61. to one who was with him, “It was this Qalīj Khān who said, ‘I
am Qalīj, your slave and servant.’”*
It is probable that the
Shaikh had been accustomed to veil his face for a long time, and
it was said that he possibly did so to avoid being recognized
when he travelled from place to place—but God knows the
truth. I heard from a trusted and intimate associate of the
Shaikh that one day in Kashmīr the Emperor sent Shaikh Abū-‘l-
One day the Emperor said to him, “Shāh, either become like me, or make me like yourself.” He answered, “How can we, who have abandoned worldly objects,* become like you? If you will come and sit beside us, in order that you may become even as us.”