SOMETHING ABOUT SALMÂN THE PERSIAN, HIS REACHING THE THRESHOLD OF HIS HOLY AND PROPHETIC LORDSHIP, AND RECORD OF SOME OF HIS ADVENTURES.

Ebn A’bbas narrates that Salmân spoke to him as follows: ‘I am the son of a country gentleman from the environs of Essfahân. My father was an opulent ignicolist, possessing a great deal of movable and immovable property. He loved me so well that I was not permitted to leave the house. I was day and night engaged in the mansion of my father in keeping up the [sacred] fire and adoring it. My father possessed fields and buildings, which he visited on account of the agricultural labours carried on there; but taking one day another business in hand, he sent me instead of himself to a certain place, but ordered me to return as soon as possible. As I walked towards the fields, I happened to pass near a Christian church, heard people singing within, and entering it I found some of them read­ing the Enjil [Evangel], and some engaged in prayer. I was pleased with the demeanour of this assembly, forgot my agricultural errand, and remained in the place. On asking the people what their religion was, they replied: “The religion of the prophet of God.” I further inquired: “Where are the professors of your religion most numerous?” They said: “In the country of Syria.” Then the wish to become a Christian took possession of my mind, the religion of ignolatry was refrigerated in my heart, and I spent the day in the place till evening prayers. When I returned home I perceived that my father was so grieved by my absence that he had despatched in all directions messengers, who were unable to find me. When he perceived me he was glad, and exclaimed: “Darling of thy father, where hast thou been so long, and why hast thou not returned soon as I recommended thee?” I replied: “As I was going I saw a Christian church, which I entered, and the tenets of the Christians pleased me so much that I spent the day in their company.” At these words my father was much distressed, and said: “My son, abandon not the religion of thy fathers, for it is better than theirs.” I replied: “God forbid! the case is quite the contrary.” When my father perceived how greatly I was biased in favour of the Christians, he was so much afraid of what I might do that he put fetters on my legs. I, however, secretly despatched a messenger to the Christians requesting them to let me know when a caravan would be starting for Syria. I managed to escape from my confinement, and to arrive with the caravan in Syria, where one of the most eminent Christians sent me to a bishop, who was living in a church. I waited upon him and informed him of my wish to be instructed in the Christian religion. He complied with my wish, and assigned me a dwelling in his neighbourhood. He was a man who persuaded affluent and rich men to give him alms, all of which he kept for himself instead of dis­tributing them among the poor, and therefore I bore him enmity. When he died, and the Christians made prepara­tions for his burial, I explained to them his covetousness, and showed them not less than seven pitchers full of silver and gold, which the bishop had secreted in a certain place, and seeing which they exclaimed: “By Allah, we shall never bury this corpse.” Then they suspended it on a gallows and stoned it. Afterwards they appointed a successor, who was very pious and abstemious, so that I conceived great veneration for him, and remained in his service till he died. When he was almost at the point of death, I said to him: “I have been for so long a time under thy orders, to whom commendest thou me now, as the behest of God the Most High [to die] has reached thee?” He replied: “By Allah! in these times I know no one who is devout rejecting this and coveting the next world, except an individual who is at Maussul.” After he had given me directions about this man he expired, and was buried. I went to Maussul, found the hermit, and informed him by whom I had been sent. Hereupon that blessed individual placed the finger of acquiescence on his eye and received me into his com­pany, which I found to be advantageous, happy, and prosperous to me. After I had been attending upon him for some time he fell a prey to a mortal disease, and I requested him on his death-bed to indicate to me a person whose only occupation was piety, so that I might enter his service. The hermit replied: “By Allah! I know of no one who is living in this manner, except a certain man at Nassybyn.” After burying him, I went to the just-mentioned place, requested the said pious man to receive me into his company, was accepted, and lived with him till his decease. When he was near his end, I asked him, “To whom commendest thou me?” He replied: “I know of no man who lives as we do. The advent, however, of the prophet of the latter days is at hand, who will receive the mission to revive the religion of Ebrâhim—u. w. b.—who will make his appear­ance in the Arab country, will flee from his locality to a date-grove situated between two stony deserts, and one of whose numerous characteristics is that he will not receive alms, but will be celebrated for his liberality.”’ Salmân continues: ‘I was occasionally engaged in business at A’mûryah, and had there acquired several cows and sheep.’ After the decease of the bishop I met in that country a caravan of the Bani Kelâb, whom I requested to dispose of my cattle and to convey me to Arabia. They agreed, and we started; but when we arrived at Wady-l-Qorâ they dealt treacherously with me, and sold me [as a slave] to one O’thmân B. Asahad, a Jew. In that place I beheld a date-grove, which I fancied to be the place of exile of the promised prophet, but I was not quite certain on the subject. Meanwhile, I remained in the service of the Jew till the son of his uncle arrived from Madinah, purchased me, and took me there. By Allah! when we arrived in that region, I thought I had seen it in past times. At that time his holy and prophetic lordship had fled from Mekkah and arrived in Madinah. I happened on that very day to be plucking fresh dates from a tree, at the foot whereof my owner was sitting, when the son of his uncle arrived, and exclaimed: “Cursed be the Awus and the Khazraj who are sitting at Qobba near a man who has arrived from Mekkah and pretends to be a prophet.” When I heard these words I nearly fell down from the tree for joy. Then I alighted from the tree, and asked: “What hast thou said?” My master, becoming angry, struck me on the ear, and asked: “What hast thou to do with such gossip; go about thy business.” I retorted: “It is an easy matter [to strike me]. I desire to know what he says?”’ Salmân—may God reward him—continues: ‘When the night set in, I took some dates with me, went to Qobba, entered the assembly of his holy and prophetic lordship, and said: “I have heard that thou art a man noted for piety; many strangers are in need of thy company. I consider thee more worthy than others to receive, as alms, these few dates I have with me.” His lordship the refuge of apostleship—u. w. b.—intimated to his friends to eat, but would not do so himself. Then I said to myself: “This is one of his characteristics which I learnt from the bishop,” and, departing from the illuminated assembly, I went home. When his lordship honoured Madinah with his presence, I brought a small repast with me, and, offering it to him, said: “On a former occasion I brought alms, which thou didst not eat; to-day I have brought a present to honour thee.” The apostle of Allah then partook with his companions of the food I had brought, and I said: “This is the second characteristic.”’ It is related of Salmân that he said: ‘On the second occasion I brought twenty-five dates into the assembly of his holy and pro­phetic lordship—u. w. b.—and the assembly consisted like­wise of twenty-five persons, but I saw a thousand kernels of dates. A’li Murtadza—u. w. b.—kissed my head, and his lordship the refuge of termination—u. w. b.—told them to dress me in robes, whereon Abu Bakr put the garments on me which he himself wore.’ Salmân the Persian continues: ‘The third time I visited his lordship I found him in the cemetery of Baqyi’, he having gone there with the bier of one of his companions. When I arrived in that place, and stood opposite to his august person, I saluted him, and afterwards turned to his blessed rear, that I might take a view of the seal of prophecy. His lordship guessed my intention, and bared his hallowed back of the redâ [wrapper]. As soon as I beheld the seal of prophecy I kissed it, wept, and said: “I testify that there is no God but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.” Then his lordship said: “Return.” I then again faced him, and narrated my affairs in detail, whereat he was astonished, and desired his companions to hearken to my adventures. Accordingly I related them, and they listened.’ It is on record that Salmân, having been a slave, was unable to be present at the battle of Bedr, and therefore missed it. Salmân continued: “One day the apostle of God told me to redeem myself from my owner; accordingly I requested him to allow me to become a Mukâttib,* and after a great deal of haggling he agreed that I should plant for him three hundred date-trees, and take care of them, and also pay to him forty Oqyahs of silver for my ransom and liberty. When I informed his lordship of this bargain, he said to his companions: “Assist the Persian Mukâttib.” They complied. Some gave me ten, and some fifteen plants, until I had collected three hundred. His lordship then said: “Go and prune off the inequalities, and inform me when thou hast done so.” I acted as I was bid, and told the prophet—u. w. b.—so. Accordingly he condescended to honour me with his presence, and planted all the saplings with his own blessed hands, and I swear by that God, in the power of whose grasp the lives of all Musalmâns are, that not one of the plants failed, but in a few days all of them sprouted and flourished. I surrendered the trees to my owner, but the forty Oqyahs of silver still remained to be paid; I possessed nothing, and had no idea how I might pay them. On that occasion a lump of silver of the size of a hen’s egg was brought to his lordship as a share of plunder, and he said: “What has the Persian Mukâttib done?” Accordingly I was brought in, and the apostle of Allah said to me: “Salmân, take this and pay from it what thou owest.” I asked: “What is this? It is not one sixth of the claim he has upon me.” Hereon the apostle of Allah took hold of the silver-ingot, rubbed against it his wonderfully eloquent tongue, and said: “Take this with the blessing of God the Most High, and it will pay all thou owest.”’ Salmân con­tinues: ‘I swear by that God, in the hand of whose power my life is, that when I weighed the egg I found it to amount to forty Oqyahs, and not one Mithqâl more nor less. Accordingly I paid my master his claim, and was delivered from the misery of bondage. After that I attended during the wars upon his lordship the refuge of the apostolate.’

It is proper to know that concerning Salmân’s meeting the lord of apostleship—u. w. b.—and concerning the occasion of his liberation from the affliction of slavery, also other traditions have been handed down to our times, which are recorded in detailed accounts. It is related of Salmân that he said: ‘I gradually belonged to seventeen owners.’ Some of the chief historians have narrated that he attained the age of three hundred and fifty years, but none have stated that he lived less than two hundred and fifty years. In the Seir Kazrâni it is written that Salmân departed in the thirty-third year of the Flight [A.D. 653] to the gardens of paradise. It is well known that the Mohâjer contended with the Anssâr, each party accounting him as one of them­selves. The lord of existences—u. w. b.—uttered with his pearl-dropping tongue the words: ‘Salmân is a person belonging to our own family.’ In this year his holy and prophetic lordship prayed with some of his companions over the grave of Barây B. Maghrûr, who had died one month before the Flight, and said: ‘O Allah, pardon him, have mercy upon and be pleased with him!’ The just-named individual was one of the twelve Anssâr chiefs whose names have been recorded above in the covenant of A’qâbah. During this year also Kalthûm B. Hudm—who had become a Musalmân before his lordship the refuge of termination found an asylum in Madinah—departed this life—m. A. r. h.