The ninth chapter of the Dabistán introduces to us Mian Báyezid, who, born in the Panjáb, flourished in the middle of the sixteenth century under the reign of Humayún, the Emperor of India. At first a strict observer of Muhammedism, he aban­doned afterwards the exterior practices of this reli­gion, and, devoting his mind to contemplation, assumed with the character of a saint the title of a “master of light;” his followers were called Roshe­nians , or “enlightened.” His sayings, several of which are quoted in the Dabistán, express sound reason, pure morality, and fervent piety. In the spirit of his nation and time, and for self-defence, he took up arms against the Moghuls. His history and that of his sons is carried to the middle of the seventeenth century, the time of Mohsan Fani.

Muhammed was the permanent type of a prophet, in whom the religious and political character were united. The first Khalifs were all military chiefs and religious men; the Koran furnished the rules of foreign and internal policy, the final deci­sion of every tribunal, the inciting exclamation to combat and carnage, and a prayer for every occa­sion. The founders of sects were frequently war­riors, or, what in Asia is generally the same, high­waymen and plunderers of caravans; such was the just mentioned Miyan Bayezid, and many others. As possessors of empires, they preserved the austere habits of ascetics: they carried a sabre and a rosary, counted their beads and gave order for battle; ema­ciated by fasts, covered with a woollen mantle, sit­ting upon the bare ground, they disposed of empires and received the homage of millions of men.

The Muhammedans preserved their religion, as long as they were militant: because all states of mental excitement are apt to support each other. But, in solitary retirement, and in the precincts of schools, the doctrine of Muhammed was put to the test of reason: now began the struggle between religion and philosophy. Fearful to part at once with early impressions and national feelings, attempts to reconcile faith and reason were made; religious philosophers had recourse to allegory, in order to rationalize strange and absurd dogmas and practices; for the literal they substituted a mystical sense; under arbitrary acceptations and interpreta­tions, the foundation of the doctrine itself disap­peared, or was confounded with some old dogma renewed, if not one entirely invented: in short, the Muhammedan religion appeared to have survived itself; its presumed period of one thousand years was believed to be completed under the reign of Akbar.