SECTION II.: AN ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF THE LORD MÍÝAN RÓSHEN BÁYAZÍD.

Báyazid felt himself a prophet, and invited man­kind to religious austerity; he caused them to say prayers, but indicated them no determined quarter to which they ought to turn, as the sacred text says:

“Wherever you turn, you turn towards God.”

He said, religious bathing in water is not neces­sary; for, as soon as the wind blows upon us, the body is purified; inasmuch as the four elements are equally pure. He said, whoever knows not himself and God, is not a man; and if he be hurtful, he may be accounted to have the nature of a wolf, tiger, ser­pent, or scorpion. The Arabian prophet has said:

“Kill a harmful creature before it causes harm.”

If such a person is well-behaved, and says prayers, he has the disposition of an ox, or sheep, and to kill him is lawful. On that account he ordered his self-conceited adversaries to be killed, as they were to be regarded as brute beasts; thus it is stated in the Koran:

“They are like brute beasts, nay worse.”

He said: whoever does not know himself, and has no notion of eternal life, and everlasting existence, is dead, and the property of a dead man, whose heirs are also as the dead, reverts to the living. On that account he ordered also the killing of the ignorant. When he found a Hindu knowing himself, he valued him higher than a Muselman. He and his sons prac­tised for some time highway robbery. Of the wealth which he took from the Muselmans and others, he deposited the fifth part in a store-house, and when it was wanted, he distributed it among the most deserving people. He and his sons kept themselves all remote from adultery, lewdness, and unbecoming actions, as well as from despoiling the unitarians of their property, and refrained from using violence towards those who saw but one God.

He composed a great number of works in the Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and Afgháni,* languages. The Makśúd al Múmenín, “the desire of the right believers,” is in Arabic. They say, that the All-just God conversed with him without the intervention of Jabril.* He composed also a book entitled Kháir-al-bíán , “the good news, or the gospel,” and this in four languages: the first in Arabic, the second in Persian, the third in Hindi, and the fourth in Pashtú, that is, the Afgháni language: the same purport is conveyed in the four languages. The address is from the All-just All-mighty God to the lord Báyezíd, and this they believe a work of divine inspiration. He is also the author of the Hálnámeh, in which he has given an account of himself.

The most astonishing circumstance therein is, that he was an illiterate man, and yet expounded the Koran, and uttered speeches full of truth, so that learned men were astonished at them.

It is said that Báyezid received the divine com­mand for the destruction of those who know no God. Three times the all-just God had given him the order, and he put not his hand to the sword; but when it was repeated, unable to resist, he girt himself for the war against the infidels.

Báyezid was contemporary with the lord Mirzá Muhammed Hakim, the son of the lord Humáyún Pádshah. The author of this book has heard from Mirza sháh Muhammed, surnamed Ghazni Khán, the following account: “It was in the year of the Hejira 949 (A. D. 1542-3), that Miyàn Róshen gained strength and established his sect. My father, Sháh Baighkán Arghún, surnamed Khán-Dou­rán, said, he saw Míyán Báyezíd before his rising in rebellion, when he was brought to the court of Mirzá Muhammed Hakím, and the learned were confounded in the dispute with him, wherefore they let him take his departure on equitable terms.”* In the beginning of the year of the Hejira 994 (A. D. 1585-6) the intelligence of the death of the lord Mirzá Muhammed Hakim reached from Kabul, the ear of the Lord, dwelling in the ninth heaven. The sepulchre of Báyezid is at Bha­takpùr, in the hilly country of the Afghans.