! SELECTED ANECDOTES FROM THE WORK ENTITLED THE ACTS OF THE ADEPTS (MENĂQIBU ’L ‘ĀRIFÏN), BY SHEMSU-’D-DÎN AHMED, EL EFLĀKĪ. A THE ACTS CHAPTER I. Baha'u-'d-Din, Veled, Sultānu-l-'Ulema (The Beauty of the Religion of Islām, Son, Sultan of the Doctors of the Law). I. THE king of Khurāsān,2 ‘Alā’u-'d-Din Muhammed, Khurrem-Shāh, uncle of Jelalu-'d-Din Muhammed Kl'arezmShāh, and the proudest, as he was the most handsome man of his time, gave his daughter, Melika'i-Jihān (Queen of the World), as to the only man worthy of her, to Jelalu-'dDin Huseyn, el Khatibi, of the race of Abu-Bekr. An ancestor of his was one of the original Muslim conquerors of Khurāsān. He was himself very virtuous and learned, surrounded with numerous disciples. He had not married until then; which gave him many an anxious and self-accusing thought. He himself, the king, the king's daughter, and the king's Vazir were all four warned in a dream by the Prince of the Apostles of God (Muhammed) that he should wed the princess; which was done. He was then thirty years old. In due course, nine months afterwards, a son was born to 1 There is an allusion in the word 'Arifin (Adepts) to the name of Eflāki's patron, the Chelebi Emir ‘Arif (well-knowing). 2 Eastern Persia. him, and was named Baha'u-'d-Din Muhammed. He is commonly mentioned as Baha'u-'d-Din Veled. When adolescent, this latter was so extremely learned that the family of his mother wished to raise him to the throne as king; but this he utterly rejected. By the divine command, as conveyed in the selfsame night, and in an identical dream, to three hundred of the most learned men of the city of Balkh,1 the capital of the kingdom, where he dwelt, those sage doctors unanimously conferred upon him the honorific title of Sultānu-'l-‘Ulemā, and they all became his disciples. Such are the names and titles by which he is more commonly mentioned; but he is also styled Mevlānāyi Buzurg (the Greater or Elder Master). Many miracles and prodigies were attributed to him; and some men were found who conceived a jealousy at his growing reputation and influence. 2. In A.H. 605 (A.D. 1208) he, Baha'u-'d-Din Veled, began to preach against the innovations of the king and sundry of his courtiers, declaiming against the philosophers and rationalists, while he pressed all his hearers to study and practise the precepts of Islam. Those courtiers maligned him with the king, calling him an intriguer who had designs on the throne. The king sent and made him an offer of the sovereignty, promising to retire elsewhere. himself. Bahā answered that he had no concern with earthly greatness, being a poor recluse; and that he would willingly leave the country, so as to remove from the king's mind all misgivings on his score. He accordingly quitted Balkh, with a suite of about forty souls, after delivering a public address in the great mosque before the king and people. In this address he foretold. the advent of the Moguls to overturn the kingdom, possess the country, destroy Balkh, and drive out the king, who 1 The ancient Bactra, sometimes called Zariaspa, the capital of Bactria. |