Mánik Chok at Ahmadábád is well known. 2. A'bá Khán. His mother's name was Rání Píráí, whose tomb is situated near the Asróriah gate. A'bá Khán was poisoned by his father's order. He had gone into someone's house, who found him there and thrashed him. This reached the ears of the Sultán, who ordered that poison should be put in his wine. 3. Ahmad Khán, who was nicknamed Khudáwand Khán’s Ahmad Sháh, and who has been previously mentioned. 4. Khalíl Khán, heir-apparent of the Sultán, who received the title of Sultán Muzaffar. He was born on the morning of Wednesday the 6th Sha'bán, A.H. 880 (6th of December, A.D. 1475). The date is given by the word farkh.† Since he was a child of pleasant, gracious appearance, he was named Khalil Khán.‡ His mother's name was Rání Harbái, daughter of the Táh Ránah, a Rájpút zamíndár on the banks of the Mahindrí. On the fourth or fifth day after his birth the Rání died, greatly to the grief and affliction of the Sultán. It is said that when Sultán Muzaffar was born, the Sultán Mahmúd took him on the cloth on which he lay to the widow of Sultán Muhamad, the Sultan's step-mother, whose name was Háns Bái.§ She had often asked the Sultán to give her one of his sons to adopt and bring up. The Rání educated him with even more than a mother's care, and Sultán Muhamad used to say, whenever he saw him, "The line of my kingly ancestors will be carried on by this boy, and by his descendants"; and this was the case, even though his elder brother, A'bá Khán, was then still alive, and everyone expected that the government would devolve on him, because the rule and administration of the kingdom had already, even in the Sultán's lifetime, been made over to him.

*This was evidently a popular nickname, given in derision, with reference to the abortive attempt at insurrection recorded at p. 202. This attempt seems, however, to have cost Ahmad Khán the throne.

† Farkh ("the young one "), gives 880 by the abjad method of chronograms.

+ Khalil, a sincere friend."

§ Háns, the popular Hindí or Gujarátí name for birds of the swan tribe. The name would, therefore, be the "Swan (like) Lady."

However, the fortune of Muzaffar Sháh prevailed, and Abá Khán died before Sultán Muhamad.

It must be said that towards the close of the lifetime of Sultán Mahmúd, Säid Muhamad Jónpúrí, who claimed to be the Mahdí,* came from Jónpúr to Ahmadábád, and took up his abode at the masjid of Táj Khán bin Salár, which is near the Jamáhpúrah gate, and used often there to preach and recite the prayers; the people of the city resorted to him in groups. Saíd Sháh Shekh Jiú, the son of Säid Muhamad,† son of the Saint Säíd Burhán-ud-dín, went to call on him, and, sitting opposite to him in the masjid, quoted a verse of the Kurán appropriate to the occasion. Säid Muhamad Jónpúrí replied with another. Shah Shekh Jiú quoted a second, and Muhamad Jónpúrí quoted another in answer; a third time Shékh Jiú did the same thing, and received a similar reply. He then went away. One of his intimate friends, by the way, questioned him about Muhamad Jónpúrí. He said, "I consider him to be a man who speaks to the many what should be said to the few, and

. دعوی مهدویت dawa-i-mahdiat kard (or, in some MSS دعوای مهدیت کرد

This man enjoyed considerable notoriety in India. He was a son of Mír Säíd Khán of Jónpúr, and was the first man who, in India at any rate, claimed to be the Imám Mahdí, or "Restorer of Islám." For a full account of this belief in the coming of an Imám Mahdí (“the Lord of the period"), and of the movements to which it gave rise in India, see the Introduction to Blochmann's translation of the "'A'ín-i-Akbari," pp. iii. to v., where also will be found an account of this Säíd Muhamad Jónpúrí, though this, in some respects, differs from that of the text. According to the former account, he went from Gujarát to Mekkah, and, being driven thence, it was revealed to him that his teaching was vexatious, and he announced his intention of recanting. It is said that Mahmúd of Gujarat became his disciple; but on this point, perhaps, the account in the text may be preferred. Säíd Muhamad died in 911 A.H. (1505 A.D.); nor is it said by Blochmann that he met a violent death, as alleged in the text; but it is added that his tomb became a place of pilgrimage, though Shah Ismáíl and Sháh Thanésh tried to destroy it. Badaóní speaks of him as a great saint, and this, perhaps, was the real feeling of the writer of the "Mirát-i-Sikandarí," whose prejudices always inclined to mystics of every sort. His disciples still exist in India, and are known as Ghair-Mahdvis, believing, that is to say, in the future coming of no Mahdi, believing Säíd Muhamad to have been the Mahdi, and to be dead and passed. -"Qanoon-i-Islám," 2nd ed., p. 260.

According to the "Mirát-i-Ahmadí," Säid Muhamad was the eighth son of Säid Burhan-ud-dín.

Apparently, the Säíd is made, at least, not to deny the doctrine of Säíd Muhamad Jónpúrí, but to consider that it ought not to have been publicly declared at all, except to a few chosen disciples.

he does not suit his discourses to the understanding of his hearers. I believe that after his death a schism will arise among his followers." It is said that the preaching of Säíd Muhamad was so efficacious that all who heard him abandoned the world and became devotees.* Sultán Mahmúd wished to hear him, but his ministers would not allow him, lest he, too, should be affected by the Säid's words, and the affairs of the kingdom should come to a standstill.

It is said that one night a lover visited his mistress and quarrelled with her. Towards morning he left her house in a rage, and went towards his own with a drawn sword in his hand. Just at sunrise he found the Said with some of his disciples standing by the bank of the river Sábarmati. He demanded of them, "On what business have you come, and what are you doing here?" The Säid said: "He who has quarrelled with his love, by my instruction shall attain to virtue." On hearing this speech the man burst a blood-vessel and became insensible, and after he came to himself he came to the Said for instruction and became a devotee.*

One day the Said said: "I will manifest the Lord upon the earth in this body." As soon as this was told to the 'Ulemá of Ahmadábád they determined on the Said's death, and issued a fatwa against him§; but Mauláná Táj Muhamad, who was the wisest of the 'Ulemá of his time, when they brought him the paper to get his assent, put it aside, and in lieu wrote, "O 'Ulemá, have you learned wisdom for this, that you should give a fatwa for Säíd Muhamad's death." This caused the counsel of the 'Ulemá to fall through. Soon after this the Said went to Pattan, and settled three kós from Pattan, at a village called

*Literally: "Put on the garment of abandonment of the world and the cap of poverty."

Several versions are given of this speech; the shortest is here selected. There is some doubt as to the proper rendering of this speech, as the MSS. differ in some important words.

§ The remainder of the story is given in the version of the Hyderábád MS., which, as it is written in a sense favourable to the Säíd, probably gives the real meaning of the author, who, as already remarked, was a favourer of all mystics and devotees.

Barni, and gave himself out to be the Mahdí. The 'Ulemá of Pattan, as soon as they heard of it, set about to kill him, and the Said departed to Hindustán, and thence to Khurásán. There is a village near Kandahár called Farrah. When he got there the people mobbed and killed him; but the Mahdawís say he died a natural death, and that nobody killed him. God knows the truth.* This happened in the year н. 910

(A.D. 1505).

* According to the story given by Blochmann, the Säíd died while on his return from Makkah to Hindustán.

[Mirát-i-Sikandarí.]

CHAPTER IX.

REIGN OF SULTÁN MUZAFFAR II.

On the evening of Tuesday, the third of the month of fasting (Ramazán), the day after the death of Sultán Mahmúd, Sultán Muzaffar arrived at Ahmadábád from Baródah,* and the wazirs and nobles went out to meet him; and on Friday the 7th of the month of Ramazán, A.н. 917 (29th November, A.D. 1511), and in the twenty-seventh† year of his age, Sultán Muzaffar ascended the throne of his ancestors, and according to custom distributed money, horses, and robes among the nobles, soldiers, acquaintances, and people, according to their degree. The following received titles :

There seems to be some difference between historians as to the exact date of these events, but probably the above account, which is in accordance with that of the "Tab. Akbarí," may be accepted as correct, and it may be said that Mahmúd died at the hour of afternoon prayer, on Ramazán 2nd, 917, and that Muzaffar arrived at Ahmadábád late in the afternoon of the following day.

+ According to the statement (ante, p. 239) which gives Muzaffar's birth as occurring in A.H. 880, he would be in his thirty-seventh, not twenty-seventh year.