thou shouldest also acquire that knowledge,-the knowledge possessed by the prophets and the saints, which is entitled The Science of Divine Intuition-the science spoken of by God (in Qur'an xviii. 64): 'We have taught him a science from within us.' This knowledge did I acquire from my teacher; do thou receive it from me, so that thou mayest be the heir to thy father in spiritual matters as well as in things temporal. Thou wilt then be his second self."

Jelal complied with all the Seyyid pressed upon him. He took the Seyyid to his college, and for nine years received instruction from him. Some accounts make it appear that Jelal first became the Seyyid's disciple at this time; but others go to show that Baha Veled gave Jelāl as a pupil to the Seyyid at Balkh, and that the Seyyid used now and then to carry Jelal about on his shoulders, like as is practised by the nursing-tutors-lala-of children. (Compare chap. iii., Nos. 6 and 8.)

4.

Husāmu-'d-Din told us that Jelal had informed him of the following occurrence:—

The Seyyid once arrived at a certain city in Khurāsān named Sāmānek. The chief people went forth to meet him and show him honour, all excepting the Sheykhu-'lIslam of the place (the local vice-chancellor). Nevertheless the Seyyid went to pay his respects to the legal functionary. The latter went barefoot to the door of the house to meet the Seyyid, whose hand he kissed, and to whom he offered excuses for his seeming lack of courtesy.

In reply, the Seyyid said to him: "I am come to inform you that, on the 10th day of next month, Ramazān, you will have occasion to go forth to a hot-bath. On your way thither you will be assassinated by the emissaries of the Old Man of the Mountain. This I communicate to thee, that thou mayest set thy affairs in order, and repent thee of thy sins."

The Sheykhu-'l-Islam fell at the Seyyid's feet, wailing; but the latter remarked: "This is of no avail. Events are in God's hands, and He has so ordered it. Still, as thou showest so much contrition, I may add, for thy consolation, that thou wilt die in the faith, and shalt not be cut off from the divine mercy and grace."

And so it happened as thus predicted. The assassins took his life on the very day foretold by the Seyyid.

(The stronghold, Alamut, of the Old Man of the Mountain, was stormed by forces sent against it by Helagū, grandson of Jengiz, in about the year A.H. 654 (A.D. 1256). The last prince of the dynasty was sent to China, and there put to death by the emperor; and thus these detestable scourges of humanity were at length suppressed.)

5.

After a certain time the Seyyid asked permission of Jelal to go for a while to Qaysariyya (Cæsarea), but Jelāl could not spare him. So he remained at Qonya still.

Somewhat later a party of friends took the Seyyid out for a ride among the vineyards. The thought occurred to him that, without saying anything to anybody, he might now easily abscond and get away to Qaysariyya. Scarcely had he conceived this vagabond idea than his beast reared with him, threw him, and broke his leg. His friends raised him, set him again on his horse, and conducted him to a neighbouring country-house to which Jelal had also

come.

On seeing Jelal the Seyyid exclaimed to him, "Is this the proper way to reward your teacher-to break his leg?” Jelal at once ordered the Seyyid's boot to be removed, and saw that his foot and toes were crushed. He now passed his hands along the injured limb and blew on it. The limb was at once restored whole. Jelal now granted permission, and the Seyyid forthwith proceeded to Qaysariyya.

6.

When the time was come that the Seyyid should die, he told his servant to prepare for him an ewer of warm water, and to go. The water was made ready, placed in the Seyyid's room, and the servant went forth. The Seyyid called after him: "Go and proclaim that the stranger Seyyid has departed to the other world." He then bolted the door, that none should enter to him.

The servant, however, had his curiosity excited by those words, and went back to the door, to listen and to see what might happen. Through a chink he saw his master perform an ablution, arrange his dress, lie down on his couch, and cry out: "All ye angels, saints, and heavens, who have at any time intrusted to me a secret, come to me now and receive back your charges. Ye are here all present."

He then recited the following hymn :—

"God, my beloved, darling God, adored, to me incline;

My soul receive; intoxicate, release poor me distraught.
In Thee alone my heart finds peace; it fire with love divine;
Take it unto Thyself; to it both worlds are naught.”

These were the Seyyid's last words, ere he yielded up his spirit. The servant carried the news to the Seyyid's friends, who gathered together, carried him forth, and buried him.

A mausoleum was raised over his grave by a rich and powerful disciple. The departed saint would not allow a cupola to stand. Twice the dome was shaken down by earthquakes, and in a dream the Seyyid himself forbade its third edification.

After the usual forty days of mourning, a letter was sent to Jelal, who at once journeyed from Qonya to Qaysariyya, and prayed at the tomb of his deceased teacher, returning home again afterwards.

B

CHAPTER III.

Mevlānā Jelālu-'d-Din Muhammed, the Revered Mystery of God upon Earth.1

I.

JELALU-'D-DIN is related to have been born at Balkh o the 6th of Rebi'u-'l-evvel, A.H. 604 (29th September 1207) When five years old, he used at times to become extremely uneasy and restless, so much so that his attendants used to take him into the midst of themselves.

The cause of these perturbations was that spiritual forms and shapes of the absent (invisible world) would arise before his sight, that is, angelic messengers, righteous genii, and saintly men-the concealed ones of the bowers of the True One (spiritual spouses of God), used to appear to him in bodily shape, exactly as the cherubim and seraphim used to show themselves to the holy apostle of God, Muhammed, in the earlier days, before his call to the prophetic office; as Gabriel appeared to Mary, and as the four angels were seen by Abraham and Lot; as well a others to other prophets.

His father, Baha'u-'d-Din Veled, the Sultānu-'l-‘Ulemā, used on these occasions to coax and soothe him by saying: "These are the Occult Existences. They come to presen themselves before you, to offer unto you gifts and presen's from the invisible world.”

These ecstasies and transports of his began to be publicly known and talked about; and the affectionatel 1 The truly eminent author of the Mesnevi.

honorific title of Khudavendgar, by which he is so often mentioned, was conferred upon him at this time by his father, who used to address him and speak of him by this title, as "My Lord."

2.

His son, Sultan Veled, related that there was a paper in the handwriting of his father, Baha Veled, which set forth that at Balkh, when Jelal was six years old, he was taking the air one Friday, on the terraced roof of the house, and reciting the Qur'an, when some other children of good families came in and joined him there.

After a time, one of these children proposed that they should try and jump from thence on to a neighbouring terrace, and should lay wagers on the result.

Jelal smiled at this childish proposal, and remarked: "My brethren, to jump from terrace to terrace is an act well adapted for cats, dogs, and the like, to perform; but is it not degrading to man, whose station is so superior? Come now, if you feel disposed, let us spring up to the firmament, and visit the regions of God's realm." As he yet spake, he vanished from their sight.

Frightened at Jelal's sudden disappearance, the other children raised a shout of dismay, that some one should come to their assistance; when lo, in an instant, there he was again in their midst; but with an altered expression of countenance and blanched cheeks. They all uncovered. before him, fell to the earth in humility, and all declared themselves his disciples.

He now told them that, as he was yet speaking to them, a company of visible forms, clad in green raiment, had led him away from them, and had conducted him about the various concentric orbs of the spheres, and through the signs of the Zodiac, showing him the wonders of the world of spirits, and bringing him back to them so soon as their cries had reached his ears.

At that age, he was used not to break his fast more