and, to decree belongeth unto God, the Most High, the All-Great!" His son Sultan Veled had been unremitting in his attentions. He wept and sobbed. He was reduced to a shadow. Jelal therefore said to him: "Baha'u-'d-Din, my son, I am better. Go and lie down a little. Rest thyself, and sleep awhile!" When he was gone, Jelāl indited his last ode; thus: "Go! head on pillow lay; alone, in peace, me leave, Loved tyrant, plague by night, while all around thee grieve. How, then, to crave a remedy? The evil's done. Last night, in dream, a warder, from my love's abode, Made sign to me, and said: "This way! Hold thou my lode."" 90. It is related that, after his death, when laid on his bier, and while he was being washed by the hands of a loving and beloved disciple, while others poured the water for the ablution of Jelal's body, not one drop was allowed to fall to the earth. All was caught by the fond ones around, as had been the case with the Prophet at his death. Every drop was drunk by them as the holiest and purest of waters. As the washer folded Jelal's arms over his breast, a tremor appeared to pass over the corpse, and the washer fell with his face on the lifeless breast, weeping. He felt his ear pulled by the dead saint's hand, as an admonition, On this, he fainted away, and in his swoon he heard a cry from heaven, which said to him: "Ho there! Verily the saints of the Lord have nothing to fear, neither shall they sorrow. Believers die not; they merely depart from one habitation to another abode !" 91. When the corpse was brought forth, all the men, women, and children, who flocked to the funeral procession, smote their breasts, rent their garments, and uttered loud lamentations. These mourners were of all creeds, and of various nations; Jews and Christians, Turks, Romans, and Arabians were among them. Each recited sacred passages, according to their several usages, from the Law, the Psalms, or the Gospel. The Muslims strove to drive away these strangers, with blows of fist, or staff, or sword. They would not be repelled. A great tumult was the result. The Sultan, the Heir-Apparent, and the Perwana all flew to appease the strife, together with the chief Rabbis, the Bishops, Abbots, &c. It was asked of these latter why they mixed themselves up with the funeral of an eminent Muslim sage and saint. They replied that they had learnt from him more of the mysteries shrouded in their scriptures, than they had ever known before; and had found in him all the signs and qualities of a prophet and saint, as set forth in those writings. They further declared: "If you Muslims hold him to have been the Muhammed of his age, we esteem him as the Moses, the David, the Jesus of our time; and we are his disciples, his adherents." The Muslim leaders could make no answer. And so, in all honour, with every possible demonstration of love and respect, was he borne along, and at length laid in his grave, He had died as the sun went down, on Sunday, the fifth of the month Jumada-'l-akhir, A.H. 672 (16th December A.D. 1273); being thus sixty-eight (lunar) years (sixty-six solar years) of age. 92. Sultan Veled is reported to have related that, shortly after the death of his father, Jelal, he was sitting with his step-mother, Jelāl's widow, Kirā Khātūn, and Husāmu-'dDin, when his step-mother saw the spirit of the departed saint, winged as a seraph, poised over his, Sultan Veled's, head, to watch over him. 93. Jelāl had a female disciple, a saint, named Nizāma Khātūn, an intimate friend of his wife's. Nizama formed the design to give a spiritual party to Jelal, with an entertainment for his disciples. She possessed nothing but a Thevr (or Sevr)1 veil, which she had destined to be her own winding-sheet. She now ordered her servants to sell this veil, and so procure the necessaries for the projected feast. But, that same morning, Jelal came to her house with his disciples, and, addressing her, said: “Nizāma Khātūn, sell not thy veil; to thee it is a piece of necessary furniture. Lo! we are come to thy entertainment." He and his disciples remained with her, engaged in spiritual exercises, three whole days and nights. 94. After Jelal's death, Kīgātū Khān, a Mogul general, came up against Qonya, intending to sack the city and massacre the inhabitants. (He was emperor from A.H. 690 to 696, A.D. 1290-1294.) That night, in a dream, he saw Jelal, who seized him by the throat, and nearly choked him, saying to him: Qonya is mine. What seekest thou from its people?" On awaking from his dream, he fell on his knees and prayed for mercy, seeking also for information as to what that portent might signify. He sent in an ambassador to beg permission for him to enter the city as a friendly guest. When he arrived at the palace, the nobles of Qonya 1 Thevr is the name of a tribe of Arabians, and of two hills, one at Mekka, the other at Medina; but the explanation of the term a Thevr or Sevr veil" I have not met with. G flocked to his court with rich offerings. All being seated in solemn conclave, Kīgātū was suddenly seized with a violent tremor, and asked one of the princes of the city, who was seated on a sofa by himself: "Who may the personage be that is sitting at your side on your sofa!" The prince looked about, right and left; but saw no one. He replied accordingly. Kīgātu answered: "What? How sayest thou? I see by thy side, seated, a tall man with a grisly beard and a sallow complexion, a grey turban, and an Indian plaid over his chest, who looks at me most pryingly." The prince sagaciously suspected forthwith that Jelal's shade was there present by his side, and made answer: "The sacred eyes of majesty alone are privileged to witness that vision. It is the son of Baha'u-'d-Din of Balkh, our Lord Jelalu-'d-Din, who is entombed in this land." The Khan replied: "Last night I saw him in my dream. He went nigh choking me, and told me Qonya is his possession. Now, prince, thee I call my adoptive father; and I entirely forego my intention to devastate this city. Tell me; has that holy man any son or descendant alive here?" The prince told him of Bahā Veled, now Sheykh of the city, and the peerless saint of God. Kīgātū expressed the wish to go and visit the Sheykh. The prince conducted him and his suite of nobles to Sultan Veled. They all declared themselves his disciples, and assumed the dervish turban. Bahā recounted to the Khan the history of his grandfather's expulsion from Balkh, and of all that followed The Khan offered him royal presents, and accompanied him on a visit of reverence to the shrine of the deceased saint. CHAPTER IV. Shemsu-d-Din Tebrizi, Muhammed son of 'Ali son of Melik-dad. I. SHEMSU-'D-DIN of Tebriz was surnamed the Sultan of Mendicants, the Mystery of God upon earth, the Perfect in word and deed. Some had styled him the Flier, because he travelled about so much; and others spoke of him as the Perfect One of Tebriz. He went about seeking for instruction, human and spiritual. He had visited many of the chief spiritual teachers of the world; but he had found none equal to himself. The teachers of all lands became, therefore, pupils and disciples to him. He was always in quest of the beloved object of the soul (God). His corporeal frame he habited in coarsest felt, shrouding his eminent greatness from all eyes in what are really the jewelled robes of spirituality. At Damascus it was, where he was then studying, that he first saw Jelālu-'d-Dīn by chance in a crowded marketplace; but Jelāl, who was at that time a student also, avoided him. Ultimately, he was led to Qonya in Jelal's traces, and first arrived there at dawn, on Saturday, the twenty-sixth of Jumada-'l-akhir, A.H. 642 (28th November, A.D. 1244), Jelal being then professor at four colleges there. They met as is related in a former chapter (chap. iii. Nos. 8, 9). At the end of three months' seclusion together, passed in religious, scientific, and spiritual disquisitions and |