190 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XII 



posterity— we know that from an early age he enjoyed a wide 

 reputation for learning and piety. It is beyond doubt that he 

 spent many years in solitary exile in the desert, thinking out 

 the problems of life ; that he underwent countless austerities ; 

 that he fasted ; that he depised riches ; that he took on himself 

 vows of silence. We read of his occasionally taking part in 

 those crazy orgies of dance and song whereby the dervish sought 

 to induce a condition of religious excitement or "ecstasv." 

 Whateverwe may think of such methods of obtaining " freedom 

 from self " and " nearness to God," or of the foolish forms of 

 self-mortification he employed, the objects of these practices 

 were perfectly clear to his mind. In one of his quatrains he 

 likens the dervish swaying to and fro in the dance to a nurse 

 rocking a child in its cradle : thus alone could he hope to ' ( still 

 the babe of his restless spirit," or (by another metaphor) 

 quench the fires of his heart."' Bodily suffering released 

 the soul for contemplation, and lifted the veil which hung 

 between man and his Creator. " Revelation ' ' he said " is the 

 handmaid of Austerity. ' ' 



By virtue of this self-imposed discipline he gained, it is said, 

 an unusual power of working miracles, as the following story 

 will testify. A merchant was once travelling from Nishapur 

 with a caravan bound for Bokhara. On the way, between 

 Nishapur and Merv, he fell asleep and lost the caravan ; and 

 after wandering in the sandy desert for some days he came 

 at length hungry, thirsty, exhausted, to a pool of water 

 where he beheld a man performing ablutions, and praying, 

 tall of stature, of fair complexion, with candid eyes, and 

 with a beard reaching to his waist. He had a stick and a vessel 

 in his hand, and a razor and tooth-brush • he bore a prayer 

 carpet on his back, and was wearing a Sufi's patched cloak, 

 and on his feet rope-shoes." This of course is our Shaikh, 

 who on learning the man's trouble, took him by the hand, and 

 beckoning to a lion which had miraculously appeared, whis- 

 phered a few words in the animal's ear, and bade the merchant 

 mount the beast, keep his eyes shut, and ride till the beast 

 stopped. One hour later the merchant opens his eyes to find 

 himself at Bokhard (about 150 miles distant) in the company 

 of his delighted fellow-travellers who had just arrived. But 



2?Vf! r' o ll; , for some time later he le a™s that the great 

 bhaifeLb Abu Sa id is in the city ; he goes to hear this "celebrated 



preacher ; and discovers to his amazement that the Shaikh is 

 none other than his benefactor of the desert who had been in 



cates ^h irih,S .?? J™*"""" 8 Which follow (22) lie distinctly depre- 

 wiS ho^or th« Ivi mt fx,cation.» He would at any rate have viewed 

 Ind TonTe wtl^ ZTJ° w1 ** ^ e state of " ectaa/" sometimes leads ; 



line 





