46 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. {N.S., XIX, 
earlier periods he depended on the works of his numerous pre- 
decessors, especially on Khayrw’l-majalis, composed by one 
Hamid in 756 A.H.1355 A.D., narrating the miracles of 
Nasiru’d-Din Chiragh. of Dehli, and on Faw@ idu'l-fwad,! by 
Hasan ‘Ala-i-Sanjari, containing the discourses of Nizamu’d- 
Din Awliya (d. 725 A.H./1325 A.D.), delivered in 717-722 A.H. 
As the biographical literature of the Chishti affiliation is parti- 
cularly rich, there is no doubt that the author had sufficient 
material at his disposal and had no need to rescrt to fiction or 
spurious legends of a later period. Therefore. leaving aside 
the question as to the real facts which form the basis of the 
story, we can accept as a fairly reliable theory that the narra- 
tive correctly reflects the ideas current on its subject in Muham- 
madan India of not later than the middle of the XIV century. 
Translation. 
[Fol. 67]. It is narrated from Shaykh* Nasiru’d-Din * 
[fol. 67v] that he said: I heard from my preceptor (pir), the 
king of saints, Nizamu’d-Din® (who told meas follows) : Once 
@ serious indisposition and illness affected Shaykhu’l-Islam 
Faridu’d-Din Mas‘id,® so that his appetite entirely departed 
water. His children, disciples and followers came together and 
called in physicians. The latter, having examined his pulse, 
reported that they could not define the malady either from the 
pulse or from the analysis of the urine. In spite of careful 
study of both, pulse and urine, they could not discover the 
nature of the illness of the Shaykh and retired helpless. On 
the next day the Shaykh’s sickness increased and he asked all 
his friends to come to him, ; 
Shaykh Nizimu’d-Din continues: I was also present in 
that assembly. Shaykh Badru’d-Din Sulayman,’ the son of 
the Shaykh, ordered us to occupy ourselves (with prayer). ore 
went and prayed. The same night Badru’d-Din Sulayman saw 
in a dream an old man, who said to him: ‘ Your father,—i.e. 


: There is a good copy of it in the collection of the A.S. B. (E 166). 
* I place the translation before the text in order not to break the 
narrative for those who cannot read Persian. oo 
* In the translation I omit all the grandiloguent titles, blessings, etc., 
so generously distributed throughout the text. Bi oa ay f 
¢.e. Nasiru’d-Din, surnamed Chiragh, the famous Chishti saint 0 
Dehli, d. 757 A.H./1356 A.D. 
' Here UJ! oe > obviously for the usual, and afterwards repeated 
several times yM! , aL,/! ole ’ 
The famous Chishti saint d. 664 A.H./1265 A.D., whose shrine at 
Pakpatan in the Punjab still attracts many pilgrims. 
1 The son of Faridu’d-Din. See about him Mazliabw’ ¢ talibin (Ethe, 
op. cul., p. 321), Sawati‘u’l-anwar (ibid., p. 330), ete. 


