Acts of the Adepts : Holy Mesnevi Book 1

Excerpt from Preface

THE historian El Eflaki was a disciple of Chelebi Emir 'Arif, a grandson of the author of the Mesnevi. 'Arif died in A.D. 1320; but as the dates of 'Arif's successors are carried down to A.H. 754 (A.D. 1353), when Eflaki's collection of anecdotes was completed, the historian must have outlived this last date. As a disciple of the Emir 'Arif, he was a dervish of the order named Mevlevi, as being followers of the rule and practices of Mevlana Jelalu-'d-Din, er-Rumi, commonly known in English literature as "the dancing dervishes," expressed by Americans: "whirling dervishes." The dervishes of the order do not all dance or "whirl." Some are musicians, and some singers or chanters, who may, however, be occasional dancers also.

Eflaki's work gives a sufficiency of dates to fix the principal events that he commemorates. His dates do not agree exactly with those found in other historians. They are, however, sufficiently near for general purposes not of a chronologically critical nature. They commence with A.H. 605 A.D. (1208), and thus cover a period of 145 years dated, besides another 30 years of the lifetime of Jelal's grandfather undated, who was a noble of such high standing and of so great a reputation for learning and sanctity at Balkh, that the king gave him his only daughter in marriage, unsolicited. His mother was also a princess of the same royal house with his wife.

This royal house was the one known in history as that of Kh'arezm-shah or the Kharezmians. They were overthrown, and Balkh (the ancient Bactra, or Zariaspa), their capital, destroyed, by Jengiz Khan in A.D. 1211. A remnant of their kingdom was continued for twelve years longer by the last of the line, who died, at once a fugitive and an invader, in Azerbayjan, in a battle fought against the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor.

Excerpt:

For forty days the disciples at Termiz mourned for the death of the great teacher. At the end of that period the Seyyid said: "The son of my master, his successor, Jelalu-'d-Din Muhammed, is left alone and is wishing to see me. I must go to the land of Rome and place myself at his service, delivering over to him the trust which my teacher confided to my safe-keeping."

3.

When the Seyyid reached Qonya, Baha Veled had been dead about a year, and Jelal had gone to Larenda. The Seyyid applied himself for several months to devotional seclusion in one of the mosques of Qonya; after which he sent off a letter to Jelal by the hands of two mendicants, saying: "Come and meet this stranger to thee at the resting-place of thy father, for Larenda is not a place of permanency for thee. From that hill (on which Baha's mausoleum was built) a fire will shower down on the city of Qonya."

After reading this epistle Jelal returned to Qonya with all possible despatch. There he went at once to visit the Seyyid, who came forth from the mosque to receive him. They embraced. They now entered into conversation on various subjects. So delighted was the Seyyid with the expositions set forth by Jelal that he kissed the soles of his feet, and exclaimed: "A hundredfold hast thou surpassed thy father in all knowledge of the humanities; but thy father was versed also in the mysteries of mute reality and ecstasy. From this day forward my desire is that 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 Jelal 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.

Husamu-'d-Din told us that Jelal had informed him of the following occurrence:- The Seyyid once arrived at a certain city in Khurasan named Samanek. The chief people went forth to meet him and show him honour, all excepting the Sheykhu-'l-Islam 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, Ramazan, 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 Helagu, 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.)