Hazrat Shah Jalal (R) –
‘Shāh Jalāl ad-Dīn al-Mujarrad al-Naqshbandi’ - An Evidence-based Account[1]
Abu Raihan Muhammed
Khalid
In … A.H./… C.E. the traveller
Ibn Battuta took a … miles sea and land journey from the Maldives, a very long
detour, to meet a Sufi Darvish in the Kamrup region of Bengal, the area now
known as Sylhet in Bangladesh. In his travel account, the Rihla, Ibn Battuta
gave the following account of his meeting with the Darvish:
“The Vizier then furnished me
with provisions, and I sailed for "Bengal, which is an extensive and
plentiful country. I never saw a country in which provisions were so cheap. I
there saw one of the religious of the west, who told me, that he had bought
provisions for himself and his family for a whole year with eight dirhems. The
first town I entered here was "Sadkawan[2],*
which is large and situated on the sea-shore.
The king of Bengal was at this
time Fakhr Oddin: he was an eminent man, kind to strangers and persons of the
Sifi persuasion : but I did n& present myself to him, nor did I see him,
because he was opposed to the Emperor, .and was then in open rebellion against
him. From P8adkiiwiin I travelled for the mountains of Kiimrii, which are at
the distance of one month from this place. These are extensive mountains, and
they join @e 'mountains of Thibet, where there are musk gazelles. The
inhabitants of these mountains are, like the Turks, famous for their attention
to 'magic. My object in visiting these mountains was, to meet one of the saints,
namely, the Sheikh 'Jald Oddin of ~ebriz. This Sheikh was one of the greatest
saints, and one of those singular individuals who had the power of working
great and notable miracles. He had also lived to a remarkably great age. He
told me, that he had seen "El Mostaasim the Calif in Bagdad : and his
companions told me afterwards that he died at the age of one hundred and fifty
years; that he fasted through' a space of about forty years, never breaking his
fast till he had fasted throughout ten successive days. He had a cow, on the
milk of which he usually breakfasted; and his practice was to sit up all night.
It was by his means that the people of these mountains became Mohammedans; and
on this account it was, that he resided among them. One of his companions told me,
that on the day before his death he invited them all to come to him; he then
said to them : To-morrow I depart from you, Deo vokte, and my vicegerent with
you is'God besides whom there is no other God. When the evening of the following
day had arrived, and he had performed the last prostration of the evening
prayer, he was taken by God. On the side of the cave in which he had resided
was found a grave ready dug, and by it a winding sheet and burial spices. The
people then washed and buried him in them, and said their prayers over him.
When I was on my jour…”[3].
[1] I
started to write this document
on Friday the 26th October, 2017.
[2]
The special transliteration
symbols used by the translator to give effect to the Arabic pronunciations of
words of non-English origin are not given here. For one the author is not fully
familiar with them at the time of writing this and secondly, because the
software used in writing this account, the Microsoft Office Word 2010 does not
provide a ready tool for such writing.
[3]
THE TRAVELS Of Ibn Battuta; Translated from the Abridged Arabic Manuscripts
preserved in The Public Library of Cambridge with Notes, illustrations of the History,
Geography, Botany, Antiquities &c. occurring throughout the work by the REV.
SAMUEL LEE, B.D. London: Printed For The Oriental Translation Committee, and
sold by J. Murray, Albemarle Street; Purbury, Allen, & Co. Leadenhall Street,
and Howel & Stewart, Holborn, 1829. Pages 194 to 195.
