The Institutes of Akbar 131.2

131.2

At the time when it was customary to get hold of, and kill, such as tried to introduce innovations in religious matters (as had been the case with Mír Habshí and others), Shaikh ’Abdunnabí and Makhdúm ul mulk, and other learned men at court, unanimously represented to the emperor that Shaikh Mubárik also, in as far as he pretended to be Mahdí, belonged to the class of innovators, and was not only himself damned, but led others into damnation. Having obtained a sort of permission to remove him, they despatched police officers, to bring him before the emperor. But when they found that the Shaikh, with his two sons, had concealed himself, they demolished the pulpit in his prayer-room. The Shaikh, at first, took refuge with Salím i Chishtí at Fathpúr, who then was in the height of his glory, and requested him to intercede for him. Shaikh Salím, however, sent him money by some of his disciples, and told him, it would be better for him to go away to Gujrát. Seeing that Salím took no interest in him, Shaikh Mubárik applied to Mírzá ’Azíz Kokah [Akbar’s foster-brother], who took occasion to praise to the emperor the Shaikh’s learning and voluntary poverty, and the superior talents of his two sons, adding that Mubárik was a most trustworthy man, that he had never received lands as a present, and that he [’Azíz] could really not see why the Shaikh was so much persecuted. The emperor at last gave up all thoughts of killing the Shaikh. In a short time matters took a more favourable turn;