The Institutes of Akbar 132.2.7

132.2.7

The whole talk of the man was a mere repetition of the ideas of Mahmud of Basakhwán (a village in Gilán), who lived at the time of Tímúr. Mahmúd had written thirteen treatises of dirty filth, full of such hypocrisy, as no religion or sect would suffer, and containing nothing but ta’wíl, which name he had given to the ‘science of expressed and implied language.’ The chief work of this miserable wretch is entitled Bahr o Kúzah (the Ocean and the Jug), and contains such loathsome nonsense, that on listening to it one’s ear vomits. How the devil would have laughed into his face, if he had heard it, and how he would have jumped for joy! And this Sharíf—that dirty thief—had also written a collection of nonsense, which he styled Tarashshuh i Zuhúr, in which he blindly follows Mír ’Abdulawwal. This book is written in loose, deceptive aphorisms, each commencing with the words mifarmúdand (the master said), a queer thing to look at, and a mass of ridiculous, silly nonsense. But notwithstanding his ignorance, according to the proverb, ‘Worthies will meet,’ he has exerted such an influence on the spirit of the age, and on the people, that he is now [in 1004] a commander of One Thousand, and His Majesty’s apostle for Bengal, possessing the four degrees of faith, and calling, as the Lieutenant of the emperor, the faithful to these degrees.”