The Institutes of Akbar 135.2.2

135.2.2

“In this year (988) low and mean fellows, who pretended to be learned, but were in reality fools, collected evidences that His Majesty was the Cáhib i Zamán, who would remove all differences of opinion among the seventy-two sects of the Islam. Sharif of Amul brought proofs from the writings of Mahmúd of Basakhwán (vide above, p. 177), who had said that, in 990, a man would rise up who would do away with all that was wrong. And Khwajah Mauláná of Shíráz, the heretic of Jafrdán, came with a pamphlet by some of the Sharifs of Makkah, in which a tradition was quoted that the earth would exist for 7,000 years, and as that time was now over, the promised appearance of Imám Mahdi would immediately take place. The Mauláná also brought a pamphlet written by himself on the subject. The Shi’ahs mentioned similar nonsense connected with ’Ali, and some quoted the following Ruba’i, which is said to have been composed by Naçir i Khusrau, or, according to some, by another poet:— In 989, according to the decree of fate, The stars from all sides shall meet together. In the year of Leo, the month of Leo, and on the day of Leo, The Lion of God will stand forth from behind the veil. All this made His Majesty the more inclined to claim the dignity of a prophet, perhaps I should say, the dignity of something else.” [p. 291.]