Muntakhab al-tawarikh 79.4.4

79.4.4

In this year low and mean fellows, who pretended to be learned, but were in reality fools, collected evidence (P. 287), that His Majesty was the Çâhib-i-Zamân, who would remove all differences of opinion among the seventy-two sects of the Islam and the Hindus. Sharif brought proofs from the writings of Mahmud of Basakhwan, that he had said that in the year 990 a certain person would abolish lies, and how he had specified all sorts of interpretations of the expression "Professor of the true Religion," which came to the sum-total 990. And Khwajah Moulana of Shiraz, the heretic of Jafrdan, came with a pamphlet by some of the Sharifs of Makkah, in which a tradition was quoted to the effect that the earth would exist for 7,000 years, and as that time was now over the promised appearance of the Mahdi would immediately take place. The Moulana also brought a pamphlet written by himself on the subject. The Shiahs mentioned similar nonsense connected with 'Ali, and quoted the following Ruba'i, which is said to have been composed by Nasir-i-Khusrou, 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, the day of Leo, The Lion of God will stand forth from behind the veil." All this made the Emperor the more inclined to claim the dignity of a prophet, perhaps I should say, the dignity of something else.