Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 14.5.1

14.5.1

This Mir-aaly-ashgar-kobra was a Seyd of the town of Fateh-p8r-sicri, in the province of Mevat, and had been in the service of the famous Emir-qhan, Viceroy of Illah-abad, who was himself son to another famous Emir-qhan, Viceroy of Cab8l. His father, Mir-gholam-ahmed, a very shrewd, and very wary man, was likewise famous for courage and personal prowess. His son, in his youth, attached himself to a Dervish or Fakir, that is a Friar, who took care to initiate him early into many practices and customs used amongst those sort of people; so that he became an adept in all their arts, and in all their ways of life; and now become himself a proficient, he returned into the world, where he endeavoured by spreading the net of saintship and of holiness, to acquire power and authority; in fact he catched many a fish, and many an idiot, rose into celebrity, and assumed the surname of Kebra, that is, the great. But he had forged out another surname for himself, and this was that of Maassum-el-arefin, a strange title, the signification of which we must suppose he well knew. In his speeches to his idiot hearers, he made use of such a lofty style, that they thought him endowed with those celestial gifts and graces to which he laid a claim, and which he said had not been communicated to the most glorious Prophets and envoys.