Storia do Mogor 65.8.2

65.8.2

With reference to Sa'dullah Khan, I beg to inform the reader that the lord Dom Matheus, of Canarese race, was Bishop of Bichulim. He went into the Mogul realm to carry on a mission, and, desirous of obtaining a permit from the king, he came to court and prayed an audience, stating that he was a man who had come from a very distant country to make a proposition to the king. When he reached the royal presence Shahjahan recognised that he was a learned man of ascetic life. He therefore sent for all the most learned Mahomedan doctors; and when they had arrived the king gave permission to the bishop to speak. Thereupon Dom Matheus announced this proposition: 'A traveller in a foreign country met two persons, one of whom was sleeping and the other was awake. I ask your majesty, from which of them ought he to ask his way?' He put forward this proposition because the Mahomedans say that the Messiah is alive and awake, while Muhammad is sleeping until the Day of Judgment.