The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14.74

v4.c14.74

Shaikh ‘Alā’ī continued, however, to preach, and the learned Shaikh Mubārak of Nāgaur, who played a very prominent part in Akbar’s reign and was ever in search of something new in the way of religion, attached himself to ‘Alā’ī and became a Mahdavī. Many of the courtiers too, who had at first jeered at the uncouth preacher, became, to the king’s indignation, his disciples. Islām Shāh hesitated to follow the advice of the orthodox theologians, who decreed that the heretic should be put to death, and banished him to the Deccan where the Mahdavī doctrines had many adherents, but ‘Alā’ī travelled no further than Handiya, the frontier-town on the Narbadā, where he converted the governor, Bihār Khān, and the greater number of his troops. ‘Alā’ī was then recalled.