The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.197

v4.c20.197

On 9 January, 1721, Muhammad Shāh married the daughter of Farrukh-siyar, and on 30 January the minister, Muhammad Amīn Khān, died of colic. His death was attributed to the magical arts of a Persian adventurer named Mīr Muhammad Husain, who calling himself Namūd announced himself as the prophet of a new religion, described in a volume of scripture in a strange language of which he was the sole interpreter. He had acquired a considerable following, and Muhammad Amīn Khān, whose fierce bigotry was notorious, resolved to punish the heresiarch and sent soldiers to arrest him. When the colic which had already attacked the minister suddenly grew worse, Namūd was taxed with having cast a spell upon him and admitted that he had. He declined to remove it and predicted his oppressor’s immediate death. The fulfilment of his prediction greatly increased his influence among the vulgar and secured him from the attacks of the powerful. Namūd died two or three years later and was succeeded by his son, who bore the fanciful name of Numā Namūd. This avaricious successor deprived his father’s chief disciple Dūjī Bār of the share of the offerings which he had hitherto enjoyed and Dūjī Bār in his wrath exposed the fraud. When the fabrication of the creed and scriptures was known the sect lost all its followers save a few fools.