The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.380

v3.c20.380

Baranī, notwithstanding his gratitude and his fears, is surprisingly frank. So overweening, he says, was the king’s pride that he could not endure to hear of a corner of the earth, hardly even of a corner of heaven, which was not subject to his sway. He would be at once a Solomon and an Alexander; nor did mere kingship content him, for he aspired to the office of prophet as well. His ambition was to make all the kings of the earth his slaves, and Baranī would liken his pride to that of Pharaoh and Nimrod, who claimed divinity as well as royalty, but that his scrupulous personal observance of the law and firm adherence to the faith of Islam cleared him of the suspicion of blasphemy and infidelity. He would compare him with Bāyazīd of Bustām and Husain, son of Mansūr-ul-Hallāj, who, in the ecstacy of their devotion, believed themselves to have been absorbed into the Godhead, but that his barbarous cruelty deprived him of any claim to sanctity.