History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c2.s1.27

c2.s1.27

These tall talks under a fit of drunkenness were nothing compared to the organised conspiracy of some noblemen under the eigis of one Sīdī Maulā. Sīdī had first come from Persia to Ajodhan in the service of Shaikh Farīduddīn Shakarganj.²⁰ According to Ferishtah Sīdī was a Darvesh (saint) and had come to Delhi in the beginning of Balban's reign. He recited the Namāz but never visited the Jama' Masjid and did not pray in congregation. He practised great austerity, ate frugally and denied himself all the pleasures of the senses.²¹ He led the life of celibacy and kept no maid-servant or slave. He did not accept anything from the people but spent so lavishly that they suspected him of possessing knowledge of alchemy and natural magic (Kīmyā va Sīmyā). He built a great Khānqāh at Ajod Gate²² where people flocked from all quarters. He used to pay for what he bought by the queer way of telling the man to take such and such amount from under such and such brick or coverlet, and the *tankahs* found there looked so bright as if they had been brought from the mint that very moment.²³ So many people dined at Sīdī's table every day that if Barani is to be believed two thousand *man* of flour (maida), five hundred *man* of meat and an equal quantity of ghī (roghan), two to three hundred *man* of sugar and a hundred to two hundred *man* of vegetables used to be consumed in his kitchen every day. So much money was spent and so many kinds of dishes were served at the monastry as even the greatest nobles could not afford.²⁴