68.
Sultan Veled is reported to have said: “My grandfather, the Great Master, used to recommend to his disciples to honour his son Jelāl exceedingly, as one of noble extraction and exalted pedigree, of an eternal descent in the past; since the mother of his mother was the daughter of the Imām Sarakhsī, a descendant from Huseyn, son of ‘Alī, and grandson of the Prophet.”
69.
Sultan Veled is also reported to have said: “My father told his disciples that I was seven, and my brother ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn eight years old, when the Dizdār Bedru-’d-Dīn Guhertāsh had us circumcised at Qara-Hisār.” (See chap. i., No. 12.)
He is also reported to have declared: “When the Sultan invited my grandfather to Qonya, a year passed, and then the Emīr Mūsa invited my grandfather to Larenda, and took my father to be his own son-in-law; so that I was born in that town.” (See chap. i., No. 2. The account now given here is at variance with that mentioned in the preface, which makes ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn and Bahā’u-’d-Dīn to have been born at Larenda before Jelāl and his father went to Qonya. Moreover, their mother, Gevher Khātūn, is there said to have been the daughter of Lala Sherefu-’d-Dīn of Samarqand. Is that an alias of the Emīr Mūsa of the present anecdote; or did Jelāl marry two ladies of Larenda at different times? There are several difficulties here. Sultan Veled puts only one year as the difference of age between himself and his elder brother. If the daughter of the Emīr Mūsa was the mother of both these brothers, Jelāl’s stay at Larenda must have been of about two years at least. If they were by different mothers, and born, the one before, the other after Bahā Veled’s settling at Qonya, there must have been a greater difference in their ages. Jelāl’s age at his marriage is also variously stated. These discrepancies show that the anecdotes were collected from traditions of various sources, long after the events recorded.)
70.
Sultan Veled is said to have related that one day, two Turks, law-students, brought to Jelāl an offering of a few lentils, excusing the paucity of the gift, as the result of their poverty. Jelāl thereupon narrated the following anecdote:—
“God revealed to Mustafa (Muhammed) that the believers should contribute of their possessions, for the service of God, as much as they could spare. Some brought the half, some the third part; Abū-Bekr brought the whole of what he possessed. Thus a large treasure was collected, of money, beasts, and arms, for God’s service.
“A poor woman, too, brought three dates and a cake of bread—all she had on earth.
“The disciples smiled. Mustafa perceived their action, and said that God had showed him a vision, which he desired to tell to them. They all begged he would favour them with the recital. He therefore thus proceeded: