Because the superior is a foe to the intelligent and Urfi to the stupid.”
At present some of Kaivan’s disciples, as far as the author’s acquaintance extends, are about to be enumerated.
Farzanah Kharrád, of the family of Mahbud, who had been the khan salar (royal table-decker or taster) to the equitable monarch Nushirvan,[325] and put to death through the sorcery of a Jew and the calumnies of a chamberlain, as recorded in the Shah Namah of the king of poets, Ferdúsi, and in other histories: Kharrad joined himself to Kaivan in the bazar of Shiraz, and practised religious austerities for many years. Farzanah Khushi has often mentioned in conversation, and has also frequently repeated in the Bazm-gah-i-Durvéshán, “the Durvesh’s banquetting-room,” the following circumstance: “I one day beheld Kharrad and Ardeshir (a descendant of Ardeshir Babegan,[326] and one of Kaivan’s disciples), standing face to face and mutually opposing each other: whenever Ardeshir wished to smite Kharrád with a sword, he appeared like a stone, so that when the sword came into contact with his body, it was instantly broken to pieces.”—In the year 1029 of the Hejirah (1620 A. D.) he became reunited to the pure uncompounded spirit. Buzurgi says:
“What is the soul? the seminal principle from the loins of destiny:
This world is the womb: the body its enveloping membrane:
The bitterness of dissolution, dame Fortune’s pangs of childbirth.
What is death? to be born again an angel of eternity.”
Farzanah Farshid wird was one of the Parsi village chieftains: his pedigree ascended to Farzanah Shedosh, who was one of the fifth Sassan’s[327] disciples. He also became attached to Azar Kaivan in the same place as Kharrad, and devoted himself to the service of the Almighty. Khushi relates as follows: “Farshid wird and Bahman used to stand facing each other; every arrow which Bahman discharged against Farshid wird, he used to cut in two with his sword: and whenever the latter let fly an arrow, Bahman with activity and address threw himself to one side and avoided it. But this is still more wonderful: whenever Bahman shot off a musket, Farshid let fly one at the same instant, and ball met ball, so that they both remained unhurt: sometimes also when Farshid Wird shot off his musket, Bahman used to move rapidly on one side.” In the year 1029 of the Hejirah (A. D. 1619) he hurried away from this abode of the elements to the skies. The Khajah Hafiz speaking on this subject, says:
“He never dies whose heart is quickened with love divine;
But remains for ever stamped on the records of our eternal world.”