Listen carefully: but if not, mercy still awaits thee:
This world is ideal; and ideality itself is but idea:
This existence which I call ideal, that likewise is idea.”
The second person treated of in the Samrad Namah of Kámkár was Nék Khoy; the third was Shád Késh; and the fourth, Máhyár: they were all engaged in commercial pursuits, and styled Moslem or true believers.
[373] Mahmud, the son of Sebekteghin, was the first monarch of the dynasty of Ghiznah, the foundation of which had been laid by his father. During a reign of 33 years (from 997 to 1030, A. D.) he made twelve expeditions to India, and established his domination in the western part of this country, out of which he possessed a still greater empire, which to the north-west extended over the whole of Persia, and was limited on the north-east by the river Oxus.—A. T.
[374] See about it hereafter the sixth chapter, which treats of the religion of the Musulmans.
[375] Upon Ismail Sofi, see [note] p. 52, 53. Ardistan or Ardastan is a town of the province called Icbal, or Persian Irak, 36 leagues distant from Ispahan.—A. T.
The sixth section of the Dabistan describes the tenets of the Khodaiyan.—This sect are followers of Khodádád, a Mobed, who lived during the decline of Jemshid’s power and the usurpation of Zohak. Khodádád held intelligences and souls to be simple uncompounded beings, and the stars and heavens to be the companions of God; each of which, in proportion to its proximity to the Almighty beyond other created beings, is so much more elevated in dignity: notwithstanding which we are not to account any being, whether the simple uncompounded or material, as a mediator or promoter between us and God; neither is there any occasion for prophets, because through the medium of reliance, the seeking out of God is attained, and we are to serve God alone. Among those who held these opinions in Lahore, in the year of the Hejirah 1049 (A. D. 1639) were seen Kamus and Fartúsh, both merchants.
The seventh section of the Dabistan describes the system of the Rádíán.—The chief of this sect was Rád Gúnah, one of the eminently brave, a lion-like hero, who, to beneficent acts and abstinence from cruelty to animals, joined the dignity of knowledge; he enjoyed distinguished honor and rank about the end of Jamshíd’s reign and the commencement of Zohák’s usurpation: his opinion is, that God is the same as the sun, whose bounty extends to all beings; and that the fourth heaven, by reason of its constituting the true centre of the seven heavens, is the seat of his glory and as his essence is pure good, his place must also be regarded as a proof of his goodness: besides this, his grace extends alike to all bodies, whether superior or inferior: moreover, as the heart, which is the sovereign of the body, is settled in the midst of the breast, such is also the rule and custom observed by renowned princes to fix the seat of government in the centre of their realms, so that their bounty as well as severity may be equally extended over the whole community; and, by such a measure, the repose of the people and the due regulations of the Rayas may be promoted. He asserted that the spirit of the heavens, the stars, and the three kingdoms of nature proceed from the solar spirit, and that their bodies return to the light of his body; that is, the virtuous return to him or some of the stars approximating to his glory, whilst sinners remain in the elemental world. He at first communicated these opinions secretly to his friends, but promulgated them fearlessly during the reign of Zohák. In the year of the Hejirah 1052 (A. D. 1642), the author, whilst journeying from Panjab to Kabul, met at the station of Ráwal Bundí two persons of this creed, and whose names were Hormuzd and Tírah Késh, who were skilled in all arts, abstinent, and remote from hurting any living being.
The eighth section of the Dabistan treats of the Shídrangíán creed.—Shídrang, a champion of Iran, who in battle was regarded as the acknowledged chief of the marshallers of armies, and joined profound knowledge in science to bravery in the field, always turned away most studiously from doing injury to the creatures of God. He appeared about the middle of Zohák’s reign, and soothed the serpents between the usurper’s shoulders. Shídrang unceasingly invited the people to adopt his faith, and had many followers: he maintained that Khoy and Manish, “disposition and constitution” or nature, to be God; according to his system, the state of man and other animals resembles that of herbage, which, when scattered about or dissolved, grows up again. A merchant, named Píl Ázár, who belonged to this sect, was met by the author in Kashmir in the year of the Hejirah 1040 (A. D. 1631).