If such a person is well-behaved, and says prayers, he has the disposition of an ox, or sheep, and to kill him is lawful. On that account he ordered his self-conceited adversaries to be killed, as they were to be regarded as brute beasts; thus it is stated in the Koran:
“They are like brute beasts, nay worse.”
He said: whoever does not know himself, and has no notion of eternal life, and everlasting existence, is dead, and the property of a dead man, whose heirs are also as the dead, reverts to the living. On that account he ordered also the killing of the ignorant. When he found a Hindu knowing himself, he valued him higher than a Muselman. He and his sons practised for some time highway robbery. Of the wealth which he took from the Muselmans and others, he deposited the fifth part in a store-house, and when it was wanted, he distributed it among the most deserving people. He and his sons kept themselves all remote from adultery, lewdness, and unbecoming actions, as well as from despoiling the unitarians of their property, and refrained from using violence towards those who saw but one God.
He composed a great number of works in the Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and Afgháni,[29] languages. The Makśúd al Múmenín, “the desire of the right “believers,” is in Arabic. They say, that the All-just God conversed with him without the intervention of Jabril.[30] He composed also a book entitled Kháir-al-bíán, “the good news, or the gospel,” and this in four languages: the first in Arabic, the second in Persian, the third in Hindi, and the fourth in Pashtú, that is, the Afgháni language: the same purport is conveyed in the four languages. The address is from the All-just All-mighty God to the lord Báyezíd, and this they believe a work of divine inspiration. He is also the author of the Hálnámeh, in which he has given an account of himself.
The most astonishing circumstance therein is, that he was an illiterate man, and yet expounded the Koran, and uttered speeches full of truth, so that learned men were astonished at them.
It is said that Báyezid received the divine command for the destruction of those who know no God. Three times the all-just God had given him the order, and he put not his hand to the sword; but when it was repeated, unable to resist, he girt himself for the war against the infidels.
Báyezid was contemporary with the lord Mirzá Muhammed Hakim, the son of the lord Humáyún Pádshah. The author of this book has heard from Mirza sháh Muhammed, surnamed Ghazni Khán, the following account: “It was in the year of the Hejira 949 (A. D. 1542-3), that Miyàn Róshen gained strength and established his sect. My father, Sháh Baighkán Arghún, surnamed Khán-Dourán, said, he saw Míyán Báyezíd before his rising in rebellion, when he was brought to the court of Mirzá Muhammed Hakím, and the learned were confounded in the dispute with him, wherefore they let him take his departure on equitable terms.”[31] In the beginning of the year of the Hejira 994 (A. D. 1585-6) the intelligence of the death of the lord Mirzá Muhammed Hakim reached from Kabul, the ear of the Lord, dwelling in the ninth heaven. The sepulchre of Báyezid is at Bhatakpùr, in the hilly country of the Afghans.
[29] Bayezid Ansari is said to have been the first author who wrote in the Pashtu, or Afghan language.
[30] بی میانجی جبریل It is by mistake, it appears, that we find in Doctor Leyden’s translation: “The All-just addressed him through “Miyanji Jabrayil:” and the note referring to this passage is not applicable to it.
[31] Bayezid, after having obtained the adherence of several tribes of the Afghans, established himself in Hashtanagar, “eight townships,” in the middle of Pokhtanga, or Afghanistan, perhaps the country of the ancient Aspagani, mentioned by Pliny, and took his residence at Kaleder, in the district of Omazei, where he founded a city. From thence, under the title of Pír roshán, “master of light,” he issued proclamations to increase the number of his followers. Having become formidable to the government of the Moghuls, Mahsan khan ghazí, a chief of great merit, by a sudden irruption into Hashtanagar, seized the person of Bayezid, and carried him to Kabul, where, although at first subject to insult, he owed his release to the intercession of some influential persons, favorably disposed towards him. He then retired to the mountains of Totee, and further to those of Tirah, perhaps the district of the ancient Thiræi, mentioned by Arrian. Such was soon the new increase of his forces, that he dared proclaim his project to overthrow the power of the emperor Akbar. He descended into the plains of Ningarhar, sacked and burnt the country, but was overtaken by Mahsan Khan, and his army routed; he himself escaped with great difficulty, and died soon after, from the fatigues of his flight: he was buried at Hashtanagar.—(See on the Rosheniah sect and its founder, Asiat. Res., vol. XI. p. 387 et seq., by J. Leyden, M.D.)