’Abdul Qâdir Jilâni, who is said to take his name from Jil, a village near Bâghdâd, is another noted saint. He is also known as Pîr-i-Dastgîr, Pîr-i-’Azam, Ghaus-ul-’Azam, and was born in 1078 A.D., and died at Bâghdâd. Some say that he is identical with Mîrân Sâhib, who is worshipped all over Northern India. He is said to have been a magician, and to have subdued to his service a Jinn named Zain Khân, whom he treated with great cruelty. One day the Jinn surprised his master in a state of uncleanness and slew him, but even then he was unable to escape from the influence of this arch-magician, who rules him in the world of spirits. Mîrân Sâhib is said to be buried at Ajmer, but he has Dargâhs at Amroha, in the Morâdâbâd District, at Benares and at Bûndi. By another account the tomb at Amroha is that of Shaikh Saddu or Sadr-ud-dîn, who was once a crier of the mosque, and near his are pointed out the tombs of his mother Ghâziyâ or Asê and of Zain Khân, the Jinn. The saint of Jalesar, Hazrat Pîr Zari, is also known as Mîrân Sâhib, and he is by some identified with the Amroha worthy. In Karnâl he is said to have led the Sayyid army against the Râja of Tharwa, and had his head carried off by a cannon ball during the battle. He did not mind this, and went on fighting. Then a woman in one of the Râja’s villages said—“Who is fighting without his head?” upon which the body said—“Haq! Haq!” “The Lord! the Lord!” and fell down dead, calling out—“What? Are not these villages upside down yet?” upon which every village in the Râja’s territory was turned upside down and everyone killed except a Brâhman girl, the paramour of the Râja. Their ruins remain to authenticate the story. Now the saint and his sister’s son, Sayyid Kabîr, are jointly worshipped. We shall meet this headless hero again in the case of the Dûnd, and it will be remembered that a similar legend is told of Ghâzi Miyân.
Villages Overturned.
Of these villages which were overturned by a curse we have many examples all over the country. The ruins at Bakhira Dih in Basti are said to have been a great city which was overthrown because a Râja seduced a Brâhman girl. At Batesar in Agra is the Aundha Khera, which records a similar catastrophe. So Bângarmau in Unâo is called the Lauta Shahr or “overthrown city,” because Mîrân Sâhib destroyed it to punish the curiosity of the Râja who wanted to know why the robes of the saint which a washerman was washing gave forth a divine perfume. So the town of Kâko was overwhelmed by the saint Bîbî Kamâlo because the Buddhist Râja gave her a dish cooked of the flesh of rats, which came to life when she touched them. At Besnagar in Bhopâl the king and his subjects clung to a heavenly chariot and were carried to the skies and their city was overthrown, and the saint Qutb Shâh overturned the city of Sunit because the Râja used to kill a child daily to cure an ulcer with which he was afflicted.[74]
Abû ’Ali Qalandar is hardly known beyond the Panjâb. He came from Persia and died at Pânipat in 1324 A.D. He is usually known as Bû ’Ali Qalandar, and it is said that he used to ride about on a wall. He prayed so constantly that it was laborious to get water for his ablutions each time; so he stood in the Jumnâ, which then ran past the town. After standing there seven years the fishes had gnawed his legs and he was so stiff that he could hardly move, so he asked the Jumnâ to step back seven paces. She, in her hurry to oblige the saint, went back seven Kos or ten miles, and there she is now.[75]
Many other saints are said to have had similar power over rivers. So recently as 1865 A.D., a miraculous bridge of sand was built over the Jumnâ at Karnâl by the prayer of a Faqîr, of such rare virtue that lepers passing over and bathing at both ends were cured; but the people say that the bridge had got lost when they came there.[76] It was only the prayers of the saint Farîd-ud-din Shakkarganj which stopped the westward movement of the Satlaj, and the intercession of a holy Rishi changed the course of the river at Bâgheswar.[77]
Bû ’Ali gave the Pânipat people a charm which dispelled all the flies from the town, but they grumbled and said that they rather liked flies; so he brought them back a thousandfold. He was buried first at Karnâl, but the Pânipat people claimed his body, and opened his grave, whereupon he sat up and looked at them till they became ashamed. They then took away some bricks for the foundation of a shrine; but when they got to Pânipat and opened the box, they found his body in it; so he is now buried in both places, and there is a shrine erected over the place where he used to ride on the wall.
Malâmat Shâh.
Malâmat Shâh is treated with much respect in Bârabanki. The disciple in charge of his tomb calls the jackals with a peculiar cry at dusk. They devour what is left of the offerings, but will only touch such things as are given with a sincere mind and not to be seen of men. A religious tiger is also said to come over from Bahrâich and pay an annual visit to the shrine.[78]