Chapter II: Section I: ――Of the appearance of the individual Váhed, and an account

of his person.

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Váhed Mahmúd was born in Masjuan, a village in the country of Gilán.[10] He was learned, active, abstinent, austere, and eloquent; he appeared in the year of the Hejira 600 (A. D. 1203-4).[11] It is said that when Muhammed’s body had attained a greater perfection, from it _Mahmúd_ arose:

“We shall resuscitate thee in a place _Mahmúd_ ‘praiseworthy.’”

The meaning of it is this: When in an elemental matter, the energy conjoins in such a manner that by it an exuberance results in the composition of the mineral form; then it may happen that it assumes such a superior aptness as to invest itself with a vegetable guise; when its faculty and fitness gains a further increase, then the animal vest adapts itself to a suitable shape, and becomes worthy, that the elemental matter, fitted for the dignity of a human constitution, converges to such an excellence as to manifest itself in the perfection of mankind. In this manner, the parts of the human body from the appearance of Adam were progressing in purity, until they attained the dignity of a Muhammed, who is the top of the ladder. In this time, as the perfection and purity advanced, _Mahmúd_ appeared. On that account it was said:

“From Muhammed is the flight to Mahmúd:
As in the former there is less, and in the latter more
(perfection).”

And the words which the lord of the prophetic asylum, Mohammed, addressed to Alî:

“I and Ali proceed from one light; thy flesh is my
flesh, and thy body is my body.”

have this meaning: that the purity and energy of the bodily parts were collected in the prophets and the saints; and from them the bodies of Mohammed and Ali were kneaded, in such a manner that the chosen parts of Mohammed’s and Ali’s bodies being conjoined and mixed together, the person of _Mahmúd_ was formed.

[10] A country between the Caspian and Euxine seas.

[11] Herbelot mentions (under the article Giogathai Khan, p.
363) a _Mahmud_, surnamed _Tarabi_, from his native place
_Tarab_, near Bokhara, as an impostor, who by tricks and
false miracles gained so many followers as to be able to
seize upon the town of Bokhara, and to make war upon the
Moghuls, in the year of the Hejira 630 (A. D. 1232). This
date makes him a contemporary with the Mahmúd of our text,
in which, however, nothing more is to be found for enabling
us to identify the one with the other. Such was the terror
which the name of Mahmùd Tarabi inspired, that the Tartars,
being led against his camp, were seized by a panic, and took
to flight, in which many thousands of them were slaughtered
by the pursuing soldiers of Mahmúd, whilst he himself had
been killed in his camp, by a random shot of an arrow from
the Tartarian army. But his death remained concealed, and
his friends spread the rumor of his voluntary but temporary
disappearance. His brothers, Muhammed and Ali, were put at
the head of the party, which was soon after overthrown by
the Moghuls.

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