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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The Rashaḥāt is a Persian MS. dealing with the Naqshbandī Khwājās of Central Asia, and specially with the Samārkand saint Naṣīru-d-dīn 'Ubaid Ullah, commonly known by the epithets ḥaẓrat Īshān and Khwāja Aḥrār. The work is to some extent an introduction to Mr. Shaw's paper on the Khwājās which Mr. Ney Elias published in a Supplement to the JASB. for 1897. That paper treats of a much later period in the history of the Khwājās than does the Rashaḥāt, but they agree in tracing their descent from Imām J'afir Ṣādiq and from Ḥusain the grandson of Muḥammad.
page 59 note 1 In Rehatsek's Catalogue of the Mullā, Fīrīz Library, p. 230Google Scholar, a MS. called Lat
ifu-l-
arāīf, or “Anecdotes of Wits”, is entered, and is there attributed to Ḥusain Wā'i
. But it seems more probable, from the date on it, that it is the work of his son 'Alī. 'Alī is mentioned in the Ḥabīb-Siyar, , Bombay ed., ii, 341Google Scholar, where there is also an account of his father the Preacher. 'Alī is there called Fakhru-d-dīn 'Alī, and it is stated that in a.h. 929 (a.d. 1523) he was acting as Preacher, in succession apparently to his father, who had died in a.h. 910 (a.d. 1504–5). 'Alī, says the Ḥabīb, was the author of poems on MaḤmūd of Ghaznī and Ayāz and Laila and Majnūn.
page 59 note 2 This seems to be 'Alī's poetical cognomen. His full name was Fakhu-d-dīn 'Alī.
page 60 note 1 The number of copies of the work in existence shows that it was popular. It was also twice translated into Turkish, and the Persian text has been lithographed at Lucknow by the Newal Kishore Press-in 1897.
page 61 note 1 Begins at p. 114 of No. 634. Account of his death on p. 142b.
page 61 note 2 He died and was buried at Hamālgjatū or Hamalghanū, in what was then the district of Ḥiṣṣār-Shādmān, the Hissar La Gaie of Reclus, 's L'Asie Russe, p. 500Google Scholar; see MS. 634, pp. 54, 56, and the 
azīna Aṣfiyā, i, 567. The date of death is a.h. 851 (1447–8). Ḥisṣār is in Transoxiana and South-East Samarkand. It is now Russian territory.
page 62 note 1 p. 43b gives the date of his birth as Muḥarram, , 718 (03–04, 1318).Google Scholar He is buried on the road from Samarkand, to Bokhara, (Travels of Izzat Ullah, p. 57).Google Scholar It is four or five miles from the city (ib., p. 61). Vambéry visited the shrine on his way to Bokhara, (Story of my Struggles, Nelson ed., p. 191).Google Scholar
page 62 note 2 Ḥazrat Turkestan is a long way to the north of Tāshkend, and is on the road to Orenburg. See Reclus, , L'Asie Russe, p. 553.Google Scholar The Yasī saint succeeded wāja Ḥasan Andāqī, who was the second Khalīfa of Yūsuf Hamadānī, while Yasavī was the third. There is an account of the saint in the Ra
aḥāt, MS. 634, p. 6b. Timur built a grand mosque in his honour. See also the azīna Aṣfiyā, i, 531, the 'Aīn Akbarī, Jarrett, iii, 358Google Scholar, and Melioransky, 's article in the Encyclopœdia of Islam, p. 204.Google Scholar
I may here note that Dr. Rieu's statement that Dr. W. Pertsch has given “a full statement of the contents” of the Raaḥāt in his Gotha Catalogue is rather misleading. Pertsch had only access to a small portion of the work—seventy-three folios—and his account only refers to that portion, and consists chiefly of a list, in Persian, of the contents of the above-mentioned folios.
page 62 note 3 The name seems to be ‘Ambar, or ‘Anbar Ānā. Perhaps it means “the lady of musky tresses”.
page 65 note 1 It seems to be also wālidain in No. 634, p. 201b, but possibly it is wālidān and honorific for the father.Google Scholar
page 66 note 1 The date of birth is given at p. 202 of the Raaḥāt as Ramaẓān, , 806 (03–04, 1404).Google Scholar He died, according to the same authority (pp. 342–3), on the night of Saturday, the last day of Rabī'u-l-āwwal, , 895 (02 21, 1490).Google Scholar On Tuesday, 24 Rabī'u-l-ākhir, 893 (April 8, 1488), he remarked, it is said, that if he lived 3 years 4 months longer he would be 90 complete. He must have meant 4 months and some days, for 4 months from 24 Rabī'u-l-ākhir would only carry him to 24 Sha'bān. The Ḥabib says he died i n 896, and gives 'Alī Sher's chronogram Khuld Barīn (eternal paradise), which yields 896. But if the Raaḥāt be correct, this is one year too much. wājā Aḥrār, and also his son Yaḥīa (John) and two of his grandchildren, are buried in Samarkand, (Raaḥāt, 634, p. 307b).Google Scholar
page 67 note 1 Jesus being specially celebrated in the East for His healing powers and His raising up of the dead.
page 67 note 2 He told a story that may remind us of St. Martin of Tours. A beggar asked alms of him, and having nothing else to bestow he took off his turban and gave it to him.
page 69 note 1 He is described in Bābur's Memoirs, Erskine, , p. 25Google Scholar, as having excellent judgment, but as impudent and voluptuous. He fell in one of Bābur's battles.
page 72 note 1 Bābur is said to have had another dream in which a grandson of wājā Aḥrār played a part. But the passage is spurious, and probably added by Jahāngīr. It occurs in the Memoirs at the end of the year 908 (Mrs. Beveridge's translation, Appendix D in fase. i). The passage says that wājā Ya'qūb, the son of wājā Yaḥyā (John) and grandson of 'Ubaid Ulla, appeared to Bābur when the latter was in great danger. There are several reasons for doubting the genuineness of the passage, which does not occur in the Persian translations. One is that wājā Yaḥyā had no son called Ya'qūb. He had three sons, but two of them were named Zechariah and 'Abdul Bāqī, and were murdered by the Uzbegs in 1500. There was a third son who escaped death, but he was called Muḥammad Āmīn and not Ya'qūb (Raaḥāt, MS. 634, p. 307b). From this B. M. MS. it appears to be uncertain if he did escape. He was told to cross the Oxus as soon as possible, but there is a remark about his being made to join the others, which seems to imply that he was murdered as well as his father and two brothers.
page 73 note 1 wājā Yaḥīā was also highly admired by the poet Jāmī.
page 74 note 1 So says MS. No. 634, but the B.M. MS. Or. 212 and the I.O. Library copy No. 633 tell the story differently. They have a long account of the martyrdoms. They say that Sultan 'Alī, the unfortunate son of Sultan Maḥmūd and Zohra, came out of Samarkand and surrendered himself to Shaibāni, on 1st Muḥarram, 906 (07 28, 1500)Google Scholar, and that wājā Yaḥīā and others came out next day. Shaibāni did not behave well to them, and ordered them to be detained and put in chains. wājā Yaḥīā wept when he saw chains put on his son Zechariah, and said that wājā Aḥrār foresaw the evil fate of his son and grandson when he called the one Yaḥīā (John the Baptist) and the other Zechariah (who was sawn asunder, according to the Muḥammadans). At last Yaḥīā and his family were allowed to go to Persia, but the Uzbegs pursued them, apparently by Shaibāni's orders, and took Yaḥīā and his two sons to a place which is called the Desert of Krārzūn, or perhaps we should read Dasht wājikā rozan (the desert called the wājikā's window?). Some of the party escaped, and they took the bodies of the martyrs to Qarshī, where they were kept for three months and eventually removed to wājā Aḥrār's sepulchre in Samarkand. It was probably the desire to get possession of wājā Yaḥīa's wealth, presumably inherited from his father, that led to the murders. All the MSS. mention a place called Tāshkend in connexion with the murders, but evidently this cannot be the well-known city of Tāshkend. That lies a long way to the north-north-east of Samarkand and quite out of the way to Persia, whither Yaḥīā was going. He was travelling to Bokhara via Karmīna, and the Tāshkend mentioned in the texts must be some small place to the west of Samarkand. As P. de Courteille remarks (i, 174, note), Kārzan, where, according to Bābur, the murders took place, is a dependency of Samarkand. It is also mentioned in Yāqūt, , iv, 22.Google Scholar (In Bābur's Memoirs it is written Kārdzan.)