Eflākī informs us that he undertook the compilation of his work at the express desire of his spiritual teacher, Chelebī Emīr ‘Ārif. The preface gives the year A.H. 710 (A.D. 1310) as that of its commencement, and the colophon at the end mentions A.H. 754 (A.D. 1353) as the date of its completion. He thus spent forty-three years in his labour of love. The copy used for the present translation was written in A.H. 1027 (A.D. 1617), and belongs to the library of the India Office, being No. 1670. It is a quarto volume of 291 numbered folios of two pages each folio, and twenty-three lines in each page. It is subdivided into a preface, of two folios, and ten chapters of very different lengths, thus: 1. Acts of Bahā’u-’d-Dīn Veled, Sultānu-’l-‘Ulemā 14 folios. 2. Acts of Seyyid Sirr-Dān, Burhānu-’d-Dīn, Termizī 5 ” 3. Acts of Mevlānā Jelālu-’d-Dīn, Muhammed 155 ” 4. Acts of Shemsu-’d-Dīn, Tebrīzī 23 ” 5. Acts of Sheykh Salāhu-’d-Dīn, Zer-Kūb 11 ” 6. Acts of Husāmu-’d-Dīn, Khalīfa of God 14 ” 7. Acts of Mevlānā Bahā’u-l’Alcoran-Dīn, Sultān Veled 13 ” 8. Acts of Chelebī Emīr ‘Ārif 45 ” 9. Acts of Chelebī Emīr ‘Ābīd, &c. 6 ” 10. Genealogical 2 ” —- Total 288 The work contains many hundreds of anecdotes, related to Eflākī by trustworthy reporters, whose names are generally given, and a few for which he vouches himself as an eyewitness. Every anecdote is the account of a miracle wrought by the living or the dead; or is the narrative of some strange or striking event. It is, in fact, a species of the Acts of the Apostles of the Mevlevī dervish fathers, and is a rare specimen of what fervid religious enthusiasm can invent or exaggerate, pious credulity can believe, and confiding ignorance accept. In these days of Christian “Spiritualism,” let not the reader be over-shocked at learning that Muslim “Saints,” lovers of their Creator, and beloved by Him in return, hold themselves and are held by their dervish brethren to be the successors and spiritual inheritors of the prophets, from Adam to Muhammed; that, in virtue of this spiritual communion with God, they know all the secrets and mysteries of heaven and earth, and not only suspend or overrule the laws of nature at their will, but also deal out death or disease by their anger, health or prosperity by their blessing; the whole in strict accordance, however, with the eternal will and foreknowledge of Him by whom alone all things are made.