A few days afterwards, the officers of state adopted the resolution to
invite the Sultan to go to another city, that they might take measures
to get rid of Sheykh Bāba. The Sultan now went to consult Jelāl, and
ask for his blessing before setting out. Jelāl advised him not to go.
The matter had, however, been officially promulgated, and there was no
possibility to alter arrangements.
On arriving at the other town, the Sultan was conducted to a private
apartment, and forthwith strangled with a bowstring. Ere his breath
failed, he invoked the name of Jelāl.
At that moment Jelāl was at his college, lost to consciousness in the
enthusiasm of a musical service. Suddenly, he put his two forefingers
into his two ears, and ordered the trumpets and chorus to join in. He
then shouted vociferously, and recited aloud two of his own odes, of
which one commences thus:
“My words were: ‘Go not; I’m thy friend; the world is rife
With threats of dire destruction; I’m the Fount of Life.’”
* * * * *
When the service was over, the disciples requested Jelāl’s son, Sultan
Veled, to inquire of his father what all this might signify. In reply,
he merely put off his cloak, and said aloud: “Let us perform the
service for the burial of the dead.”
He acted as Precentor in the service, and all present joined in.
Then, without waiting for his son to put any question, he addressed
the assembly, saying: “Yea, Bahā’u-’d-Dīn and my friends! They have
strangled the poor Sultan Ruknu-’d-Dīn. In his agony, he called on me,
and shrieked. God had so ordained. I did not wish his voice to ring in
my ears, and interrupt my devotions. He will fare better in the other
world.”
(There is a serious anachronism in the foregoing account. Sultan
Ruknu-’d-Dīn, whose name was Suleyman son of Key-Khusrew, was put to
death by order of the Mogul emperor Abaqa Khān, in A.H. 664 (A.D.
1265), thirty-six years before the final extinction of the dynasty by
order of Qāzān Khān, between Abaqa and whom no less than four emperors
reigned. Besides this, Jelāl himself died in A.H. 672 (A.D. 1273),
twenty-seven years before the last of the Seljūqī sovereigns, Key-Qubād
son of Ferāmurz son of Key-Kāwus, was slaughtered, together with all
living members of the race. Historians differ much respecting the names
and order of succession of the last sovereigns of the dynasty; and the
present anecdote shows how confused had become on the spot the legend
of these puppets. Ruknu-’d-Dīn caused his own brother to be poisoned,
as he had become jealous of the favour shown to that brother by the
Mogul emperor. His own death was the reward of that act.)
39.