200 AMONG HISTORIC SITES
Bayazid was a notably pious dervish of the mystic order of Sufis, a deep philosophic thinker, and, it is said, a poet also.^ His Sufiism made him a true pantheist, seeking trancendental union with the all-embracing Spirit of God — * Whatever attains to True Being is absorbed into God and becomes God,' he is re- ported to have said in the theosophic language which describes man's unity with the Divine. ^ His sanctity was such that he is said to have wrought miracles, and that wounds which were inflicted upon his person, when in a state of ecstatic religious frenzy, appeared on the bodies of those who inflicted them.^ His townsmen even feared his supernatural power, and cast him out seven times from the city, only to receive him back again, and his devoted followers formed a dervish sect that was honored for centuries afterwards.*
A tenet he inculcated from the beginning was that of loving- kindness, to be shown not only towards one's fellow-creatures, but also towards animals. This was a trait borrowed originally from Buddhism, and a picturesque story is told regarding Bay- azid and his friend Kasim, whose acquaintance we have made above. It seems that on one occasion, when the two were pass- ing between Shahrud and Bustam, an ant was noticed on a cloth in their belongings, and both agreed that an inhuman act had been committed in carrying the insect, even unwittingly, away from its home. At Kasim's request, Bayazid set out on the road to restore it where it belonged ; whereupon a supernatural light shone round the first saint's head, upon seeing which the inhabitants of both towns struggled so violently for the posses-
1 His full name is given as Taifur pp. 106-108, London, 1911, and an
ibn Isa, or as Abu Yazid ; see Eth6, elaborate biography (not yet trans-
in Orundr. iran. Philol. 2. 272, who lated) in Farid ad-Din 'Attar's Tadh-
states that he was ninety years old at kirat al-Avliyd, ed. Nicholson, 1. 134-
the time of his death, 874-876 x.d. For 179, London, 1905.
other details compare Browne, Liter- * See Browne, Lit. Hist. 1 . 427.
ary History of Persia, 1. 426-428. « See Fraser, p. 339.
There is a brief biography of Bayazid * See Eth6, op. cit. 2. 272, 364 ; and
in Nicholson's translation of The Nicholson, The Kashf al-Mahjub, pp.
Kashfal-Mahjuh, by 'Uthman Hujwiri, 184-188.
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