Page:A Moslem seeker after God - showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century (IA moslemseekeraft00zwem).pdf/72

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were said to excel in it all the rest of the world. Witness the story, related in Sa adi’s Gulistan, if I remember well, of the merchant of Merv, who would not allow his son to eat cheese, but made him rub his bread against the glass cover under which it was kept/

To prove the stupidity of the Khorasanis to-day, Major P. M. Sykes * tells a story of three Persians who met and were all praising their own provinces. The Kermani said, " Kerman produces fruit of seven colours." The Shirazi continued, " The waters of Ruknabad issue from the very rock." But the poor Khorasani could only say, " From Khorasan come all the fools like myself."

Yet Khorasan, in the words of Hujwiri, was that land " where the shadow of God’s favour rested," as regards the teaching of the Mystics. He men tions nine leading Sufis who belong to Khorasan, and taught there before Al-Ghazali’s day, all of them distinguished for the " sublimity of their aspiration, the eloquence of their discourse, and the sagacity of their intelligence." He then goes on to say: " It would be difficult to mention all the sheikhs of Khorasan. I have met three hundred in that province alone who had such mystical en dowments that a single man of them would have been enough for the whole world. This is due to

1 " The Glory of the Shiah World," London, 1910. In this book we have an interesting picture of Mashad and Tus as they are to-day.