Ch.XXVI, p.620, f.1
"The extraordinary heroism with which Sulayman Khan bore these
frightful tortures is notorious and I have repeatedly heard it related how
he ceased not during the long agony which he endured to testify his joy
that he should be accounted worthy to suffer martyrdom for his Master's
cause. He even sang and recited verses of poetry, amongst them the
following: `I have returned! I have returned! I have come by the way of
Shiraz! I have come with winsome airs and graces! Such is the lover's
madness!' `Why do you not dance,' asked the executioners mockingly, `since
you find death so pleasant?' `Dance!' cried Sulayman Khan. `In one hand
the wine-cup, in one hand the tresses of the Friend. Such a dance in the
midst of the market-place is my desire!'" ("A Traveller's Narrative," Note
T, pp. 333-4.) He was martyred in August, 1852. "When they arrested
Sulayman Khan, and strove, in consideration of his faithful service and
loyalty, to induce him, by promises of rewards from the king, to abandon
the creed which he had adopted, he would not consent, but answered firmly:
`His Majesty the King has a right to demand from his servants fidelity,
loyalty, and uprightness; but he is not entitled to meddle with their
religious convictions.' In consequence of this boldness of speech, it was
ordered that his body should be pierced with wounds, and that into each of
these wounds a lighted candle should be inserted as an example to others.
Another victim was similarly treated. In this state, with minstrels and
drummers going in advance, they led him through the bazaars, and he,
meanwhile, with smiling countenance, kept repeating these verses:
`Happy he whom love's intoxication
So hath overcome that scare he knows
Whether at the feet of the Beloved
It be head or turban which he throws!'
Whenever one of the candles fell from his body, he would with his own
hand pick it up, light it from the others, and replace it. The
executioners, seeing in him such exultation and rapture said: `If thou art
so eager for martyrdom, why dost thou not dance?' Thereat he began to
leap, and to sing, in verses appropriate to his condition:
`An ear no longer dulled with ignorance
And self-subdued entitles one to dance.
Fools dance and caper in the market-place;
Men dance the while their life-blood flows apace.
When self is slain, they clap their hands in glee,
And dance, because from evil they are free.'
In such fashion did they lead these two forth through the gate of Shah
Abdu'l-Azim. When they were preparing to saw that brave man asunder, he
stretched out his feet without fear or hesitation, while he recited these
verses:
`I hold this body as of little worth;
A brave man's spirit scorns its house of earth.
Dagger and sword like fragrant basil seem,
Or flowers to deck death's banquet with their gleam.'"
(The "Tarikh-i-Jadid," pp. 228-30.)