The Mirror of Secrets: “Akhi” Jamshed Rajgiri (Persian)

Abstract

Jamshed Rajgiri was born in eastern Uttar Pradesh in the late fourteenth century. His story was recorded by Abd al-Rahman Chishti in his collection of stories written in Persian about Indian Sufi saints of the Chishti lineage, Mir’at al-Asrar (The Mirror of Secrets).¹ Although this account was written more than two centuries after Akhi’s death, the author mentions that an account of Akhi’s life was written by his own nephew, Shaykh Qiyam al-Din. This later account is therefore based on narratives written in Akhi’s own time. It has been published in an Urdu translation, which omits many details, such as the description of the cross-dressed youths.² My translation has been rendered from the Persian manuscript, which is far more vivid and detailed than the Urdu version.