The Ismaili-Sufi Sage of Pamir: Mubarak-i Wakhani and the Esoteri ...

Although the name of the author is not clearly expressed, it is highly likely that he belonged to the family of those khūjas and used the term Gawhar-Rīz not only in the title of the book, but also as a personal nickname. For instance, he comments that, “Gawhar-Rīz is the brother and the obedient slave (ghulām-ialqa-bargush) of Khwāja-Jān (a local pīr)” (f. 75). In one of the concluding paragraphs, the author states that he composed the book in a poetic style (ba nam durust kardam). This opens up the possibility of assuming that the book was originally composed in prose (nathr) form before its transformation into a poetic style (nam). The author asserts that it took him five years to complete the work. The date of the completion of the manuscript (1246/1830) is provided in both number and letter forms in the last pages. It also ends by providing some historical events of the year and stresses the author’s membership of the family of the khūjas. Two quotations from the manuscript will suffice to illustrate this point.

I finished this book on Thursday of hijrat-i hurfī ghayn, rā, mim and wāw. It was the time when the people of Yumgān forced Sulaymān Khān into exile, when Muhammad Alī Bek, the lion of the battle, was crowned in the castle of Jurm (f. 75).¹⁹

Thanks to God that this copy (nuskha) was completed before the news of my death. It is the end of the book Gawhar-Rīz written by the son of Khwāja Abdul Nabī, son of Khwāja āli-i Yumgī from the family of the khūjas, whose line, through several generations (pusht), goes back to Sayyid Sūhrāb-i Valī, in the year of 1246 in Jurm (f. 79).²⁰