Book: Guru Nanak And The Sikh Religion Author: W.H. McLeod
Reviewed By: Raj Vir Singh
In Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion Dr. W.H. McLeod observes:
We may with good reason decide that most of the incidents which are recorded of his travels beyond his own province are products of imagination. (p.88)
Discussiong the Guru's visit to Baghdad, he holds it as "un-substantiated possibility...a remote possibility, not a strong one"(p.125, 132) betraying an attitude of scepticism and incredulity as if the writings of even such worthy persons as Bhai Gurdas, whose compositions were declared to be the key to Gurbani by the Gurus, lacked authencity and were devoid of the element of historicity, ignoring the fact that Bhai Gurdas's writings are at least semi-contemporary, if not contemporary, for he was born only seven years after the death of Guru Nanak whose life and traditions, by then, must have been fresh in the memory of the people concerned.
And then he was no ordinary person, unconnected, unconcerned or uneducated. On the other hand, he enjoyed intimate knowledge of the Guru's works and words being the celebrated scribe chosen for penning down the Adi Granth by Guru Arjan Dev in 1603-04 and belonged to the family of the Gurus, being related both to Guru Angad and to Guru Arjan Dev.
Dr. McLeod seems to be conscious of the unique position of Bhai Gurdas and semi-apologetically qualifies his lack of belief by saying that he does not suggest that Bhai Gurdas "has related to delibrate falsehood." To him, the likelihood appears to be that he (viz Bhai Gurdas) had recorded "a Sakhi which had already evolved in oral tradition, gathering in the process, a number of miraculous details."(p.126) The bare seven years interval between the death of Guru Nanak and the birth of Bhai Gurdas is too short a period for the evolution of any baseless traditions which in any case would have been rejected by the latter, an eminent man of learning and erudition.
The October-November 1969, issue of The Sikh Review furnished authentic evidence to decisively establish the fact of Guru Nanak's visit to Baghdad in 1511AD. Still, in this article I propose to examine at some length the historical and literary points raised by Dr McLeod leading him to discredit the pertinent evidence of the Baghdad inscription whose veracity and reliability he has challenged on the following counts:
(i) Language
(ii) Prosody
(iii) Interpretation, and
(iv) Chronogram
Regarding, (i) Language of the rock inscription, Dr McLeod holds that it is Ottoman Turkish, difficult to translate and it would be very surprising to find an Ottoman Turkish inscription of this date (1511AD) in Baghdad, first occupied by the Ottomans in 1534.
a rare but standard metre of Persian and Turkish poetry. In the second line of the quatrian the words "Baba Nanak faquir" should have five syllables and, therefore, do not fit in the verse, for the words constitute six or seven syllables scanning --uu---. He says further that whereas "the vowels of the Turkish word 'Baba' are by nature short, it would be a grave fault of poetry to shorten the long vowel of Nanak in order to satisfy the demands of the metre."
Regarding (iii) Interpretation, Dr McLeod holds that the stone inscription has been painted over several times and is difficult to read. The first word is 'gor' meaning "to behold" and not Guru, hazrat-i-rabbi-majid refers to God.
Agreed. Murad of course means a wish. But there is no reason to read no'ab (a new source of water) as thwab (merit) if not just to discredit the chronogram as intended by McLeod.
Regarding (iv) the Chronogram, Dr McLeod holds that such riddles appeared much later, in 18th century and that the date seems to have been tempered with, the year in the inscription had four figures, the fourth figure appears to have been erased and the original was 1226 and not 917 A.H.
McLeod's Theory Exploded
Language
The language of the rock inscription is Ottoman Turkish bearing Persian and Arabic influences and it would not be correct to hold that Baghdad could not have such Turkish inscriptions in 1511, before its final occupation by the Ottomans in 1534.
The Ottomans rose to power from among the descendents of Persianized Seljuqs in the middle of the 13th century and absorbed their culture. The Seljuq Turks over-awed the Abbasid Caliph Qam of Baghdad and Tughril Beg grandson of Seljuq was made a Sultan. Arab predominance was destroyed little by little. Malik Shah's name (1072-1092) was uttered in prayers from Mecca to Baghdad. The original Osmanis had merged at an early stage with the Seljuqs (Encyclopaedia Brittanica Vol.22, p.582, 619, 924):
The Ottoman Turks reached the Euphrates in the 13th century. Their leader Osman founded the Ottoman Empire in 1295. Mohammad II, the Conqueror (1452-1481), conquered Constantinople in 1453 and was the organizer of the fabric of Ottoman administration. Baghdad, on the Tigris and about 25 miles from the Euphrates fell under Turkoman domination at the begining of the 15th century. Thereafter it was aprey to the warring factions of the Turks and Persians.
In 1516, the country (Iraq) finally passed to the Turks. (Lands and People Vol. III, p.221).
In the perspective of the above stated historic background of Baghdad finding of an inscription in Turkish dated 1511 should not surprise anybody for the Turks then held dominent sway over Baghdad even before its final occupation in 1534.
Prosody
The quatrian rhymes aaba but the metre, viz. 'bahr munsarah muttawi mauquf' is not confined to the scan scheme: (a) 'mufta' ilun fa' ilun, mufta ilum fa' ilun' as given by McLeod.
Standard reference books on the subject lay down that its variations (b) 'mufta' ilun fa' ilat mufta' ilun fa' ilat' as well as (c) 'mufta'ilun fa' ilat mufta'ilun, fa'ilun, are correctly permissible and thus allow the addition of a short syllable at the end of the second/fourth quarter of the hemistich. In fact no hemistich of the quatrain scans as 'mufta' ilun fa ilun mufta' ilun fa' ilun' as per guidance obtained and accepted by McLeod. The first hemistich of the quatrain under reference scans as:
mufta'ilun fa'ilun mufta'ilun fa'ilat
The second also as above,
The third as:
mufta'ilun fa'ilat mufta'ilun fa'ilun
and, the fourth:
mufta'ilun fa'ilat mufta'ilun fa'ilat
In the second hemistich the long vowel of Nanak has been shortened and such shortening of any harf-i-illal (alif, vaw and ya) especially in proper nouns is permitted in prosody. If at all it is a fault, it is a very minor one and ignorable. On the score of a slight metric blemish alone, the historic stone inscription cannot be held as fake and thrown out or rejected outright.
Interpretation
The quatrain has been rightly translated as given in plate No. 8 of The Sikh Review, reproduced below:
Behold: A wish has been fulfilled by the Holy and High Providence. That the building of Baba Nanak has been newly built up with the help of seven Valis. The blessed disciple [of Baba Nanak] has started a fountain of grace issuing new water in the land. (917 A.H.)
Chronogram
There is no reason to read no'ab of the inscription as thwab (merit or blessing in the world hereafter). The inscription is not a pencil sketch or a writing on paper that could be erased, over written or tampered with. The writing is a result of chiselled carving or embossing in stone and thus not capable of being altered except by mutilation which would be clearly discernible to any eye. The figures reading 917 are quite clear. There is no room for a fourth figure, the place being meant for the dot of noon, part of the word san meaning the year. In any case, the figure of two could not be over-carved as nine as suspected by McLeod.
According to Abjad Reckoning the various alphabets have the following values:
alaf (1) be (2) jeem (3) daal (4) hey (5) vaw (6) zey (7) hey [with a dot] (8) toen (9) ye (10) kaf (20) laam (30) meem (40) nun (50) seen (60) ain (70) gey (80) soad (90) qaf (100)...rey (200) sheen (300) tey (400) say (500) khey (600) zal (700) zuad (800) zoain (900) ghain (1000)
Consequently, the chronogram in the fourth line gives us the following values: 10,1,2,4,10; 50,6,1,2; 1,3,200; 1,10,200,5; 1,2,10; 40,200,10,4; 60,70,10,4; totalling 917.
This value viz. 917 clearly chiseled in the stone inscription is also a clear pointer to the correctness of the letters constituting the chronogram which, therefore, does not warrant any alteration in its wording.
To conclude:
(a) the language of the inscription is Persianized Ottoman Turkish and bearing Arabic influences,
(b) the metre also is a standard Persian/Turkish form allowing the words Baba Nanak with permissible poetic license of shortening a long vowel, and
(c) the chronogram quite correctly conforms to the year inscribed.
The proof provided by the inscription proves the veracity of Guru Nanak's visit to Baghdad beyond any reasonable scope for scepticism.
Source: The Sikh Review Vol. XVIII Feb.-March 1970 No. 197
