Badauni on the Mahdi and the years 989 and 990

In this year low and mean fellows, who pretended to be learned, but were in reality fools, collected evidence (P. 287), that His Majesty was the Çáḥib-i-Zamán, who would remove all differences of opinion among the seventy-two sects of the Islám and the Hindús. Sharíf brought proofs from the writings of Maḥmúd of Basakhwán, that he had said that in the year 990 a certain person would abolish lies, and how he had specified all sorts of interpretations of the expression "Professor of the true Religion," which came to the sum-total 990. And Khwájah Mouláná of Shíráz, the heretic of Jafrdán, came with a pamphlet by some of the Sharífs of Makkah, in which a tradition was quoted to the effect that the earth would exist for 7,000 years, and as that time was now over the promised appearance of the Mahdí would immediately take place. The Mouláná also brought a pamphlet written by himself on the subject. The Shíahs mentioned similar nonsense connected with ‘Alí, and quoted the following Rubá‘í, which is said to have been composed by Náçir-i-Khusrou, or according to some by another poet:— "In 989, according to the decree of fate, The stars from all sides shall meet together. In the year of Leo, the month of Leo, the day of Leo, The Lion of God will stand forth from behind the veil." All this made the Emperor the more inclined to claim the dignity of a prophet, perhaps I should say, the dignity of something else.