Guru Sahib in Baghdad

GURU NANAK’S VISIT TO BAGHDAD: MCLEOD’S
BASELESS SCEPTICISM
We quote verbatim from Prof. Verma’s article which was read in Punjab History Conference Fifth Session and published in Proceedings of Punjab History Conference March 1970, Punjabi University. Prof. Verma first pinpoints Hew McLeod’s distorted statements and then comments on them. We will give a resume of both in their own words:
1. Hew McLeod says that most of the events recorded by Bhai Gurdas about Nanak’s travels outside his province are products of his imagination. “He calls them an unsubstantiated possibility, a remote possibility.” Prof. Verma says “Bhai Gurdas was born a few years after Guru Nanak’s death and his work is semi-contemporary if not contemporary and his works are considered key to Guru Granth. “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 a deliberate falsehood.”
2. Professor Verma gives evidence of the Turkish influence on the language of Baghdad Arabic. As the Turks held dominant sway even before their final occupation in 1534 A.D.
3. The quatrain has been rightly translated as given in plate No. 8 of the Sikh Review. Guru Nanak Birth Quincentenary Vol. 3 reproduced below: “Behold, a wish has been fulfilled by Holy and high Providence: that the building of Baba Nanak has been newly built up with the help of seven walis (saints). The blessed disciple (of Baba Nanak) has started a fountain of grace issuing new water in the land. 917 Hijri (equivalent 1511 A.D).

The writing is the result of carving in stone. The figures reading 917 are quite clear. here is a place for a fourth digit which is occupied by the dot of ‘Noon’, the letter forming part of the word san, standing for the year. In any case the figure of two could not be overcarved as the nine as suggested by McLeod. According to Abjad the various alphabets have the following values:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900,
and 900 and 1000
27, 59, 204, 216, 13, 254, 144
Totalling 917

This value viz. 917 clearly carved, embossed in the inscription is also clear pointer to the correctness of the letters constituting the chronogram-which, therefore, does not warrant any change in wording. To conclude, the language of the inscription is (Persianized) Ottoman Turkish, bearing public influences, the metre also is a standard Persian Turkish Form, allowing the word Baba Nanak with permissible poetic, because of shortening a long vao in a proper noun and the chronogram correctly conforms to the year inscribed.

The proof provided by the inscription establishes the fact of Guru Nanak’s visit to Baghdad beyond any reasonable grounds of skepticism and incredibility.”l8 In my Biography of Guru Nanak, I have given the inscriptions and their translations all in Turkish Persian form.

Prof Verma agreed with me that the date could also be 927 Hijri that is December 1520-21, which is historically correct. On the same pattern Hew McLeod tried to refute the evidence of Guru Nanak’s visit to Sri Lanka (Ceylon). He tried to prove by negative suggestions and discursive criticism that Guru Nanak never went to Sri Lanka and the historical events narrated in Janam Sakhis and other documents are pure myths. The author of this book in his Biography of Guru Nanak published in 1970, has given irrefutable evidence of Guru Nanak’s visit to Sri Lanka, based on a stone Inscription, and references to the disciples of Guru Nanak and their children and grand children Mayadune and Krishna Raja who built their Capital Sitawaka and emerged as the most powerful rulers of Sri Lanka. A disciple of Guru Arjun who visited the city described the devotion of these rulers to Guru Nanak and the manner they developed the Sikh institution of Langar. Fearing that these powerful devotees of Baba Nanak may re-emerge as a power, the Portuguese razed the whole grand city of Sitawaka to the ground.

I am firmly of the opnion that further / search for older manuscripts of janam Sakhis of sixteenth and seventeenth century, particularly manuscripts which were written either during the life-time of Guru Arjun or earlier, will throw considerable light on the original janam Sakhi. If any such old manuscript has any resemblance to older janam Sakhi it will be closer to the oldest copy of Paida Mokha janam Sakhi and it will refute till the false and fabulous misconstructions of Meharban’s and Handalya’s janam Sakhis which Sikh scholars have been condemning and ignoring throughout the centuries. Bala will emerge as a remarkable historical figure like Mardana along with a few other companions of Guru Nanak, though he may not appear in so many Sakhis to which his name is added. In later, corrupted versions Bala is added even in Sakhis where he plays no role.

Sant Das Chibber in his Biography makes it clear that it was Paida Mokha who acted as a scribe because he was one of the very few Sikhs who not only knew Gurmukhi script introduced by Guru Nanak during the last two decades of his life, but he also was well-versed in Takari and Sharda in which Guru Nanak’s janam Patri and earlier documents were written. Bala was one of the few surviving companions of early life of Guru Nanak, particularly his Master’s life in Talwandi, Sultan pur and his first Udasi.

The two surviving Bani Pothis of Baba Mohan are writtten in old Gurmukhi Script in a very fool-proof calligraphicstyle with 13 words in each line and 13 lines on each page. On one of the pages, Guru Ram Das has added two Shabads in his own hands and signed his name as “Ghulam Mastan jeth Chand”. One of the Pothis has 300 pages and the other has 224 pages. In every Pothi first Bani of the Gurus is recorded followed by Bhagat Bani.”

Seeing that some short-sighted University historians, and misguided research scholars, working under them, have eliminated Bhai Bala, Hew McLeod has used all his ingenuity,
in destroying the whole China-shop of janam Sakhis by a ruthless and savage use of his horns of arrogant ingrained prejudices, carrying to the extreme his motivated,
demeaning attacks. The findings of the so-called B 40 (IOL) janam Sakhi,could be completely nullified by the publication of an equally important B 41 janam Sakhi and the janam Sakhis in Baba Prem Singh Hoti’s library. That day is not far when all the dark
falsehood constructed by Hew McLeod will disappear like an autumn cloud in the light of truth, and correct and unprejudiced analysis of authentic janam Sakhis of the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth century.

Fritz Mauthner began his four-volume history of atheism in the West with the statement: “God has died. The time has come to write His history.” Hew McLeod begins his works by saying, “I have demolished the fragile structure of janam Sakhis, the source of historical Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak of history is dead. Guru Nanak of faith exists as a shadow in the name of some sentimental Sikhs. With these premises I have written Sikh history. All who dislike or demean Sikhism should read my books.” Perhaps the type of like-minded readers whom he is addressing enjoy his books. Just as every clown in a circus and every villain in a film story, has his fans who are thrilled at what they do, every book written to hurt, humiliate and run down the Sikhs, their history and religion has its admirers.

But Guru Nanak who lives in his works in Guru Granth is as immortal as eternal Light. Sikh ism and all its doctrines, which scholars have studied and saints have practised, will
remain unshakable like a rock and blaze the trail of a new era in world history when it shines in the hearts of those seekers of Truth who live and practice Sikhism. Lack of honest and sincere leadership, lack of dedicated and selfless religious and cultural organization, and lack of social and political freedom after 1947 have pushed the Sikhs and Sikhism into the pit of persecution, political slavery and cultural tyranny. Out of this they will certainly come out and the sacrifices, the passion for freedom among the Sikhs will attract the attention of world leaders in every field, and by the grace of God, Sikhs will usher a new era not only in Punjab but on the world-stage.