to leave Khwarazm for Khurasan; among them was Saʿd al-Din. He paired al-Bakharzi with Saʿd al-Din as brothers and said to al-Bakharzi, “Go to the lands beyond the Oxus.”

In those very days Khwarazm-Shah fled. Sayf al-Din reached Bukhara to find it burned to the ground, with not a single place fit to lodge in. He addressed the people there, they flocked to him, and in 622 AH he recited Sahih al-Bukhari for them under Jamal al-Din ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ibrahim al-Mahbubi. He then remained, preaching and delivering Qurʾanic exegesis.

When Bukhara started to fill once more, envy toward him spread and people criticized his creed. He would lead the ṣalāt al-tasbīḥ in congregation and attend the samāʿ sessions.

Later, Mahmud Yalawaj came to Bukhara to impose the qalān—that is, to enumerate the populace, take one dinar per head, and levy a tenth on commerce. He visited Sayf al-Din and saw his face shining like the moon. The shaykh was so handsome that when Najm al-Din al-Kubra first met him he ordered him to veil his face so that people would not be put to temptation. Yalawaj became fond of the shaykh and placed a thousand dinars before him, but he did not so much as glance at them.

Then a certain Tārābī marched out from Bukhara with a mustered crowd and met the Mongols, claiming he could summon the jinn. His followers carried no weapons and were taken in by his boast. Within an hour the Mongols slew seven thousand of them—Tārābī first of all. He had led his close associates to imagine he had flown away. None were spared except those who sought al-Bakharzi’s intercession, though the Tatars still branded their foreheads with hot irons…

He went on to say: Fear of al-Bakharzi settled in the hearts of the unbelievers; no one opposed him in anything he wished. Bayqu (1)—brother of Qaʾan—was a ruthless, tyrannical blood-spiller who slaughtered the people of Termez, even the animals and birds. Every evildoer rallied to him and they incited him against al-Bakharzi, saying, “He has come to you only because he wants to become caliph.”

So Bayqu had him summoned to Samarqand in chains. The shaykh said, “After this humiliation I shall see honor.” When he drew near, Bayqu died, and the shaykh was set free.