Caschi

, the surname of Kemaleddin Abulganem Abdalrazzak ben Yemaleddin, a famous doctor, classed by Yafei among the mussulman saints, is the author of several works, and among them one entitled “Esthelahah al Sosiah,” of the practices and mode of speaking of the sophis, or monks of the mussulmans, of whom he was one of the chiefs. That which bears the title of “Menazel ai sairin,” the lodgings for travellers, is another spiritual book of the same author. “Tavilat al Koran al hakim,” commentaries on the Koran, are likewise by him, and were in the French king’s library, number 641. The Rabi al Abrar relates, that this doctor, who was the oracle of his time, preaching one day at Medina, a contemplative person retired to a corner of the mosque for the purpose of meditation, without paying any attention to the discourse of Caschi. One of the audience asking him why he did not hearken like the rest, this spiritual man replied: “When the master speaks, it is not reasonable to listen to what the servant says.” The two following lines of Persian poetry are quoted from Caschi:

The sufferings that come from God, ought not to be called afflic tions

Blessed is the affliction, and happy is he who suffers it, when it

proceeds from on high.

The allusion of the words bela and bala is extremely beautiful in the Persian original. Caschi is also the surname of Yahia ben Ahmed, who lived in the tenth century of the hegira, of whom we have scholia or marginal notes, entitled “Haschiah,” on the book of Samarcandi, named Adab al bahath.28²