IN A STORY narrated by the hagiographer of Shaykh Üftāde (d. 1580), an Ottoman mystic, a man visited the Shaykh and asked him to pray for his epileptic wife. Thus did the Shaykh. The man visited the Shaykh a few more times; yet his wife's condition worsened day by day. In despair, when he eventually brought his wife to the Shaykh, hoping that the “weak” woman's illness could be removed, the Shaykh gave him a piece of paper, told him to take that “honored guiding paper” to a certain location, and instructed him to draw a circle and sit inside it. The man did as he was told. While sitting inside the circle, he saw a mighty monarch approaching with numerous soldiers. The monarch reined his horse, stopped, and asked the man what his wish was. After conveying the greetings of the Shaykh, the man submitted the paper to this “Shah.” Having read the message, the latter commanded his soldiers to investigate the matter and to bring the “harasser” to him at once. The soldiers said that the harasser must be the ruthless black cripple (jinn), who resided in Mount Kaf. After they brought the “black-faced” jinn, the Shah ordered him to stop harassing the man's wife. Yet the jinn's response was that it was impossible to renounce her due to his passion for her. When the jinn resisted, the Shah ordered his soldiers to kill the unruly jinn. Upon witnessing this, the woman's husband lost his mind in awe of that gathering only to wake up next morning with a dead snake, which was the remnant of the jinn. His wife had recovered from her illness.

For those who work with Ottoman hagiographical narratives (menāḳıbnāme), this story will hardly sound unusual. As a biographical genre that aimed to create a moral portrait of mystics by providing accounts of their noble deeds, hagiographies (or hagio-biographies) are full of such stories of miraculous healing offered by Sufi figures, including those about epileptics who could supposedly not receive help elsewhere. In these accounts, it is emphasized that mystics often treated people who suffered from epilepsy, plague, leprosy, stroke, and disabilities such as blindness. In its essence, the hagiographical account of Üftāde serves to strengthen his sainthood and establish his spiritual authority in both the visible and invisible world.