THE PROFILE OF A SAINTLY REBEL 41 (Ahmadullah Shah) arrived at Agra with a large number of murids. He took a palatial house at rent, kept naqqaras at the gate, the drums were beaten five times a day. As his popularity grew, many more became his murids. Audition parties (majalis-i qawwali) were arranged. I also became a frequent visitor at his place....12 It was generally believed that 'neither fire can burn his disciples, nor sword can do any harm to them'. During the course of these audition sessions, the Shah was fond of practising meditation for long durations by way of holding his breath (habs-i dam). It was on one such occasion that Shah "told the author of Khaiwriq-i Mastan that, "from this date after six months, there will be great disturbance in the territories of the government"13 From Agra, Shah left for Aligarh to meet Raja Mursan. He stayed in the 'sarai of Rat an Lal and the Raja made an offering (nazr) of two hundred and fifty rupees in cash, one high prized horse and two hunting dogs. The author of these lines "too had the occasion to visit Aligarh and meet Shah there". Shah told him about his intention to go to Lucknow, "where he will sit on the throne and issue his own coins, the whole army will obey him and the treasure will also be under his control".14 It seems that at Agra he was very vocal in pleading tor jehad, hence complaints were lodged with the British authorities to the effect that, "he is a derwesh only in name, actually he is a prince and is preparing the masses to wage a war against the government. No action was initiated against him, instead the complainants themselves were made to suffer.15 Sometimes afterwards he again went to Gwalior to discuss further course of action. Probably by this time the incidents at Hanumangarhi and the assassination of Maulavi Amir Ali in course of his call for jehad had became widely known and this might have influenced Ahmadullah Shah. In any case he decided to proceed to Lucknow, the capital city of the recently annexed kingdom of Awadh, where he arrived in November 1856. His arrival in the city was reported in the weekly newspaper of Lucknow, namely Tilism, on 21 November 1856 in the following manner: These days a person called Ahmadullah Shah in disguise of afaqir but having all paraphernalia of royalty has arrived in the town and stayed in the sarai of Motamad-ud Daulah, now has shifted to Ghasiyarimandi........ People of the town visit him in a large number on Mondays and Thursdays to take part in the mystic gatherings