Life of Ahmad — Page 449
as GURU NANAK WAS A MUSLIM 449 at 3,000,000. Sikhism was founded by Baba Nanak, a Khatr i by birth, who was born at Talvandi near Lahore in 1469 A. D. , and after travelling throughout a great part of Southern Asia, died at Kartarpur in Jullundur in 1539. The tenth successor of Nanak, Guru Govind Singh, gave this movement a different turn. What had sprung into existence as a quietest sect of a purely religious nature became a military society and a national movement. The savagery of the Sikh rule in the Punjab is well-known. The very words Sikh a Sh a h i stand for oppression and tyranny. The British had to wage two wars with the Sikhs before they could restore peace and tranquility to the Punjab. Like Muslims, the Sikhs are a martial race and they supplied a large number of recruits not only during the mutiny of 1857 but also in the great war of 1914- 1918. Ahmad as produced evidence from Sikh scriptures of the fact that Guru Nanak, the Founder of Sikhism, was converted to Islam during the latter part of his life. He maintained that Nanak was a great Muslim saint and that it was their political conflict with the Mughals that drove his followers away from his original teachings. Ahmad’s as work was entitled Sat Bachan. It was completed by the end of November 1895. In the first part of this book Ahmad as refuted all the objections that had been levelled against Nanak by Day a nand. Then he separated historical fact from legendary lore