nd spiritual evolution."
Legendary accounts of Nasir's life, including a counterfeit autobiography, "absurdly inflated" his background, describing him as "the most learned man; who occupie[d] a very high position in the state." But Nasir was not an extremely wealthy man and he notes in his travel book that he was employed by the sultan's revenue service and later mentions that his brother Abul-Fath Abd al-Jalil was in the entourage of the vizier of the prince of Khorasan. It is likely, therefore, that they were members of the permanent bureaucratic class and Nasir probably entered the state's service at a fairly early age after receiving the basic education appropriate to his level of work. His "early interest in philosophy, science, mathematics and poetry" would have been "pursued while maintaining an active social life in court circles." He was not, however, "rigorously trained in the religious and theological 'Arabic' sciences of a systematic Islamic education" and this "is evident in his philosophical works."
Evidence of Nasir's rather wild social life comes from the content of the dream that begins the Safarnama and occurred after he stayed in Juzjanan "nearly a month and was constantly drunk on wine." The call to reformation and conversion, which is probably allegorical in character, is presented in the context of a demand by the unidentified speaker in the dream and, having been called on to change, Nasir states that he made the decision to go to Marw, surrender his position, and make the pilgrimage to Mecca. The account of his seven-year absence (1046-1052) is the bulk of Nasir's directly autobiographical writing and the return to Khorasan marked "the beginning of the most obscure phase of his life." In this phase he undertook the teaching of the Ismaili faith and was subjected to "severe Sunni Persecutions," according to a contemporary, which eventually forced him into exile in the valley of Yumgan in Badak...