A number of Mamluk and Ottoman sources describe Yusuf Gorani, a 14th-century Kurdish saint, and the intensity of his gaze. Yusuf Gorani was sufficiently renowned in Egypt during his lifetime to attract both non-Muslims and more traditional Muslims to his Sufi gatherings. One premodern source writes:
Whenever [al-Kūrānī] emerged from the khalwa cell his eyes were like burning embers and anything that his gaze fell upon would be trans-muted into a pure vessel. One day his gaze fell upon a dog and all the other dogs started to follow it around. If it stopped, they stopped. If it walked, they walked. The people told [al-Kūrānī about this], so he went after the dog and said, "Shoo!" But all the dogs turned on [al-Kūrānī] and bit him; he was forced to flee.
Another time he exited the forty-day khalwa and his gaze fell upon a dog. All the other dogs started following it around, while people rushed to that dog so that it might grant their wishes. When the dog became ill all the dogs gathered around it, weeping and displaying their sadness for it. When it died those dogs really cried and lamented, so God inspired some people to bury it. The dogs visited the grave until they themselves died. So if [al-Kūrānī's] gazing upon that dog did what it did, imagine what it would do when it fell upon a human!
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