The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 5.4.3

5.4.3

The mir haj sent word to the Emperor of his plight, who at once despatched orders to Qulij Khan, in Idar, to go to Surat and arrange the difficulty. Qulij took with him a Cambayan, who was presumably a man versed in seafaring business, — hurried to Surat and overcame the difficulty. It took the ladies a year to get to sea; they sailed on October 17th, 1576. Their port of debarkation is not mentioned; some pilgrims sailed by the Arabian, some by the Persian Gulf. They spent three and a half years in Arabia, and were able to make the haj four times. Some day perhaps a pious and enlightened Musalman will set down the inner meaning he attaches to the rites of the pilgrimage. How interesting it would have been if our princess had told us what it was in her heart that carried her through the laborious duties of piety she accomplished during her long stay in her holy land! She might have given us an essential principle by which to interpret the religious meaning which devout women attach to the rites commanded on the pilgrimage. The visitation duties are set down in Hughes’ ‘Dictionary of Islam,’ where even their brief recital is attractive and adds to the wish of gauging the sentiment of believers in their efficacy. The acts prescribed are exhausting, not only to the body but also, one thinks, to the mind, because the very conception of the pilgrimage as a Divine ordinance keeps brain and heart tense, as all obedience does which sets the human will parallel to the Divine.