مسالك الابصار في ممالك الامصار 2.144-146

2.144

وحدثني شيخنا فريد الدهر شمس الدين الأصفهاني، قال: كان قطب الدين الشيرازي رحمه الله [1] يثبت صحة الكيمياء، قال: فبحثت معه في بطلان الكيمياء، فقال لي: أنت تعلم ما يتلف (من الذهب) في الأبنية والمستعملات، ومعادن الذهب لا يتحصل منها (المخطوط ص 37) نظير (ما يتلف) وينفذ، وأما الهند فإني حررت [2] أن له ثلاثة آلاف سنة، لم يخرج منه ذهب إلى البلاد، ولا دخل إليه ذهب، فخرج منه، والتجار من الآفاق تقصد الهند بالذهب العين، تتعوض عنه بأعراد، وحشائش وصموغ لا غير، فلولا أن الذهب يعمل لعدم بالجملة الكافية.

Our master, the unique one of the age, Shams al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, told me: Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, God have mercy on him, used to affirm the validity of alchemy. He said: I disputed with him about the falsity of alchemy, and he said to me: You know how much [gold] is lost in buildings and utensils, and the gold mines do not yield the equivalent of what is lost and used up. As for India, I have established that for three thousand years no gold has gone out of it to [other] lands, nor has gold entered it and then left it; and merchants from every horizon head for India with gold coin, taking in exchange for it aromatic woods, herbs and gums, nothing else. Were it not that gold is made [by alchemy], it would have disappeared altogether.

Our shaikh, the marvel of the age, Shamsu-d din Isfahani, gave me the following details. Kutbu-d din Shirazi maintained that alchemy was a positive science. One day I argued with him, and endeavoured to prove the falsity of the art. He replied, "You know very well the quantity of gold that is annually consumed in the fabrication of various articles and objects of many kinds. The mines are far from producing a quantity equal to that which is thus withdrawn. As regards India, I have calculated that for the last three thousand years that country has not exported gold into other countries, and whatever has entered it has never come out again. Merchants of all countries never cease to carry pure gold into India, and to bring back in exchange commodities of herbs and gums. If gold were not produced in an artificial way, it would altogether have disappeared." Our shaikh, Shahabu-d din, observed upon this that what this author asserted of gold going into India, and never coming out again, was perfectly true; but the conclusion which he drew from this fact, as to alchemy being a real science, was false and illusory. He adds the following statement: "I have heard say that one of the predecessors of the Sultan, after making great conquests, carried off from the countries he had subdued as much gold as required 13,000 oxen to carry."

2.145

قال شيخنا شهاب الدين: أما قوله عما يدخل إلى الهند من الذهب ثم لا يخرج منه فصحيح، وأما إثباته لصحة الكيمياء فباطل لا صحة له.

Our master Shihāb al-Dīn said: As for his statement that gold enters India and then does not leave it, that is correct; but his affirmation of the validity of alchemy is false and has no truth to it.

2.146

قال [3] : بلغني أن ممن تقدم لهذا السلطان فتح فتوحا، فأخذ منه من الذهب وسق ثلاثة عشر ألف بقرة، قلت: والمشهور عن أهل هذه البلاد جمع الأموال وتحصيلها حتى أن بعضهم إذا سئل كم معك؟ فيقول: ما أعرف إلا أن ثاني ولد

He said: I have heard that one of those who preceded this Sultan made a conquest and took from it gold to the load of thirteen thousand oxen. I say: It is well known of the people of these lands that they amass and acquire wealth, so that when one of them is asked, 'How much do you have?', he says, 'I know only that I am the second son

I must add, that the inhabitants of India have the character of liking to make money and hoard it. If one of them is asked how much property he has, he replies, "I don't know, but I am the second or third of my family who has laboured to increase the treasure which an ancestor deposited in a certain cavern, or in certain holes, and I do not know how much it amounts to." The Indians are accustomed to dig pits for the reception of their hoards. Some form an excavation in their houses like a cistern, which they close with care, leaving only the opening necessary for introducing the gold pieces. Thus they accumulate their riches. They will not take worked gold, either broken or in ingots, but in their fear of fraud refuse all but coined money. The following information I derived from the Shaikh Burhanu-d dín Abu Bakr bin Khallál Muhammad Bazzí, the Súfi. The Sultan [Muhammad Tughlik] sent an army against a country bordering upon Deogír, at the extremity of that province. It is inhabited by infidels, and all its princes bear the title of rá [rái]. The reigning prince, finding himself pressed by the troops of the Sultan, made this communication: "Tell your master that if he will leave us at peace, I am ready to send him all the riches he can desire; all he has to do is to send me sufficient beasts to carry the sum he requires." The general sent this proposition to his master, and was ordered to cease hostilities, and to give the rái a safe conduct.