مسالك الابصار في ممالك الامصار 2.121

2.121

The learned Sirāj al-Dīn Abū al-Ṣafāʾ ʿUmar al-Shiblī told me that this Sultan is eager to know the news of his realms and lands and the circumstances of his troops and subjects around him, and that he has people called informers (munhīs), of different ranks. Some of them mix with the soldiery and the common people; when one learns something that must be reported to the Sultan, he reports it to the rank above him, and that one in turn reports it on, higher and higher, up to the Sultan.