تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 10.2: ذكر الكركدن

When we had crossed the river of Sind known as Panj Āb, we entered a reed thicket to follow the road, since it ran through the middle of it, and a rhinoceros came out at us. Its appearance is that of a black animal, huge in bulk, with a large head,

out of all proportion [to its body], and for this reason it is proverbial, and people say: "The rhinoceros: a head without a body." It is smaller than the elephant, but its head is many times larger than the elephant's head. It has a single horn between its eyes, about three cubits long and about a span broad. When it came out at us, one of the horsemen got in its way; it struck the horse he was riding with its horn, pierced its thigh and threw it down, then went back into the thicket, and we could not get at it! I saw the rhinoceros a second time on this road after the afternoon prayer, grazing on the plants of the ground; when we made for it, it fled from us. I saw it yet another time when we were with the King of Hind: we entered a reed thicket, the Sultan rode on an elephant and we rode elephants with him, and the foot-soldiers and horsemen went in, roused it and killed it, and carried its head off to the camp.

We travelled two days from the river of Sind and reached the city of Janānī — its name is spelt with a over the j and the first n and i under the second — a large, fine city on the bank of the river of Sind, with handsome markets. Its inhabitants are a people called the Sāmira, who settled it long ago; their forefathers established themselves there when it was conquered in the days of al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf, as the historians have recorded concerning the conquest of Sind. The shaykh, imam, learned scholar who acts on his learning, ascetic and devout Rukn al-Dīn, son of the shaykh, jurist and righteous man Shams al-Dīn, son of the shaykh, imam, devout and ascetic Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zakariyyāʾ al-Qurashī — he is one of the three whom the shaykh, the righteous saint Burhān al-Dīn al-Aʿraj, told me in the city of Alexandria I would meet on my travels, and I did meet them, praise be to God — told me that his remote ancestor was called Muḥammad b. Qāsim al-Qurashī, that he took part in the conquest of Sind in the army that al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf sent for that purpose during his governorship of Iraq, and that he settled there and his descendants multiplied.

This people known as the Sāmira do not eat with anyone, nor does anyone watch them while they eat, and they do not marry with anyone outside themselves, nor does anyone marry into them. At this time they had an amīr named Wunār, with u on the w and a on the n, and we shall relate his story.

Then we travelled from the city of Janānī until we reached the city of Sīwasitān — its name is spelt with i under the first, unpointed s, a long ī, w with a, s with i, the dotted t, and ending in n. It is a large city, and outside it are desert and sands; there are no trees there except the umm ghaylān acacia, and nothing is grown along its river except melons. Their food is sorghum and peas, which they call mushunk — with m and dotted sh both with u, and n without vowel — and from it they make bread. It has plenty of fish and buffalo milk. Its people eat the saqanqūr, a small creature resembling the umm jubayn, which the Maghribis call ḥunayshat al-janna, except that it has no tail. I saw them digging in the sand and taking it out, slitting its belly, throwing away what is in it and stuffing it with turmeric, which they call zard shūba, meaning "yellow wood"; with them it takes the place of saffron. When I saw that little creature and them eating it, I found it disgusting and did not eat it! We entered this city in the fiercest heat of summer, and its heat is intense: my companions would sit naked, each putting a cloth around his waist and a cloth soaked in water over his shoulders, and only a short time would pass before that cloth dried, and he would wet it again, and so on continually.

In this city I met its preacher, known as al-Shaybānī, and he showed me the letter of the Commander of the Faithful, the Caliph ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, may God be pleased with him, to his remote ancestor, appointing him to the preachership of this city; they have inherited it from that time until now. The text of the letter is: "This is what the servant of God, the Commander of the Faithful ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, has ordered for So-and-so"

and its date is the year ninety-nine; and on it is written in the hand of the Commander of the Faithful ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: "Praise be to God alone" — according to what the said preacher told me.

I also met there the aged shaykh Muḥammad al-Baghdādī, who lives in the hospice over the tomb of the righteous shaykh ʿUthmān al-Marandī. He said that his age was over one hundred and forty years, and that he had been present at the killing of al-Mustaʿṣim bi-llāh, the last of the caliphs of the ʿAbbāsids, may God be pleased with them, when the infidel Hūlāwun son of Tankīz the Tatar killed him. Despite his great age this shaykh is sturdy of body and walks about on his own feet.