تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.106: ذكر هزيمته للكفار وهي من أعظم فتوحات الإسلام

Bordering on his lands there was an infidel sultan called Balāl Dīw (with a over the one-dotted b, l, alif, a second l, an undotted d with i, the last letter y with a, and w without a vowel). He was one of the great sultans of the infidels; his army exceeded a hundred thousand, and with him were about twenty thousand Muslims, men of villainy, criminals and runaway slaves. He coveted the conquest of the land of Maʿbar. The Muslim army there numbered six thousand, half of them good troops and the other half worthless and of no use. They met him outside the city of Kubbān, and he routed them, and they fell back to the capital Mutra. The infidel encamped against Kubbān, one of their largest and best-fortified cities, and besieged it for ten months, until they had only fourteen days' provisions left. The infidel sent to them to come out under safe-conduct and leave the town to him. They said to him, "We must inform our sultan of this," and he gave them until the end of fourteen days. They wrote to Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn about their situation, and he read their letter to the people on Friday, and they wept and said, "We sell our lives to God, for if the infidel takes that city he will move on to besiege us, so death under the swords is better for us!" So they pledged themselves to death and went out the next day. They took the turbans from their heads and put them on the horses' necks, which is the sign of one who seeks death. They put the valiant and the heroes among them in the vanguard, three hundred of them; over the right wing they set Sayf al-Dīn Bahādur, who was a pious and brave jurist, and over the left wing al-Malik Muḥammad al-Silaḥdār. The sultan rode in the centre with three thousand, and he made the remaining three thousand a rearguard, under Asad al-Dīn Kaykhusraw al-Fārisī. They made for the infidel's camp at the time of the midday rest, when its people were off guard and their horses were at pasture, and they attacked it. The infidels thought they were raiders and came out against them in disorder and fought them; then Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn arrived, and the infidels were utterly routed. Their sultan tried to mount, being eighty years old, and Nāṣir al-Dīn, the sultan's nephew, who ruled after him, caught up with him and was about to kill him, not knowing who he was, when one of his slaves said to him, "He is the sultan." So he took him captive and brought him to his uncle, who outwardly treated him with honour until he had extracted from him wealth, elephants and horses, and kept promising him release. When he had stripped him of all he had, he slaughtered him and flayed him, and his skin was stuffed with straw and hung on the wall of Mutra, and I saw it hanging there! But let us return to our account. I left the camp and reached the city of Fattan (with a over the f, a doubled t with two dots, and n), a large, fine city on the coast. Its harbour is remarkable: a large wooden dome has been built in it, standing on massive timbers, reached by a covered wooden walkway. When

the enemy comes, they draw the vessels that are in the harbour up to it, and the men and archers climb up into it, so the enemy finds no opening.

In this city there is a fine mosque built of stone, and it has many grapes and excellent pomegranates. There I met the pious shaykh Muḥammad al-Nīsābūrī, one of the ecstatic faqīrs who let their hair hang down over their shoulders. He had with him a lion cub which he kept as a pet; it ate with the faqīrs and sat with them. He had about thirty faqīrs with him, one of whom had a gazelle that stayed in the same place as the lion, and the lion did not molest it! I stayed in the city of Fattan. One of the yogīs had made Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn pills to strengthen him for sexual intercourse, and they said that among their ingredients were iron filings. He took more of them than was needed, fell ill, and arrived at Fattan. I went out to meet him and presented him with a gift. When he had settled there he sent for the admiral, Khwāja Surūr, and said to him: "Occupy yourself with nothing but the ships assigned for the voyage to the islands." He wanted to give me the value of the gift, but I refused; then I regretted it, for he died and I received nothing! He stayed in Fattan for half a month and then left for his capital.

I stayed on half a month after him and then left for his capital, which is the city of Mutra — with u after the m, the dotted t unvowelled, and a after the r. It is a large city with wide streets. The first to make it a capital was my father-in-law, the sharīf Sultan Jalāl al-Dīn Aḥsan Shāh, who made it resemble Dihlī and built it well. When I arrived there I found an epidemic in it from which people were dying in great numbers: whoever fell ill died on the second or third day of his illness, and if his death was delayed, then on the fourth. Whenever I went out I saw only the sick or the dead. I bought a slave-girl there on the understanding that she was healthy, and she died the next day. One day a woman whose husband had been one of the viziers of Sultan Aḥsan Shāh came to me with her son, eight years old, a fine, clever and intelligent boy. She complained of her poverty and I gave her money for her needs; both of them were healthy and well. The next day she came asking for a shroud for that son of hers, for he had died suddenly.

At the time [the sultan] died I used to see in the sultan's audience hall hundreds of the servant-women who had been brought to pound the rice from which food was prepared for those other than the sultan; they were sick and had thrown themselves down in the sun. When the sultan entered Mutra he found his mother, his wife and his son ill. He stayed in the city three days and then went out to a river a farsakh away, on which there was a temple of the infidels. I went out to him on a Thursday, and he ordered that I be lodged beside the qāḍī. When my tents had been pitched I saw people hurrying and surging about, some saying that the sultan had died and others that it was his son who had died. Then we ascertained the matter, and it was

the son who had died. He had no other son, and his death was one of the things that worsened his illness. On the following Thursday the sultan's mother died!