تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.33: ذكر الجملين الذين أهديتهما إليه والحلواء، وأمره بخلاص ديني وما تعلق بذلك.

13.33.1

ولما عاد إلي راجلي الذي بعثته بالجمل فأخبرني بما كان من شأنه صنعت كورين اثنين وجعلت مقدم كل واحد ومؤخره مكسوا بصفائح الفضة المذهبة وكسوتهما بالملف، وصنعت رسنا مصفحا بصفائح الفضة، وجعلت لهما جلين من زرد خانة مبطنين بالكمخا، وجعلت للجملين الخلاخيل من الفضة، وصنع 5 ت أحد عشر طيفورا وملأتها بالحلواء، وغطيت كل طيفور بمنديل حرير، فلما قدم السلطان من الصيد وقعد ثاني يوم قدومه بموضع جلوسه العام، غدوت عليه بالجمال فأمر بها فحركت بين يديه وهرولت، فطار خلخال أحدها فقال لبهاء الدين بن الفلكي: بايل ورداري، معنى ذلك ارفع الخلخال، فرفعه، ثم نظر إلى الطيافير، فقال: جداري دران طبقها حلوا است، معنى ذلك: ما معك في تلك الأطباق؟ حلواء هي؟

When my footman whom I had sent with the camel returned to me and told me what had happened concerning it, I made two saddles, with the front and back of each covered with gilded silver plates, and covered them with woollen cloth. I made a bridle plated with silver plates, and made for them two blankets of chain-mail lined with kamkhā, and put silver anklets on the two camels. I made eleven trays and filled them with sweetmeats, and covered each tray with a silk napkin. When the Sultan came back from the hunt and sat, on the second day after his arrival, in his place of public audience, I went to him in the morning with the camels. He ordered them to be put in motion before him, and they trotted; the anklet of one of them flew off, and he said to Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Falakī: "Pāyil wardārī," meaning "Pick up the anklet," and he picked it up. Then he looked at the trays and said: "Chi dārī dar ān ṭabaqhā? Ḥalwā ast?" meaning: "What have you in those trays? Is it sweetmeats?"

13.33.2

فقلت له: نعم فقال للفقيه ناصر الدين الترمذي الواعظ: ما أكلت قط ولا رأيت مثل الحلواء التي بعثها إلينا ونحن بالمعسكر.

I said to him: "Yes." He said to the jurist Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Tirmidhī the preacher: "I have never eaten nor seen the like of the sweetmeats he sent us while we were in the camp."

13.33.3

ثم أمر بتلك الطيافير أن ترفع لموضع جلوسه الخاص، فرفعت وقام إلى مجلسه واستدعاني، وأمر بالطعام، فأكلت، ثم سألني عن نوع من الحلواء الذي بعثت له قبل، فقلت له يا خوند عالم، تلك الحلواء أنواعها كثيرة ولا أدري عن أي نوع تسألون منها؟ فقال: ائتو بتلك الأطباق، وهم يسمون الطيفور طبقا، فأتوا بها وقدموها بين يديه وكشفوا عنها فقال عن هذا سألتك، وأخذ الصحن الذي هي فيه فقلت له: هذه يقال لها: المقرضة ، ثم اخذ نوعا آخر فقال: وما اسم هذه فقلت له: هي لقيمات القاضي، وكان بين يديه تاجر من شيوخ بغداد يعرف بالسامري، وينتسب إلى آل العباس رضي الله تعالى عنه، وهو كثير المال ويقول له السلطان: والدي، فحسدني وأراد أن يخجلني، فقال: ليست هذه لقيمات القاضي بل هي هذه، وأخذ قطعة من التي تسمى جلد الفرس ، وكان بازائه ملك الندماء ناصر الدين الكافي الهروي، وكان كثيرا ما يمازح هذا الشيخ بين يدى السلطان، فقال له:

Then he ordered those trays to be carried to the place of his private sitting, and they were carried there; he rose and went to his audience room and summoned me, and ordered food, and I ate. Then he asked me about a kind of sweetmeat that I had sent him before, and I said to him, "O Khwand ʿĀlam, there are many kinds of those sweetmeats, and I do not know which kind of them you are asking about." He said, "Bring those aṭbāq" — they call a tray a ṭabaq. So they brought them, set them before him and uncovered them, and he said, "This is what I asked you about," and took the dish that it was in. I said to him, "This is called al-muqarraḍa." Then he took another kind and said, "And what is the name of this?" I said to him, "It is luqaymāt al-qāḍī [the qāḍī's morsels]." In his presence there was a merchant, one of the shaykhs of Baghdad, known as al-Sāmarrī, who traced his descent to the house of al-ʿAbbās (may God Most High be pleased with him); he was very wealthy, and the Sultan called him "my father." He envied me and wanted to embarrass me, so he said, "These are not luqaymāt al-qāḍī; rather these are," and took a piece of the kind called jild al-faras [horse's hide]. Opposite him was the Malik al-Nudamāʾ Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Kāfī al-Harawī, who often joked with this shaykh in the Sultan's presence, and he said to him:

13.33.4

يا خواجة أنت تكذب، والقاضي يقول الحق فقال له السلطان: وكيف ذلك؟ فقال: ياخوند عالم! هو القاضي وهي لقيماته فانه أتى بها، فضحك السلطان، وقال: صدقت!

"O Khwāja, you are lying, and the qāḍī is telling the truth." The Sultan said to him, "How is that?" He said, "O Khwand ʿĀlam! He is the qāḍī and these are his morsels, for he is the one who brought them." The Sultan laughed and said, "You are right!"

13.33.5

فلما فرغنا من الطعام أكل الحلواء، ثم شرب الفقاع بعد ذلك، وأخذنا التنبول وانصرفنا، فلم يكن غير هنيهة وأتانى الخازن، فقال: ابعث أصحابك يقبضون المال فبعثتهم وعدت إلى داري بعد المغرب، فوجدت المال بها وهو ثلاث بدر فيها ستة آلاف ومائتان وثلاث وثلاثون تنكة، وذلك صرف الخمسة والخمسين الفا التي هي دين علي، وصرف الاثنى عشر الفا التي أمر لي بها فيما تقدم بعد حط العشر على عادتهم، وصرف التكنة ديناران ونصف دينار من ذهب المغرب.

When we had finished the meal, he ate the sweetmeats, then drank fuqqāʿ [barley-beer] after that; we took betel and withdrew. It was only a short while before the treasurer came to me and said, "Send your companions to collect the money." I sent them and returned to my house after sunset, and found the money there: three bags containing six thousand two hundred and thirty-three tankas. That was the exchange value of the fifty-five thousand that were my debt, and of the twelve thousand that he had previously ordered for me, after deduction of the tenth according to their custom. The tanka is worth two and a half dinars of Maghribi gold.

A few moments later the treasurer came to me and said “Send your friends to receive the money,” so I sent them, and on returning to my house after the sunset prayer found the money there in three sacks, containing the fifty-five thousand dinars which was the amount of my debt, together with the twelve thousand which the sultan had previously commanded to be paid to me, less one-tenth according to their custom. On the 9th of first Jumada [21st October 1341], the sultan left Delhi for Ma‘bar [Coromandel] to fight with a rebel in that district. I was all prepared to accompany him, but was commanded with some others to remain in Delhi, and the chamberlain took written acknowledgments of the order from us as a proof that we had received it. The sultan also commanded that I should take charge of the mausoleum of Sultan Qutb ad-Din. He then sent for us to bid us farewell, and asked me if I had any requests. I took out a piece of paper with six petitions, but he said to me “Speak with your tongue.” Amongst other things I said “What shall I do about the mausoleum of Sultan Qutb ad-Din ?