تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.45.1

13.45.1

وكان ملك الصين قد بعث إلى السلطان مائة مملوك وجارية وخمسمائة ثوب من الكمخا منها مائة من التي تصنع بمدينة الزيتون، ومائة من التي تصنع بمدينة الخنسا، وخمسة أمنان من المسك، وخمسة أثواب مرصعة بالجوهر، وخمسة من التراكش مزركشة، وخمسة سيوف، وطلب من السلطان أن يأذن له في بناء بيت الأصنام الذي بناحية جبل قراجيل المتقدم ذكره، ويعرف الموضع الذي هو به بسمهل، بفتح السين المهمل وسكون الميم وفتح الهاء، وإليه يحج أهل الصين، وتغلب عليه جيش الإسلام بالهند فخربوه وسلبوه.

The king of China had sent valuable gifts to the sultan, including a hundred slaves of both sexes, five hundred pieces of velvet and silk cloth, musk, jewelled garments and weapons, with a request that the sultan would permit him to rebuild the idol-temple which is near the mountains called Qarajil [Himalaya]. It is in a place known as Samhal, to which the Chinese go on pilgrimage; the Muslim army in India had captured it, laid it in ruins and sacked it. The sultan, on receiving this gift, wrote to the king saying that the request could not be granted by Islamic law, as permission to build a temple in the territories of the Muslims was granted only to those who paid a poll-tax; to which he added “If thou wilt pay the jizya we shall empower thee to build it. And peace be on those who follow the True Guidance.” He requited his present with an even richer one—a hundred thoroughbred horses, a hundred white slaves, a hundred Hindu dancing- and singing-girls, twelve hundred pieces of various kinds of cloth, gold and silver candelabra and basins, brocade robes, caps, quivers, swords, gloves embroidered with pearls, and fifteen eunuchs. As my fellow-ambassadors the sultan appointed the amir Zahir ad-Din of Zanjan, one of the most eminent men of learning, and the eunuch Kafur, the cup-bearer, into whose keeping the present was entrusted.