تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.54: حكاية [سحر الجوكية]

13.54.1

بعث إلي السلطان يوما وأنا عنده بالحضرة فدخلت عليه وهو في خلوة وعنده بعض خواصه ورجلان من هؤلاء الجوكية وهم يلتحفون بالملاحف ويغطون رؤوسهم لأنهم ينتفونها بالرماد كما ينتف الناس أباطهم. فأمرني بالجلوس فجلست، وقال لهما: إن هذا العزيز من بلاد بعيدة فأرياه ما لم يره! فقالا: نعم، فتربع أحدهما ثم ارتفع عن الأرض حتى صار في الهواء فوقنا متربعا، فعجبت منه، وأدركني الوهم فسقطت إلى الأرض! فأمر السلطان أن أسقي دواء عنده فأفقت وقعدت وهو على حاله متربع، فأخذ صاحبه نعلا من شكارة كانت معه فضرب بها الأرض كالمغتاظ فصعدت إلى أن علت فوق عنق المتربع وجعلت تضرب في عنقه وهو ينزل قليلا حتى جلس معنا، فقال لي السلطان: إن المتربع هو تلميذ صاحب النعل، ثم قال: لولا أني أخاف على عقلك لأمرتهم أن ياتوا بأعظم مما رأيت! فانصرفت عنه وأصابني الخفقان ومرضت حتى أمر لي بشربة أذهبن ذلك عني.

One day the Sultan sent for me while I was with him in the capital. I went in to him; he was in private, with some of his intimates and two of these Jūgīs, who wrap themselves in sheets and cover their heads, because they pluck out [their hair] with ash as people pluck their armpits. He ordered me to sit and I sat, and he said to them, “This honoured guest is from distant lands; show him what he has not seen!” They said, “Yes.” One of them sat cross-legged, then rose from the ground until he was in the air above us, sitting cross-legged. I was astonished at him, fear seized me, and I fell to the ground! The Sultan ordered that I be given a medicine he had, and I came to and sat up, while he remained as he was, cross-legged. His companion took a sandal from a bag he had with him and struck the ground with it as if angry; it rose until it was above the neck of the cross-legged man and began striking him on the neck, and he came down little by little until he sat with us. The Sultan said to me, “The cross-legged one is the pupil of the owner of the sandal.” Then he said, “Were I not afraid for your reason, I would order them to bring about greater things than what you have seen!” I left him and was seized with palpitations and fell ill, until he ordered a draught for me that took it away from me.

13.54.2

ولنعد لما كنا بسبيله، فنقول: سافرنا من مدينة برون إلى منزل أمواري، ثم إلى منزل كجرا وبه حوض عظيم طوله نحو ميل وعليه الكنائس فيها الأصنام، قد مثل بها المسلمون، وفي وسطه ثلاث قباب من الحجارة الحمر على ثلاث طباق وعلى أركانه الأربعة أربع قباب، ويسكن هنالك جماعة من الجوكية وقد لبدوا شعورهم وطالت، حتى صارت في طولهم وغلبت عليهم صفرة الألوان من الرياضة، وكثير من المسلمين يتبعونهم ليتعلموا منهم، ويذكرون أن من كانت به عاهة من برص أو جذام يأوي إليهم مدة طويلة فيبرأ بإذن الله تعالى.

Let us return to what we were about, and say: we travelled from the city of Barūn to the halting-place of Amwārī, then to the halting-place of Kajarā, where there is a great tank about a mile long, with temples on its banks containing idols, which the Muslims have mutilated. In its middle are three domes of red stone in three storeys, and at its four corners are four domes. A group of the jūgīs live there; they have matted their hair, and it has grown so long that it reaches their full height, and their complexions have become very yellow from their austerities. Many Muslims follow them to learn from them, and they say that anyone afflicted with leprosy or elephantiasis who stays with them for a long time is cured, by the permission of God Most High.

To return to our subject. We went from Parwan to Kajarra, where there is a large tank about a mile long having on its banks temples with idols, which have been made examples of [i.e. mutilated] by the Muslims. Thence we journeyed through Chandiri to the town of Dhihar [Dhar], which is the chief city of Malwa, the largest province in that district. It is twenty-four days’ journey from Delhi, and all along the road between them there are pillars, on which is engraved the number of miles from each pillar to the next. When the traveller desires to know how many miles he has gone that day and how far it is to his halting place or to the town he is making for, he reads the inscription on the pillars and so finds out. From Dhahar we travelled to Ujayn [Ujjain], a fine and populous town, and thence to Dawlat Abad, the enormous city which rivals Delhi, the capital, in importance and in the spaciousness of its planning. It is divided into three sections; one is Dawlat Abad proper, and is reserved for the sultan and his troops, the second is called Kataka, and the third is the citadel, which is unequalled for its strength and is called Duwaygir [Deogiri]. At Dawlat Abad resides the great khan Qutlu Khan, the sultan’s tutor, who is governor of the town, and the sultan’s representative there and in the lands of Saghar, Tiling [Telingana], and their dependent territories.

13.54.3

وأول ما رأيت هذه الطائفة بمحلة السلطان طرمشيرين ملك تركستان، وكانوا نحو خمسين فحفر لهم غار تحت الأرض، وكانوا مقيمين به لا يخرجون إلا لقضاء حاجة.

The first time I saw this sect was in the camp of Sultan Ṭarmashīrīn, king of Turkistān. There were about fifty of them; a cave had been dug for them under the ground, and they stayed in it, coming out only to relieve themselves.

13.54.4

ولهم شبه القرن يضربونه أول النهار وآخره وبعد العتمة، وشأنهم كله عجب ومنهم الرجل الذي صنع للسلطان غياث الدين الدامغاني سلطان بلاد المعبر حبوبا يأكلها تقوية على الجماع ، وكان من أخلاطها برادة الحديد، فأعجبه فعلها فأكل منها أزيد من مقدار الحاجة فمات، وولي ابن أخيه ناصر الدين فأكرم هذا الجوكي ورفع قدره! ثم سافرنا إلى مدينة جنديري ، وضبط اسمها بفتح الجيم المعقود وسكون النون وكسر الدال المهمل وياء مد وراء مدينة عظيمة لها أسواق حافلة يسكنها أمير أمراء تلك البلاد عز الدين البنتاني، بالباء الموحدة ثم النون ثم التاء المثناة مفتوحات ثم ألف ونون، وهو المدعوا بأعظم ملك. وكان خيرا فاضلا يجالس أهل العلم، وممن كان يجالسه الفقيه عز الدين الزبيري والفقيه العالم وجيه الدين البياني، نسبة إلى مدينة بيانة التي تقدم ذكرها والفقيه القاضي المعروف بقاضي خاصة، وإمامهم شمس الدين، وكان النائب عنه على أمور المخزن يسمى قمر الدين، ونائبه على أمور العسكر سعادة التلنكي من كبار الشجعان، وبين يديه تعرض العساكر وأعظم ملك لا يظهر إلا في يوم الجمعة أو غيرها نادرا.

They have something like a horn which they blow at the beginning and end of the day and after nightfall, and their whole way of life is a wonder. Among them was the man who made for Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Dāmghānī, sultan of the land of al-Maʿbar, pills which he ate to strengthen himself for intercourse; among their ingredients were iron filings. He was pleased with their effect and ate more of them than the proper amount, and died. His nephew Nāṣir al-Dīn succeeded him, and he honoured this jūgī and raised his rank! Then we travelled to the city of Jandīrī — its name is spelled with a hard j with a, n without a vowel, undotted d with i, a long ī and r — a great city with crowded markets, where the amīr of the amīrs of those lands, ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Bantānī, lives — with the one-dotted b, then n, then the two-dotted t, all with a, then alif and n — who is called Aʿẓam Malik. He was a good and virtuous man who kept company with men of learning; among those who kept him company were the jurist ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Zubayrī, the learned jurist Wajīh al-Dīn al-Bayānī, named after the city of Bayāna mentioned earlier, the jurist and qāḍī known as Qāḍī Khāṣṣa, and their imām Shams al-Dīn. His deputy over the affairs of the treasury was named Qamar al-Dīn, and his deputy over the affairs of the army was Saʿāda al-Tilinkī, one of the great warriors, before whom the troops are mustered. Aʿẓam Malik does not appear in public except on Friday, or rarely on other days.

13.54.5

ثم سرنا من جنديري إلى مدينة ظهار، وضبط اسمها بكسر الظاء المعجم، وهي مدينة المألوة أكبر عمالة تلك البلاد، وزرعها كثير خصوصا القمح، ومن هذه المدينة تحمل أوراق التنبول إلى دهلي وبينهما أربعة وعشرون يوما.

Then we went from Jandīrī to the city of Ẓahār — its name is spelled with i after the dotted ẓ — which is the city of al-Mālwa, the largest province of those lands. Its crops are plentiful, especially wheat, and from this city betel leaves are carried to Dihlī, a distance of twenty-four days.

13.54.6

وعلى الطريق بينهما أعمدة منقوشة عليها عدد الأميال فيما بين كل عمودين فإذا أراد المسافر أن يعلم عدد ما سار في يومه وما بقى له إلى المنزل أو إلى المدينة التي يقصدها قرأ النقش الذي في الأعمدة فعرفه! ومدينة ظهار اقطاع للشيخ ابراهيم الذي من أهل ذيبة المهل.

On the road between them are pillars inscribed with the number of miles between each two pillars, so that when the traveller wishes to know how far he has gone in his day and how much remains to the halting-place or to the city he is making for, he reads the inscription on the pillars and knows it! The city of Ẓahār is the fief of Shaykh Ibrāhīm, who is from the people of Dhībat al-Mahal.