تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.81: ذكر توجهنا إلى الغزو وفتح سندابور

Sultan Jamāl al-Dīn had fitted out fifty-two ships for an expedition against Sandābūr. A dispute had arisen between its sultan and his son, and the son had written to Sultan Jamāl al-Dīn asking him to come and conquer Sandābūr, on condition that the son would become a Muslim and the Sultan would marry him to his sister. When the ships were ready, it occurred to me to go with them to the holy war. I opened the Qurʾān to look in it, and at the top of the page was: "in which the name of God is mentioned much; and God will surely help those who help Him." I took this as a good omen. The Sultan came for the afternoon prayer, and I said to him: "I wish to go." He said: "Then you will be their commander." I told him what had come out for me at the top of the page of the Qurʾān; this pleased him and he resolved to go in person, which had not occurred to him before. He boarded one of the ships, and I with him. That was on a Saturday, and on Monday evening we reached Sandābūr. We entered its inlet and found its people prepared for battle, having set up mangonels, so we spent that night off the town.

When morning came the drums, trumpets and horns were sounded and the ships advanced, and they bombarded them with the mangonels. I saw a stone strike one of those standing near the Sultan. The men in the ships threw themselves into the water with shields and swords in their hands. The Sultan went down into the ʿakīrī, which is like a shalīr, and I threw myself into the water along with the others. We had with us two horse-transports open at the stern, with horses in them, built so that the horseman could mount his horse inside, put on his armour and ride out; and they did so. God permitted its conquest and sent down victory upon the Muslims. We entered by the sword, and most of the infidels went into their sultan's palace; we threw fire into it, so they came out and we seized them. Then the Sultan granted them safety and restored their women and children to them; they numbered about ten thousand. He settled them in the suburb of the city, took up residence in the palace himself and gave the houses near it to the men of his government. He gave me one of their slave girls, named Lamakī, whom I named Mubāraka; her husband wanted to ransom her, but I refused! He also gave me an Egyptian farajiyya robe found in the infidel's treasuries. I stayed with him at Sandābūr from the day of its conquest, which was the thirteenth of Jumādā al-Ūlā, until the middle of Shaʿbān, and then asked his permission to travel; he made me promise to return to him!

I sailed to Hinawr, then to Fākanūr, then to Manjarūr, then to Hīlī, then to Jurfattan and Dahfattan, Budfattan, Fandarāyinā and Qāliqūṭ, all of which have been mentioned before; then to the city of al-Shāliyāt — spelled with dotted shīn, alif, lām, yāʾ (the last letter of the alphabet), alif and dotted tāʾ — one of the fine cities, where the cloths named after it are made. I stayed there for a long time and then went back to Qāliqūṭ. Two slave boys of mine who had been on the junk arrived there and told me that the slave girl who was pregnant, on whose account I had been distressed, had died; that the ruler of the Jāwa had taken all the other slave girls; that hands had seized the goods; and that my companions had scattered to China, the Jāwa and Banjāla. When I learned this, I returned to Hinawr and then to Sandābūr, which I reached at the end of Muḥarram, and stayed there until the second of the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir.

The infidel sultan of the town, from whom we had taken it, came to retake it, and all the infidels fled to him. The Sultan's troops were scattered among the villages and were cut off from us. The infidels besieged us and pressed us hard, and when the situation became grave I left the town, leaving it under siege, and returned to Qāliqūṭ.

I resolved to travel to Dhībat al-Mahal, of which I had been hearing reports. Ten days after we took ship at Qāliqūṭ we reached the islands of Dhībat al-Mahal. Dhība is pronounced like the feminine of dhīb (wolf), and Mahal with a over the mīm and the hāʾ. These islands are one of the wonders of the world; they number about two thousand, and a hundred or

fewer of them lie together in a ring like a circle, with an entrance like a gate through which alone ships can enter. When a ship reaches one of them, it must have a pilot from its inhabitants to guide it to the other islands. They are so close together that the tops of the palm trees on one are visible on leaving another. If a ship misses its course to them, it cannot enter them and the wind carries it to al-Maʿbar or Saylān.

The people of these islands are all Muslims, people of religion and righteousness. The islands are divided into provinces, and over each province is a governor whom they call the kardūbī. Among its provinces is the province of Bālbūr, spelt with two closed bāʾs, kasra on the lām, and ending in rāʾ; among them is Kannalūr, with fatḥa on the kāf and the nūn, the nūn doubled, ḍamma on the lām, and ending in rāʾ; among them is Kannalūs, with fatḥa on the kāf and the nūn, the nūn doubled, ḍamma on the lām, then wāw and unpointed sīn; among them is the province of al-Mahal, after which all the islands are named, and where their sultans reside; among them is the province of Talādīb, with fatḥa on the upper-pointed tāʾ and the lām, then alif, unpointed dāl, long yāʾ and single-pointed bāʾ; among them is the province of Karāydū, with fatḥa on the kāf and the rāʾ, sukūn on the lower-pointed yāʾ, ḍamma on the unpointed dāl, and wāw; among them is the province of al-Taym, with fatḥa on the upper-pointed tāʾ and sukūn on the lower-pointed yāʾ; among them is the province of Taladummattī, with fatḥa on the first upper-pointed tāʾ and the lām, ḍamma on the unpointed dāl, fatḥa on the mīm, which is doubled, kasra on the second tāʾ, and yāʾ;

among them is the province of Haladummattī, pronounced like the one before it except that it begins with hāʾ; among them is the province of Baraydū, with fatḥa on the single-pointed bāʾ and the rāʾ, sukūn on the yāʾ, ḍamma on the unpointed dāl, and wāw; among them is the province of Kandakal, with fatḥa on both kāfs and the unpointed dāl and sukūn on the nūn; among them is the province of Mulūk, with ḍamma on the mīm; and among them is the province of al-Suwayd, with unpointed sīn, which is the farthest of them.

None of these islands has any crops, except that in the province of al-Suwayd there is a crop resembling millet, which is brought from there to al-Mahal. The food of the people is a fish resembling the bīrūn, which they call qulb al-mās, with ḍamma on the qāf. Its flesh is red and it has no fishy smell; its smell is like that of the meat of cattle. When they catch it, they cut each fish into four pieces, cook it lightly, then put it in baskets of palm fronds and hang it in the smoke. When it is thoroughly dried they eat it. It is exported from there to Hind, China and Yemen, and they call it qulb al-mās, with ḍamma on the qāf.