تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 7.4
Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354 7.4
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7.4.1
From this town we journeyed to Saghar [Songarh], which is a large town on a great river of the same name [Tapti]. Its inhabitants are upright, religious, and trustworthy, and people go there to participate in the blessing they bestow, and because the town is exempt from taxes and dues. Thereafter we travelled to the town of Kinbaya [Cambay], which is situated on an arm of the sea resembling a river; it is navigable for ships and its waters ebb and flow. I myself saw the ships there lying on the mud at ebb-tide and floating on the water at high tide. This city is one of the finest there is in regard to the excellence of its construction and the architecture of its mosques. The reason is that the majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who are always building fine mansions and magnificent mosques and vie with one another in doing so. We journeyed from this town to Kawa, which is on a tidal bay also, and is in the territories of the infidel raja Jalansi, of whom we shall speak later. Thence we went to Qandahar, a large town belonging to the infidels and situated on a bay. The sultan of Qandahar is an infidel called Jalansi, who is under Muslim suzerainty and sends a gift to the king of India every year. When we reached Qandahar he came out to welcome us and showed us the greatest honour, himself leaving his palace and installing us in it. The principal Muslims at his court came to visit us, such as the children of the Khwaja Bohra.
7.4.2
One of these is the shipowner Ibrahim, who possesses six vessels of his own. At Qandahar we embarked on a ship belonging to this Ibrahim, called al-Jagir. On this ship we put seventy of the horses of the sultan’s present, and the rest we put with the horses of our companions on a ship belonging to Ibrahim’s brother, called Manurt. Jalansi gave us a vessel on which we put the horses of Zahir ad-Din and Sunbul and their party, and he equipped it for us with water, provisions and forage. He sent his son with us on a ship called al-Uqayri, which resembles a galley, but is rather broader; it has sixty oars and is covered with a roof during battle in order to protect the rowers from arrows and stones. I myself went on board al-Jagir, which had a complement of fifty rowers and fifty Abyssinian men-at-arms. These latter are the guarantors of safety on the Indian Ocean; let there be but one of them on a ship and it will be avoided by the Indian pirates and idolaters. Two days later we called at the island of Bayram, and on the following day reached the town of Qtiqa [Gogo, in Kathiawar], a large town with important bazaars. We anchored four miles from shore on account of the low tide, but I went on shore in a small boat with some of my companions. The sultan of Qtiqa is a heathen called Dunqtil, who used to profess submission to the king of India but was in reality a rebel.
7.4.3
On setting sail from this town we arrived after three days at the island of Sandabiir [Goa], on which there are thirty-six villages. It is surrounded by a gulf, the waters of which are sweet and agreeable at low tide but salt and bitter at high tide. In the centre of the island are two cities, an ancient one built by the infidels, and one built by the Muslims when they first captured the island. We passed by this island and anchored at a smaller one near the mainland. Next day we reached the town of Hinawr [Honavar, Onore], which is on a large inlet navigable for large ships. During the pushkal, which is the rainy season, this bay is so stormy that for four months it is impossible to sail on it except for fishing. The women of this town and all the coastal districts wear nothing but loose unsewn garments, one end of which they gird round their waists, and drape the rest over their head and shoulders. They are beautiful and virtuous, and each wears a gold ring in her nose. One peculiarity amongst them is that they all know the Koran by heart. I saw in the town thirteen schools for girls and twenty-three for boys, a thing which I have never seen elsewhere. Its inhabitants live by maritime commerce, and have no cultivated land. The ruler of Hinawr is Sultan Jalal ad-Di'n, who is one of the best and most powerful sultans. He is under the suzerainty of an infidel sultan named Haryab, of whom we shall speak later.
7.4.4
The people of Mulaybar [Malabar] pay a fixed sum annually to Sultan Jalal ad-Din, through fear of his sea-power. His army is composed of about six thousand men, horse and foot. On another occasion I stayed for eleven months at his court without ever eating bread, for their sole food is rice. I lived also in the Maldive Islands, Ceylon, and on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts for three years eating nothing but rice, until I could not swallow it except by taking water with it. On this occasion we stayed with the sultan of Hinawr for three days; he supplied us with provisions, and we left him to continue our journey.
7.4.5
Three days later we reached the land of Mulaybar [Malabar], which is the pepper country. It extends for two months’ journey along the coast from Sandabur [Goa] to Kawlam [Quilon, in Travancore]. The road over the whole distance runs beneath the shade of trees, and at every half-mile there is a wooden shed with benches on which all travellers, whether Muslims or infidels, may sit. At each shed there is a well for drinking and an infidel who is in charge of it. If the traveller is an infidel he gives him water in vessels; if he is a Muslim he pours the water into his hands, continuing to do so until he signs to him to stop. It is the custom of the infidels in the Mulaybar lands that no Muslim may enter their houses or eat from their vessels; if he does so they break the vessels or give them to the Muslims. In places where there are no Muslim inhabitants they give him food on banana leaves. At all the halting-places on this road there are houses belonging to Muslims, at which Muslim travellers alight, and where they buy all that they need. Were it not for them no Muslim could travel by it. On this road, which, as we have said, extends for a two months’ march, there is not a foot of ground but is cultivated. Every man has his own orchard, with his house in the middle and a wooden palisade all round it. The road runs through the orchards, and when it comes to a palisade there are wooden steps to go up by and another flight of steps down into the next orchard.
7.4.6
No one travels on an animal in that country, and only the sultan possesses horses. The principal vehicle of the inhabitants is a palanquin carried on the shoulders of slaves or hired porters; those who do not travel on palanquins go on foot, be they who they may. Baggage and merchandise is transported by hired carriers, and a single merchant may have a hundred such or thereabouts carrying his goods. I have never seen a safer road than this, for they put to death anyone who steals a single nut, and if any fruit falls no one picks it up but the owner. Indeed we sometimes met infidels during the night on this road, and when they saw us they stood aside to let us pass. Muslims are most highly honoured amongst them, except that, as we have said, they do not eat with them nor allow them into their houses. In the Mulaybar lands there are twelve infidel sultans, some of them strong with armies numbering fifty thousand men, and others weak with armies of three thousand. Yet there is no discord whatever between them, and the strong does not desire to seize the possessions of the weak. At the boundary of the territories of each ruler there is a wooden gateway, on which is engraved the name of the ruler whose territories begin at that point. This is called the “Gate of Security” of such-and-such a prince.
7.4.7
If any Muslim or infidel criminal flees from the territories of one and reaches the Gate of Security of another, his life is safe, and the prince from whom he has fled cannot seize him, even though he be a powerful prince with a great army. The rulers in these lands transmit their sovereignty to their sisters’ sons, to the exclusion of their own children. I have seen this practice nowhere else except among the veiled Massufa, who will be mentioned later.