تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 10.3
English (machine translation) 10.3
- Language
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10.3.1
In this city lived the amīr Wunār the Sāmirī, already mentioned, and the amīr Qayṣar al-Rūmī, both in the Sultan's service, and with them about one thousand eight hundred horsemen. There also lived there an infidel of the Hindus named Ratan — with a on the r, a on the dotted t, and n — who was skilled in accounting and writing. He came to the King of Hind with one of the amīrs, and the Sultan approved of him, named him ʿAẓīm al-Sind, appointed him governor of that country, granted him Sīwasitān and its districts as a fief, and gave him the marks of rank, namely drums and standards, as he gives to the great amīrs.
10.3.2
When he arrived in that country, Wunār, Qayṣar and others took it hard that the infidel had been set above them, and they agreed to kill him. Some days after his arrival they advised him to go out to the environs of the city to look into its affairs, and he went out with them. When night fell they raised an uproar in the camp and claimed that a lion had attacked it; they made for the infidel's tent, killed him, and returned to the city, and seized the money of
10.3.3
the Sultan that was there, which amounted to twelve lakhs — a lakh being one hundred thousand dinars, the lakh being equivalent to ten thousand dinars of Indian gold, and the Indian dinar being equivalent to two and a half dinars of Maghribi gold. They set the said Wunār over themselves and named him Malik Fīrūz, and he divided the money among the troops. Then he feared for himself, being far from his tribe, and the rest of the troops set Qayṣar al-Rūmī over themselves.
10.3.4
News of them reached ʿImād al-Mulk Sartīz, the Sultan's mamlūk, who was at that time amīr of the amīrs of Sind and resided at Multān. He gathered the troops and made ready by land and on the river of Sind; between Multān and Sīwasitān is ten days. Qayṣar came out against him and battle was joined, and Qayṣar and those with him were routed in the most shameful defeat and fortified themselves in the city. He besieged them, set up mangonels against them, and the siege grew severe, so they asked for a guarantee of safety forty days after he had encamped against them. He granted them safety, but when they came down to him he betrayed them, seized their wealth and ordered them to be killed. Every day he would behead some of them, cut others in half at the waist, and flay others, stuff their skins with straw and hang them on the city wall, so that most of the wall had those skins hung upon it, terrifying whoever looked at them. He collected their heads in the middle of the city, and they were like a mound there! I stayed in that city just after this event, in a large madrasa there, and used to sleep on its roof; when I woke in the night I would see those hanging skins and be filled with revulsion at them. I could not bear to stay in the madrasa, so I moved away from it. The learned, excellent and just jurist ʿAlāʾ al-Mulk al-Khurāsānī, known as Faṣīḥ al-Dīn, formerly qāḍī of Harāt, had come to the King of Hind, who appointed him over the city of Lāharī and its districts in the land of Sind. He had taken part in this campaign with ʿImād al-Mulk Sartīz with the troops under him, and I resolved to travel with him to the city of Lāharī. He had fifteen vessels with which he had come on the river of Sind, carrying his baggage, and I travelled with him.
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic