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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12

English (machine translation) 12

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Contents

12.1

The sultan's council and his customs; the sultan's generosity and munificence; the arrival of the caliph's son at the sultan's court and his story; Ibn Baṭṭūṭa leaves his son Aḥmad with the Amīr Ghiyāth al-Dīn, son of the ʿAbbāsid caliph — so what became of the child?

12.2

The marriage of the sultan's sister and of his vizier's two daughters; the sultan's humility and at the same time his ruthlessness! The killing of those who rose against the sultan; the revolt of ʿAyn al-Mulk against the sultan; the revolt of the Afghans against the sultan

12.1.1

[…] of Hind and Sind, to whom we came. When Sultan Tughluq died, his son Muḥammad took possession of the kingdom without anyone contesting or opposing him. We have already mentioned that his name was Jūna; when he became king he took the name Muḥammad and the kunya Abū al-Mujāhid. All that I have related about the sultans of Hind is what I was told and received, or most of it, from Shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn b. al-Burhān al-Ghaznawī, the chief qāḍī (2); as for the accounts of this king, most of them are what I witnessed during my time in his land.

12.2.1

This king is of all people the most fond of bestowing gifts and of shedding blood, so that his gate is never without some poor man being enriched or some living man being killed! His stories of generosity and courage have become famous among people, as have his stories of slaughter and severity towards those guilty of crimes; yet with all that he is the most humble of people and the most given to displaying justice and right. The rites of religion are upheld with him, and he is strict in the matter of prayer and in punishing those who neglect it. He is one of those kings whose good fortune has been unbroken and the auspiciousness of whose undertakings has surpassed the ordinary, but generosity is what most prevails in him. We shall mention from his deeds in this respect marvels the like of which have not been heard of anyone before him, and I call God, His angels and His messengers to witness that all I relate of his extraordinary generosity is true and certain, and God suffices as a witness.

12.2.2

I know that some of his noble deeds of this kind will not fit into the minds of many people, and they will count them as belonging to what is ordinarily impossible; but in a matter I have seen with my own eyes, whose truth I have known, and of which I have received an ample share, I can only speak the truth. Most of it is, moreover, established by widespread report in the lands of the East.

12.3.1

The palace of the sultan at Dihlī is called Dār Sarā, with a over the s and the r. It has many gates. At the first gate there is a body of men assigned to it, and there sit the players of trumpets, horns and pipes (ṣurnāy); when a great amīr comes they sound them and call out as they play: "So-and-so has come! So-and-so has come!" It is likewise at the second and third gates. Outside the first gate are platforms on which the executioners sit, they being those who kill people; for their custom is that whenever the sultan orders someone to be killed, he is killed at the gate of the audience hall, and remains there for three days. Between the first and second gates is a large vestibule with platforms built along both its sides, on which sit the men on duty from among the gatekeepers.

12.3.2

At the second gate sit the doorkeepers assigned to it, and between it and the third gate is a large platform on which sits the chief of the naqībs. Before him is a golden mace which he holds in his hand, and on his head is a jewelled golden cap (kulāh) topped with peacock feathers. The naqībs stand before him, each with a gilded cap (shāshiya) on his head, a belt around his waist, and in his hand a whip with a handle of gold or silver. This second gate leads into a large, spacious audience hall in which the people sit.

12.3.3

At the third gate are platforms on which the clerks of the gate sit. It is one of their customs that no one enters by this gate except one whom the sultan has designated for it, and for each person he designates a number of his companions and people who enter with him. Of everyone who comes to this gate, the clerks write down that so-and-so came in the first hour, or the second, or whichever of the following hours up to the end of the day, and the sultan reads this after the late evening prayer. They also write down everything that happens at the gate, and he has appointed some of the sons of maliks to convey all that they write to the sultan.

12.3.4

Another of their customs is that whoever is absent from the sultan's palace for three days or more, with or without excuse, may not afterwards enter this gate except with the sultan's permission. If he has an excuse, such as illness or the like, he presents a gift suitable for him to offer to the sultan; and so too those arriving from journeys: the jurist presents a copy of the Qurʾān, a book or the like; the faqīr presents a prayer mat, a rosary, a tooth-stick and similar things; and the amīrs and those like them present horses, camels and weapons. This third gate leads into the vast audience hall with its broad expanse called Hazār Usṭūn, with a over the h and the z, then alif and r, which means "a thousand columns". These are painted wooden columns bearing a wooden ceiling carved with the most exquisite carving, under which the people sit, and in this audience hall the sultan holds his public sitting.

12.4.1

Most often he sits after the afternoon prayer, and sometimes at the beginning of the day. He sits on a dais spread with white, on which is a mattress; a large cushion is placed behind his back, a bolster to his right and another like it to his left. He sits as a person sits for the tashahhud in prayer, which is how all the people of Hind sit. When he sits, the vizier stands before him, the clerks stand behind the vizier, and behind them the chamberlains. The chief of the chamberlains is Fīrūz Malik, the sultan's cousin and deputy, and he is the chamberlain nearest to the sultan; after him comes the Khāṣṣ Ḥājib, then the deputy Khāṣṣ Ḥājib, the Wakīl al-Dār and his deputy, the Sharaf al-Ḥujjāb, the Sayyid al-Ḥujjāb, and a group under their command. After the chamberlains come the naqībs, who number about a hundred.

12.4.2

When the sultan sits, the chamberlains and naqībs call out at the top of their voices: "In the name of God!" Then the great malik Qabūla stands at the sultan's head with a fly-whisk in his hand, driving away the flies. A hundred armour-bearers (silaḥdārs) stand to the sultan's right and as many to his left, holding shields, swords and bows. Standing on the right and the left along the length of the audience hall are the chief qāḍī, followed by the chief preacher, then the other qāḍīs, then the leading jurists, then the leading sharīfs, then the shaykhs, then the sultan's brothers and in-laws, then the great amīrs, then the leading aʿizza (honoured ones), who are the foreigners, then the commanders.

12.4.3

Then sixty horses are brought, saddled and bridled with royal trappings. Some of them bear the insignia of the caliphate, namely those whose bridles and girths are of gilded black silk, and some have these of

12.4.4

gilded white silk; no one but the sultan rides with these. Half of these horses are stationed on the right and half on the left, where the sultan can see them. Then fifty elephants are brought, adorned with cloths of silk and gold, their tusks sheathed in iron in readiness for killing criminals. On the neck of each elephant is its driver, holding something like an iron battle-axe with which he disciplines it and directs it to what is wanted of it.

12.4.5

On the back of each elephant is something like a great box which holds twenty fighting men, more or fewer, according to the bulk of the elephant and the size of its body, and at the corners of that box four banners are planted. These elephants are trained to make obeisance to the sultan and lower their heads, and when they make obeisance the chamberlains say in loud voices: "In the name of God." Half of them too are stationed on the right and half on the left, behind the men standing there. Everyone who comes of the people appointed to stand on the right and left wings makes obeisance at the chamberlains' station, and the chamberlains say, "In the name of God," raising their voices in proportion to the rank of the one making obeisance. When he has made obeisance he goes off to his place on the right or the left and never goes beyond it. If it is one of the Hindu infidels who makes obeisance, the chamberlains and the naqībs say to him: "May God guide you." The sultan's slaves stand behind all the people with shields and swords in their hands, so that no one can pass between them except in front of the chamberlains who stand before the sultan.

12.5.1

If there is anyone at the gate who has come to the sultan with a gift, the chamberlains go in to the sultan in their order: the Amīr Ḥājib leads them with his deputy behind him, then the Khāṣṣ Ḥājib with his deputy behind him, then the Wakīl al-Dār with his deputy behind him, then Sayyid al-Ḥujjāb and Sharaf al-Ḥujjāb. They make obeisance at three places and inform the sultan of who is at the gate. When he orders them to bring him in, they put the gift he has brought into the hands of men who stand with it in front of the people so that the sultan can see it. Its owner is summoned and makes obeisance three times before reaching the sultan, then makes obeisance at the chamberlains' station. If he is a great man he stands in the row of the Amīr Ḥājib; otherwise he stands behind him. The sultan addresses him himself in the kindest manner and welcomes him, and if he is one who merits honour he shakes his hand or embraces him. He asks for some of his gift, and it is brought before him; if it is weapons or cloth he turns it over in his hand and shows his approval of it, to comfort the giver, put him at ease and treat him kindly. He bestows a robe of honour on him and orders money for him "for washing his head," according to their custom in this, in the amount the giver deserves.

12.6.1

When the governors bring the gifts and the funds collected from the revenues of the provinces, they make vessels of gold and silver such as basins, ewers and the like, and they make pieces of gold and silver like bricks which they call khisht (with kasra on the dotted khāʾ, sukūn on the dotted shīn, and a dotted tāʾ). The farrāshes, who are the sultan's slaves, stand in a row with the gift in their hands, each of them holding one piece. Then the elephants are brought forward, if there are any in the gift, then the saddled and bridled horses, then the mules, then the camels carrying the money.

12.6.2

I saw the vizier Khwāja Jahān present his gift one day when the sultan came from Dawlat Ābād and he met him with it outside the city of Bayāna. The gift was brought in to him in this order, and among it I saw a tray full of rubies, a tray full of emeralds and a tray full of splendid pearls. Ḥājjī Kāwun, cousin of Sultan Abū Saʿīd, king of ʿIrāq, was present with him at the time, and he gave him a share of it; this will be mentioned later, if God Most High wills.

12.7.1

On the eve of the festival the sultan sends robes of honour to the maliks, the courtiers, the officers of state, the aʿizza (honoured ones), the secretaries, the chamberlains, the naqībs, the commanders, the slaves and the intelligence people, so that all of them receive them. On the morning of the festival all the elephants are adorned with silk, gold and jewels. Sixteen of them no one rides; they are reserved for the sultan's riding, and over them are raised sixteen parasols of silk set with jewels, the shaft of each parasol of pure gold, and on each elephant is a silk cushion set with jewels. The sultan rides one of them, and before him is raised the ghāshiya (saddle-cover), which is the covering of his saddle, set with the most precious jewels. Before him walk his slaves and mamlūks, each wearing a gold cap on his head and a gold belt at his waist, some of them setting it with jewels. Also walking before him

12.7.2

are the naqībs, about three hundred of them, each with a gold aqrūf on his head, a gold belt at his waist, and in his hand a whip with a gold handle.

12.7.3

The chief qāḍī Ṣadr al-Jahān Kamāl al-Dīn al-Ghaznawī rides, and the chief qāḍī Ṣadr al-Jahān Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Khwārazmī, and the other qāḍīs and the great aʿizza among the Khurāsānīs, ʿIrāqīs, Syrians, Egyptians and Maghribīs, each on an elephant; all foreigners among them are called Khurāsānīs. The muezzins too ride on elephants, proclaiming "God is greatest." The sultan comes out of the palace gate in this order while the troops await him, each amīr with his own detachment, with his drums and banners. The sultan advances, before him the footmen we have mentioned, and before them the qāḍīs and muezzins celebrating God Most High. Behind the sultan come his insignia, namely the banners, drums, horns, trumpets and surnāys, and behind them all the people of his household. Then follows the sultan's brother Mubārak Khān with his insignia and troops, then the sultan's nephew Bahrām Khān with his insignia and troops, then his cousin Malik Fīrūz with his insignia and troops, then the vizier with his insignia and troops, then Malik Mujīr b. Dhī al-Rajā with his insignia and troops, then the great malik Qabūla with his insignia and troops.

12.7.4

This malik is of great standing with him, of high rank and much wealth. His dīwān secretary, Thiqat al-Mulk ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī al-Miṣrī, known as Ibn al-Sharābishī, told me that his expenditure and that of his slaves and their salaries came to thirty-six lakhs a year.

12.7.5

Then follows Malik Nakbiya with his insignia and troops, then Malik Bughra with his insignia and troops, then Malik Mukhliṣ with his insignia and troops, then Malik Quṭb al-Mulk with his insignia and troops. These are the great amīrs who never leave the sultan, and they are the ones who ride with him on the festival day with insignia; the other amīrs ride without insignia.

12.7.6

Everyone who rides on that day is armoured, he and his horse, and most of them are the Sultan's mamlūks. When the Sultan reaches the gate of the muṣallā he halts at its gate and orders the qāḍīs, the great amīrs and the great aʿizza to enter; then the Sultan dismounts, and the imām prays and preaches. If it is the Feast of the Sacrifice, the Sultan is brought a camel and slaughters it with a spear they call al-nīza (with i after the n and a after the z), after placing a silk cloth over his clothes to guard against the blood; then he mounts the elephant and returns to his palace.

12.8.1

On the feast day the palace is carpeted and adorned with the most splendid decoration, and the bārka is pitched over the whole of the audience hall. It is a huge tent standing on many massive poles and surrounded by domes on every side. Imitation trees are made of coloured silk with imitation flowers on them, and they are set in three rows in the audience hall, and between every two trees is placed a gold chair with a covered cushion on it. The great throne is set up at the head of the audience hall; it is entirely of pure gold, its legs studded with jewels, twenty-three spans long and about half that in width. It comes apart, and its pieces are put together so that they join, and each piece of it is carried by a number of men because of the weight of the gold. The cushion is placed on it, and the parasol studded with jewels is raised over the Sultan's head.

12.8.2

When he mounts the throne, the chamberlains and the heralds call out in loud voices: "In the name of God!" Then the people come forward to greet him: first the qāḍīs, the preachers, the scholars, the shaykhs, and the Sultan's brothers, relatives and in-laws; then the aʿizza; then the vizier; then the commanders of the troops; then the chiefs of the mamlūks; then the senior soldiers. They greet him one after another without crowding or jostling.

12.8.3

Among their customs on the feast day is that everyone who holds a village granted to him brings gold dinars tied up in a cloth with his name written on it and throws them into a gold basin there, so that a great sum accumulates from them, which the Sultan gives to whomever he pleases. When the people have finished greeting, food is set before them according to their ranks.

12.8.4

On that day the great censer is set up. It is like a tower of pure gold, in separate pieces which they join together when they wish to assemble it, and a single piece of it is carried by a number of men. Inside it are three chambers which the censer-men enter to burn Qamārī aloeswood, Qāqulī [aloeswood], grey ambergris and Jāwī [benzoin], until their smoke fills the whole audience hall. The young pages hold gold and silver flasks filled with rose-water and orange-blossom water, which they pour liberally over the people. This throne and this censer are brought out only on the two feasts. For the rest of the days of the feast the Sultan sits on a lesser gold throne, and a [separate] bārka is pitched with three gates, inside which the Sultan sits. At its first gate stands ʿImād al-Mulk Sartīz, at the second gate Malik Nakbiya, and at the third gate Yūsuf Bughra. On the right stand the amīrs of the silaḥdār mamlūks, and on the left likewise, and the people stand according to their ranks. The superintendent of the bārka, Malik Ṭughī, holds a gold staff and his deputy a silver staff; they arrange the people and straighten the rows. The vizier and the secretaries stand behind him, and the chamberlains and heralds stand [in their places]. Then the entertainers come: first the daughters of the infidel Hindu kings taken captive that year, who sing and dance, and the Sultan gives them to the amīrs and the aʿizza. After them come the rest of the infidels' daughters, who sing and [dance], and he gives them to his brothers, relatives, in-laws and the sons of the maliks. The Sultan sits for this after the afternoon prayer. On the following day he again sits after the afternoon prayer in the same order, and the singing girls are brought; they sing and dance, and he gives them to the mamlūk amīrs. On the third day he marries off his relatives and bestows gifts on them; on the fourth day he frees male slaves; on the fifth day he frees slave girls; on the sixth day he marries male slaves to slave girls; and on the seventh day he gives alms, and in abundance.

12.9.1

When the Sultan returns from his journeys, the elephants are adorned, and sixteen parasols are raised on sixteen of them, some embroidered with gold and some studded with jewels, and al-ghāshiya is carried before him, which is the covering studded with precious jewels. Wooden pavilions are built, divided into tiers and covered with silk cloths, and on each tier are singing slave girls in the finest dress and the most beautiful ornaments, some of them dancers. In the middle of each pavilion is placed a large basin made of hides, filled with julep syrup dissolved in water, from which all the people drink, comer and goer, local or foreigner, and everyone who drinks from it is given betel and areca nut.

12.9.2

The space between the pavilions is spread with silk cloths on which the Sultan's mount treads, and the walls of the street he passes along, from the city gate to the palace gate, are decorated with silk cloths. Before him walk foot-soldiers from among his slaves, thousands of them, and the contingents and troops are behind him.

12.9.3

On one of his arrivals at the capital I saw three or four small ballistas set up on the elephants, throwing dinars and dirhams at the people, who picked them up, from the moment he entered the city until he reached his palace.

12.10.1

The food in the Sultan's palace is of two kinds: the private meal and the public meal. The private one is the Sultan's food, from which he eats. His custom is to eat in his sitting-room with those present; to it come the privileged amīrs, the Amīr Ḥājib, the Sultan's cousin, ʿImād al-Mulk Sartīz and the Amīr Majlis, and whomever of the aʿizza or great amīrs the Sultan wishes to honour or favour he invites, and he eats with them. Sometimes he also wishes to honour one of those present, so he takes one of the dishes in his hand, puts a loaf on it and gives it to him; the recipient takes it, places it on his left palm and makes obeisance with his right hand down to the ground. Sometimes he sends some of that food to someone absent from the gathering, who makes obeisance as one present does and eats it with those who are with him. I attended this private meal several times and saw that the total number of those who attend it was about twenty men.

12.11.1

As for the public meal, it is brought from the kitchen with the naqībs going before it crying, "In the name of God!", and the chief of the naqībs ahead of them holding a gold mace, and his deputy with him holding a silver mace. When they enter through the fourth gate and those in the mashwar hear their voices, they all rise to their feet, and no one remains seated except the Sultan alone. When the food has been set on the ground, the naqībs form a line and their amīr stands in front of them and speaks words in which he praises the Sultan and extols him; then he makes obeisance, and the naqībs make obeisance as he does, and everyone in the mashwar, great and small, makes obeisance.

12.11.2

Their custom is that whoever hears the speech of the chief of the naqībs at that moment stops if he is walking, and keeps his place if he is standing, and no one moves or stirs from his position until that speech is finished. Then his deputy also speaks words of the same kind and makes obeisance, and the naqībs and all the people make obeisance a second time, and then they sit down. The secretaries of the gate write a note informing [the Sultan] that the food has arrived, even though the Sultan already knows of its arrival, and the note is given to a boy from among the sons of the maliks who is charged with this, and he brings it to the Sultan. When he has read it, he appoints whomever he wishes of the great amīrs to arrange the people and serve them their food.

12.11.3

Their food consists of thin bread, roast meat, round loaves with edges filled with sweetmeat, rice, chickens, and samosas.

12.11.4

We have already mentioned this and explained its arrangement. Their custom is that at the head of the banquet sit the qāḍīs, the preachers, the jurists, the sharīfs and the shaykhs, then the Sultan's relatives, then the great amīrs, then the rest of the people. No one sits except in the place assigned to him, so there is no crowding among them at all. When they have sat down, the sharbdārs come — they are the cupbearers — holding vessels of gold, silver, copper and glass filled with sugar dissolved in water, and they drink this before the meal. When they have drunk, the chamberlains say, "In the name of God!", and then they begin to eat. Before each person is placed some of everything the banquet contains, and he eats from it alone; no one eats with another from the same dish. When they have finished eating, they bring beer in pewter jugs, and when they have taken it the chamberlains say, "In the name of God!" Then trays of betel and areca nut are brought, and each person is given a handful of crushed areca nut and fifteen betel leaves gathered together and tied with red silk thread. When the people have taken the betel, the chamberlains say, "In the name of God!", and they all rise, and the amīr appointed to serve the meal makes obeisance,

12.11.5

and they make obeisance as he does, and then they depart. They eat twice a day, once before noon and once after the afternoon prayer.

12.12.1

I shall mention of these only what I was present at, witnessed and saw with my own eyes, and God Most High knows the truth of what I say, and He suffices as witness. Moreover, what I relate is widely known and attested by many, and the lands near the land of Hind, such as Yemen, Khurāsān and Fārs, are full of reports of him which they know to be true, especially his generosity to foreigners, for he prefers them to the people of Hind, favours them, lavishes benefactions on them, showers them with gifts, appoints them to high offices and grants them great presents. Among his kindnesses to them is that he named them the aʿizza (honoured ones) and forbade that they be called foreigners, saying: "When a man is called a foreigner, his heart is broken and his state is changed." I shall mention, God Most High willing, some of what can be counted of his abundant gifts and presents.

12.13.1

This Shihāb al-Dīn was a friend of the Malik al-Tujjār al-Kāzarūnī, surnamed Barwīz. The Sultan had granted the Malik al-Tujjār the city of Kanbāya as a fief and had promised to appoint him to the vizierate. So he sent to his friend Shihāb al-Dīn to come to him, and he came, having prepared a gift for the Sultan: an enclosure of cut woollen cloth decorated with gold leaf, a pavilion to match it, a tent and an annex tent, and a rest tent, all of decorated woollen cloth, and many mules. When Shihāb al-Dīn arrived with this gift to his friend the Malik al-Tujjār, he found him setting out for the capital with the revenues of his lands that he had collected and with a gift for the Sultan.

12.13.2

The vizier Khwāja Jahān learned of the Sultan's promise to appoint him to the vizierate, and he became jealous of it and was disturbed by it. Before that time the lands of Kanbāya and al-Juzarāt had been under the vizier's authority, and their people were attached to him, devoted to him and served him; most of them were infidels, and some were rebels who held out in the mountains. So the vizier secretly instigated them to attack the Malik al-Tujjār when he set out for the capital. When he set out with the treasure and the wealth, with Shihāb al-Dīn and his gift accompanying him, they halted one day in the forenoon as was their custom; the troops dispersed and most of them slept. Then the infidels attacked them in a great host, killed the Malik al-Tujjār, and plundered the wealth, the treasure, and the gift of

12.13.3

Shihāb al-Dīn, who himself escaped. The informants wrote to the Sultan about this, and he ordered that Shihāb al-Dīn be given thirty thousand dinars from the revenues of the lands of Nahrawāla and return to his own country. This was offered to him, but he refused to accept it, saying: "My only aim is to see the Sultan and kiss the ground before him." They wrote this to the Sultan, and his words pleased him, and he ordered that he be brought to the capital with honour.

12.13.4

The day he came before the Sultan happened to be the day we came before him, and he bestowed robes of honour on all of us, ordered that we be lodged, and gave Shihāb al-Dīn an ample gift. Some time after that he ordered six thousand tankas [for me], as we shall relate. On that day he asked about Shihāb al-Dīn: "Where is he?" Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Falakī said to him:

12.13.5

"Yā Khwand-i ʿālam, na-mīdānam" — meaning, "We do not know." Then he said to him, "Shanīdam zaḥmat dārad" — meaning, "I have heard that he is ill." The Sultan said to him, "Baraw hamīn zamān dar khizāna yak lak tanka zar bigīrī wa pīsh-i ū bibarī tā dil-i ū khwash shawad" — meaning, "Go this moment to the treasury, take from it one hundred thousand gold tankas, and carry them to him so that his heart may be glad." He did so and gave them to him, and the Sultan ordered that he buy with it whatever Indian goods he liked, and that no one else should buy anything until he had equipped himself. He also ordered for him three ships fitted with their tackle, together with the sailors' pay and provisions, so that he could travel in them. So he set sail and landed at the island of Hurmuz, where he built a great house, which I saw afterwards.

12.13.6

I also saw Shihāb al-Dīn, when everything he had was gone, at Shīrāz begging from its sultan Abū Isḥāq. Such is the wealth of these lands of Hind! Rarely does anyone leave them with it, save the odd one, and if he does leave with it and reaches some other country, God sends upon him a calamity that destroys what he holds, as happened to this Shihāb al-Dīn: in the strife between the king of Hurmuz and his two nephews everything he had was taken from him, and he came out stripped of his wealth!

12.14.1

The sultan had sent a gift to the caliph in Egypt, Abū al-ʿAbbās, and asked him to send him a patent of investiture over the lands of Hind and Sind, out of his belief in the caliphate. The caliph Abū al-ʿAbbās sent him what he had requested with the chief shaykh of Egypt, Rukn al-Dīn. When he came to him, he honoured him greatly and gave him an ample gift; he would rise for him whenever he came in to him and treat him with reverence. Then he dismissed him and gave him vast sums.

12.14.2

Among what he gave him was a set of horseshoes with their nails, all of pure gold, and he said to him: "When you disembark from the sea, shoe your horses with them." He went to Kanbāya to take ship from there to the land of Yemen, but then came the affair of the revolt of the qāḍī Jalāl al-Dīn and his seizure of Ibn al-Kawlamī's property, and he also seized what belonged to the chief shaykh, who fled for his life with Ibn al-Kawlamī to the sultan. When the sultan saw him he said to him jestingly: "Āmadī ki zar barī bā dilbarī ṣanam khurī; zar na-barī wa sar nihī", meaning: "You came to carry off gold to spend with the beautiful idols; you will carry off no gold, and you will leave your head here." He said this to him in a spirit of familiarity, then said to him: "Set your mind at rest; I am marching against the rebels, and I will give you many times what they took from you."

12.14.3

After I left the lands of Hind I heard that he kept his promise to him and replaced all he had lost, and that he reached Egypt with it.

12.15.1

This jurist and preacher had come to the sultan and stayed under his bounty for a year; then he wished to return to his homeland and the sultan gave him leave. The sultan had not heard his discourse and preaching, so when he set out for the land of al-Maʿbar he wished to hear him before his departure, and ordered that a pulpit be prepared for him of white sandalwood

12.15.2

called maqāṣirī, its nails and plates made of gold, with a great ruby fixed at its top. He bestowed on Nāṣir al-Dīn an ʿAbbāsid robe, black, gilded and studded with jewels, and a turban to match, and the pulpit was set up for him inside the enclosure, which is the afrāj. The sultan sat on his throne with his intimates to his right and left, and the qāḍīs, jurists and amīrs took their seats. He delivered an eloquent sermon, preaching and exhorting, though there was nothing of much worth in what he did! But his good fortune served him! When he came down from the pulpit the sultan rose to him, embraced him and mounted him on an elephant, and ordered all present to walk before him—I was among them—to an enclosure pitched for him opposite the sultan's enclosure, all of coloured silk, its canopy of silk, and its tent likewise. He sat down and we sat with him.

12.15.3

At one side of the enclosure were the gold vessels the sultan had given him: a large oven big enough to hold a seated man inside it, two cauldrons, dishes whose number I do not recall, a number of jugs, a water-skin vessel, a tamīsanda, a table with four legs, and a book-stand, all of pure gold. ʿImād al-Dīn al-Simnānī lifted up two of the enclosure's tent-pegs, one of copper and the other tinned, giving the impression that they were of gold and silver, though they were only as we have described! On his arrival he had given him a hundred thousand dīnārs in dirhams and hundreds of slaves, some of whom he freed and some he took away.

12.16.1

This ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was a jurist and traditionist who had studied in Damascus under Taqī al-Dīn ibn Taymiyya, Burhān al-Dīn ibn al-Burkaḥ, Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mizzī, Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī and others. Then he came to the sultan, who treated him generously and honoured him.

12.16.2

It happened one day that he recited to him traditions on the merits of al-ʿAbbās and his son, may God be pleased with them both, and something of the glorious deeds of the caliphs their descendants. This delighted the sultan, because of his love for the ʿAbbāsids, and he kissed the jurist's feet

12.16.3

and ordered a gold tray to be brought containing two thousand tanka, which he poured over him with his own hand, saying: "They are yours, together with the tray." We have told this story earlier.

12.17.1

The jurist Shams al-Dīn al-Andakānī was a philosopher and a naturally gifted poet. He praised the sultan in a qaṣīda in the Persian language of twenty-seven verses, and the sultan gave him a thousand dīnārs in dirhams for each verse. This is greater than what is told of the ancients who used to give a thousand dirhams for a verse of poetry, which is a tenth of the sultan's gift!

12.18.1

ʿAḍud al-Dīn was a jurist, an imām, learned, of great standing, high repute and wide fame in his country. News of him reached the sultan and he heard of his merits, so he sent him ten thousand dīnārs in dirhams to his town of Shūnkāra, though he had never seen him nor had he ever come to him.

12.19.1

Likewise, when news reached him of the learned and pious qāḍī of famous miracles, Majd al-Dīn, qāḍī of Shīrāz, whose story we recorded in the first volume and some of whose story will also come later, he sent him ten thousand dīnārs in dirhams to the city of Shīrāz in the company of Shaykhzāda al-Dimashqī.

12.20.1

Burhān al-Dīn was one of the leading preachers, very self-sacrificing and lavish with what he owned, so much so that he often took on debts and gave to people. News of him reached the sultan, who sent him forty thousand dīnārs and asked him to come to his capital. He accepted the dīnārs and paid his debt, but went off to the land of al-Khaṭā and refused to come

12.20.2

to him, saying: "I will not go to a sultan before whom scholars stand."

12.21.1

Ḥājī Kāwun was the cousin of Sultan Abū Saʿīd, king of al-ʿIrāq, and his brother Mūsā was king over part of the land of al-ʿIrāq. Ḥājī Kāwun came to the Sultan, who received him honourably and gave him lavish gifts. One day I saw him when the vizier Khwāja Jahān had brought his present, which included three trays, one filled with rubies, another filled with emeralds and another filled with pearls; Ḥājī Kāwun was present, and [the Sultan] gave him a generous share of it, and then also gave him a large sum of money. He departed, making for al-ʿIrāq, and found that his brother had died and that Sulaymān Khān had been appointed in his place. He claimed his brother's inheritance and laid claim to the kingship, and the troops swore allegiance to him. He made for the land of Fārs and halted at the city of Shūnkāra, where the imām ʿAḍud al-Dīn, mentioned above, lives. When he halted outside it, its shaykhs delayed coming out to him for a while and then came out. He said to them, 'What kept you from hastening out to swear allegiance to us?' They made excuses to him, but he did not accept them, and said to his armed men, 'Qılıch tıkhar', which means 'Draw swords'. They drew them and struck off their heads, and they were a large company. The amīrs who were neighbours of this city heard of what he had done and were angered by it, and they wrote to Shams al-Dīn al-Simnānī, one of the great jurist-amīrs, informing him of what had befallen the people of Shūnkāra and asking him for help in fighting him. He set out with his troops, and the people of the land gathered, seeking vengeance for the shaykhs whom Ḥājī Kāwun had killed. They fell upon his army by night and routed it. He was in the city's palace; they surrounded him, and he hid in the privy, but they found him, cut off his head and sent it to Sulaymān Khān, and they distributed his limbs among the towns, to gratify their vengeance on him!

12.22.1

The amīr Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Qāhir b. Yūsuf b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. the caliph al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh al-ʿAbbāsī al-Baghdādī had come to Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ṭarmashīrīn, king of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr, who honoured him and gave him the hospice at the tomb of Qutham b. al-ʿAbbās (God be pleased with them both), and he lived there for some years. Then, when he heard of the Sultan's love for the ʿAbbāsids and his upholding of their cause, he wished to come to him, and sent two envoys to him, one his old companion Muḥammad b. Abī al-Sharafī al-Ḥarbāwī, and the other Muḥammad al-Hamadānī the Ṣūfī. They came to the Sultan. Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Tirmidhī, mentioned earlier, had met Ghiyāth al-Dīn in Baghdad, and the people of Baghdad had attested before him to the genuineness of his lineage, and he in turn attested to this before the Sultan. When his two envoys reached the Sultan, he gave them five thousand dinars and sent with them thirty thousand dinars to Ghiyāth al-Dīn to provide for his journey to him, and wrote him a letter in his own hand, honouring him in it and asking him to come to him.

12.22.2

When the letter reached him he set out for him. When he reached the land of Sind and the informants wrote of his arrival, the Sultan sent people to receive him, as was the custom. Then, when he reached Sarsatī, he again sent the Ṣadr al-Jahān, the chief qāḍī Kamāl al-Dīn al-Ghaznawī, and a company of jurists to receive him, and then he sent the amīrs to receive him. When he halted at Masʿūd Ābād outside the capital, the Sultan went out in person to receive him. When they met, Ghiyāth al-Dīn dismounted, and the Sultan dismounted for him; he made obeisance, and the Sultan made obeisance to him. He had brought a present, which included garments; the Sultan took one of the garments, put it on his shoulder and made obeisance, as people do with him. Then the horses were brought forward; the Sultan took one of them by his own hand and presented it to him, swore that he should mount, and held his stirrup until he mounted. Then the Sultan mounted and rode beside him, the parasol shading them both. He took betel in his hand and gave it to him, and this was the greatest honour he showed him, for he does not do it for anyone. He said to him, 'Had I not sworn allegiance to the caliph Abū al-ʿAbbās, I would swear allegiance to you!' Ghiyāth al-Dīn replied, 'I too hold to that allegiance.' And Ghiyāth al-Dīn said to him, 'The Messenger of God (God bless him and grant him peace) said: "Whoever revives dead land, it is his" — and you have revived us.' The Sultan answered him with the kindest and most gracious reply.

12.22.3

When they reached the enclosure prepared for the Sultan's lodging, he lodged him in it, and another was pitched for the Sultan. They spent that night outside the capital. The next day they entered the royal residence, and he lodged him in the city known as Sīrī, in the Dār al-Khilāfa as well, in the palace built by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Khaljī and his son Quṭb al-Dīn. The Sultan ordered all the amīrs to go with him there, and prepared for him in it everything he needed in the way of gold and silver vessels, among them even a bath-tub of gold in which to wash. He sent him four hundred thousand dinars as 'head-washing' money, as is the custom, and sent him a number of young men, servants and slave-girls, and assigned him three hundred dinars a day for his expenses, and in addition sent him a number of tables of the special food. He gave him the whole city of Sīrī as a fief, with all the houses it contained and the adjoining gardens and lands of the treasury, and gave him a hundred villages, and gave him the governorship of the eastern provinces attached to Dihlī, and gave him thirty mules with gilded saddles, their fodder to be supplied by the treasury. He ordered him not to dismount from his mount when he came to the Sultan's palace except at a special place which no one enters on horseback except the Sultan, and ordered all the people, great and small, to make obeisance to him as they do to the Sultan! When he comes in to the Sultan, [the Sultan] comes down from his throne for him, and if he is on the chair he stands up, and each of them makes obeisance to the other, and he sits with the Sultan on one carpet. When he rises, the Sultan rises when he does, and each of them makes obeisance. When he leaves for outside the audience hall, a carpet is laid for him on which he sits as long as he wishes, and then departs. He does this twice a day.

12.23.1

During his stay in Dihlī the vizier arrived from the land of Banjāla. The Sultan ordered the great amīrs to go out to receive him, then went out in person to receive him and honoured him greatly. Pavilions were set up in the city as they are for the Sultan when he arrives, and the caliph's son also went out to meet him, as did the jurists, the qāḍīs and the notables. When the Sultan returned to his palace he said to the vizier, 'Go to the house of the Makhdūm Zāda' — that is what he calls him, and it means 'son of the master'. So the vizier went to him and presented him with two thousand gold tankas and many garments. The amīr Qabūla and other great amīrs were present, and I too was present on that occasion.

12.24.1

The king of Ghazna, named Bahrām, came to the Sultan. Between him and the son of the Caliph there was an old

12.24.2

enmity. The Sultan ordered that he be lodged in one of the houses of the city of Sīrī, which belonged to the son of the Caliph, and ordered that a house be built for him there. When the son of the Caliph heard of this he was angered by it, and went to the Sultan's palace and sat on the carpet on which he usually sat. He sent for the vizier and said to him: "Greet Khwand ʿĀlam for me and tell him that everything he has given me is in my house; I have not spent any of it, rather it has grown and increased with me, and I will stay with you" — and he rose and left! The vizier asked one of his companions the reason for this, and he told him that the reason was the Sultan's order to build a house for the king of Ghazna in the city of Sīrī. The vizier went in to the Sultan and informed him of this, and he mounted at once with ten of his men and came to the residence of the son of the Caliph. He asked leave to enter and dismounted outside the palace where people dismount; [the son of the Caliph] met him and he apologised to him, and he accepted his apology. The Sultan said to him: "By God, I will not know that you are pleased with me until you place your foot on my neck!" He replied: "That is something I will not do, even if I were killed." The Sultan said to him: "By my head, you must do it!" Then he put his head on the ground, and the great malik Qabūla took the foot of the son of the Caliph in his hand and placed it on the Sultan's neck. Then [the Sultan] rose and said: "Now I know that you are pleased with me, and my heart is at ease!" This is a strange story, the like of which has never been heard of any king. I was present with him on a feast day when the great malik brought him three robes of honour from the Sultan, open-fronted, in which, in place of the silk knots by which they are fastened, there were pearls the size of large hazelnuts. The great malik waited at his door until he came down from his palace, and then clothed him with them. What [the Sultan] gave him is beyond counting and without limit, and yet for all that the son of the Caliph was the most miserly of God's creatures! He has astonishing stories of miserliness that amaze whoever hears them; it was as if in miserliness he stood where the Sultan stood in generosity. Let us mention some of the stories about him in this respect.

12.25.1

There was friendship between him and me, and I often visited his house. When I set out on my travels I left with him a son of mine whom I had named Aḥmad, and I do not know what God has done with him. One day I said to him: "Why do you eat alone and do not gather your companions to eat?" He said to me: "I cannot bear to look at them, so many of them, eating my food!" So he used to eat alone, and he would give his companion Muḥammad b. Abī al-Sharafī some of the food for whomever he liked, and dispose of the rest!!

12.25.2

I used to visit him and would see the vestibule of the palace in which he lived dark, with no lamp in it. Many times I saw him gathering small twigs of firewood inside his garden, and he had filled storerooms with them. I spoke to him about it, and he said to me: "They are needed."

12.25.3

He used to make his companions, his mamlūks and his young servants work in tending the garden and in building it, and would say: "I will not allow them to eat my food while they do no work." Once I was in debt and was pressed for payment, and one day he said to me:

12.25.4

"By God, I had resolved to pay your debt for you, but my soul would not allow it nor help me in it!!"

12.26.2

He once told me: "I left Baghdad as one of four, one of them being Muḥammad b. Abī al-Sharafī, his companion. We were on foot and had no provisions. We stopped at a spring of water in a certain village, and one of us found a dirham in the spring. We said: 'What shall we do with a dirham?' We agreed to buy bread with it and sent one of us to buy it. But the baker in that village refused to sell bread alone; he would only sell bread for a qīrāṭ and straw for a qīrāṭ. So he bought the bread and the straw from him; we threw away the straw, since we had no animal to eat it, and shared out the bread mouthful by mouthful! And today my condition has come to what you see." I said to him: "You ought to praise God for what He has granted you, and to favour the poor and the needy and give alms." He said: "I cannot do that!" I never saw him give anything generously or do any kindness. We seek refuge in God from stinginess!

12.26.3

Story

12.26.4

One day in Baghdad, after my return from Hind, I was sitting at the door of the Mustanṣiriyya college built by his grandfather, the Commander of the Faithful al-Mustanṣir, may God be pleased with him, when I saw a young man in poor circumstances running after a man coming out of the college. One of the students said to me: "This young man you see is the son of the amīr Muḥammad, the grandson of the caliph al-Mustanṣir, who is in Hind." I called him and said to him: "I have come from Hind, and I can give you news of your father!!" He said: "News of him reached me in these days," and went on running after the man. I asked about the man and was told: "He is the administrator of the endowment, and this young man is imām at one of the mosques, for which he has a wage of one dirham a day, and he is asking the man for his wage." I was greatly astonished at [his father]: by God, had he sent him one of the jewels from the robes of honour that reached him from the Sultan, he would have made him rich with it. We seek refuge in God from such a state.

12.27.1

When this amīr came to the Sultan, he treated him with honour and lodged him in the palace of Sultan Jalāl al-Dīn inside the city of Dihlī, known as Kushk Laʿl, which means the Red Palace. It is a great palace with a very large audience hall and a huge vestibule; over its gate is a dome that overlooks this audience hall and the second audience hall through which one enters the palace. Sultan Jalāl al-Dīn used to sit in it while ball was played before him in this audience hall. I entered this palace when he took up residence in it and saw it full of furnishings, bedding, carpets and other things, all of it in tatters and of no use. For their custom in Hind is that when a sultan dies they leave his palace with everything in it, not touching it, and his successor builds a palace for himself. When I entered it I went round it and climbed to its top, and it gave me a lesson from which arose tears. With me was the jurist, the good man of letters Jamāl al-Dīn al-Maghribī, of Granadan origin and born in Bijāya, who had settled in Hind, having come there with his father, and has children there. When we beheld it, he recited to me:

12.27.2

Their sultans — ask the clay about them ... / for the mighty heads have become [mere] bones!

12.27.3

It was in this palace that his wedding feast took place, as we shall relate. The Sultan was greatly devoted to the Arabs, favouring them and acknowledging their merits, and when the amīr reached him he gave him lavish gifts and treated him with great generosity. Once, when I was present with him, he gave him the gift of A‘ẓam Malik al-Bāyazīdī from the land of Mānikbūr, eleven horses of noble breed, and on another occasion he gave him ten horses saddled with gilded saddles and bearing gilded bridles. After that he married him to his sister Fīrūz Khūnda.

12.28.1

When the Sultan ordered his sister to be married to the amīr Ghadā, he appointed Malik Fatḥ

12.28.2

Allāh, known as Shūnawīs (with dotted shīn with fatḥa, two wāws, the first quiescent and the second with kasra, with nūn between them, and ending in undotted sīn), to take charge of the wedding feast and its expenses, and he appointed me to attend on the amīr Ghadā and be with him during those days. Malik Fatḥ Allāh brought pavilions and with them shaded the two audience halls in the Red Palace already mentioned; in each of them he pitched a very large dome and furnished it with fine carpets. Shams al-Dīn al-Tabrīzī, chief of the musicians, came with male singers, female singers and dancing girls, all of them mamlūks of the Sultan. He brought cooks, bakers, roasters, confectioners, cup-bearers and betel-bearers; cattle and fowl were slaughtered, and they went on feeding the people for fifteen days, the great amīrs and the aʿizza (honoured ones) attending night and day.

12.28.3

Two nights before the night of the wedding procession, the khātūns came from the Sultan's residence by night to this palace. They decorated it, furnished it with the finest carpets, and summoned the amīr Sayf al-Dīn, who was an Arab and a foreigner with no kinsfolk; they surrounded him and seated him on a cushion set aside for him. The Sultan had ordered that his stepmother, the mother of his brother Mubārak Khān, should take the place of the amīr Ghadā's mother, and that one of the khātūns should take the place of his sister, another that of his paternal aunt and another that of his maternal aunt, so that he would be as though among his own family! When they had seated him on the cushion they applied henna to his hands and feet, while the rest of them stood over him singing and dancing. Then they went off to the wedding palace, and he stayed with his close companions. The Sultan appointed a group of amīrs to be on his side and a group to be on the bride's side. Their custom is that the bride's party stands at the door of the place where she is to be unveiled before her husband; the husband comes with his party, and they may not enter unless they overcome the bride's people, or else give them thousands of dinars if they cannot prevail over them!! After the sunset prayer a robe of blue silk was brought to him, embroidered and studded, so covered with jewels that its colour could not be seen for the gems on it, and a cap of the same kind. I have never seen anything like it, and I have never

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