[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Foreign](https://indike.org/pramana/inf) › [Islamic world](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl) › [Arabic](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar) › [Travel and sea narratives](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla) › [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt) › 12.24 # تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.24 English (machine translation) 12.24 - **Language:** English ### [12.24.1](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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. ## Linked texts (1) - [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta.12.24.1) — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.12.24](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.12.24) · Pramāṇa