تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.28

English (machine translation) 12.28

Language: English

12.28.1

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

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

12.28.4

seen a robe more beautiful than this one. I saw what the Sultan bestowed on all his other sons-in-law, such as the son of Malik al-Mulūk ʿImād al-Dīn al-Simnānī, the son of Malik al-ʿUlamāʾ, the son of Shaykh al-Islām, and the son of Ṣadr Jahān al-Bukhārī, and there was nothing among them like this.

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Then the amīr Sayf al-Dīn rode out with his companions and slaves, each of them holding a stick he had prepared. They had made something like a garland of jasmine, eglantine and rībūl, with a fringe that covers the face and chest of the one who wears it, and they brought it to the amīr for him to put on his head, but he refused, for he was one of the desert Arabs, with no acquaintance with the ways of kingship and settled life! I pressed him and adjured him until he put it on his head. He came to the Bāb al-Ṣarf, which they call the Bāb al-Ḥaram, where the bride's party was; he charged at them with his companions in Arab fashion, and they threw down everyone who opposed them and overcame them, the bride's party being unable to hold firm! This reached the Sultan and pleased him. He entered the audience hall, where the bride had been placed on a high dais decked with brocade and studded with jewels; the hall was full of women and female musicians who had brought all kinds of musical instruments, and all of them were standing up out of respect and honour for him. He rode in on his horse until he came near the dais, then dismounted and made obeisance at its first step. The bride rose to her feet until he had ascended, and she gave him betel with her own hand; he took it and sat below the step on which she was standing. Gold dinars were scattered over the heads of those of his companions who were present, and the women picked them up, while the singing girls sang and the drums, trumpets and horns were played outside the door.

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Then the amīr rose, took his wife by the hand and descended, she following him. He mounted his horse, treading with it over the carpets and rugs, and dinars were scattered over him and his companions. The bride was placed in a litter and the slaves carried her on their shoulders to his palace, with the khātūns riding in front of her and the other women on foot. Whenever they passed the house of an amīr or a great man, he came out to them and scattered dinars and dirhams over them according to his generosity, until they brought her to her palace.

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The next day the bride sent clothes, dinars and dirhams to all her husband's companions, and the Sultan gave each of them a saddled and bridled horse and a purse of dirhams of from a thousand dinars to two hundred dinars. Malik Fatḥ Allāh gave the khātūns silk garments of various kinds and purses, and likewise to the musicians; for their custom in the land of Hind is that no one gives anything to the musicians except the master of the wedding. That day everyone was fed, and the wedding came to an end. The Sultan ordered that the amīr Ghadā be given the lands of al-Mālwa, al-Juzarāt, Kanbāya and Nahrwāla, and made the said Fatḥ Allāh his deputy over them, and honoured him greatly. But he was a coarse Arab and did not appreciate this; the roughness of the desert got the better of him, and that led him to disgrace twenty nights after his wedding!!

Linked texts (1)

تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic