تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.28.3

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