تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.4
English (machine translation) 12.4
- Language
- English
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.
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic