تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.9
English (machine translation) 12.9
- Language
- English
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.
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic